3 Minute Prophecy for Customer Meetings

This post has been selected as a one of the “Best of 2011.”  It was originally posted on September 27, 2011.

Most sales people, over a period of time, tend to develop intuitions of how their customer meetings will unfold within the first few minutes. Having met a decent number of customers in my first ECLP stint, I can safely say that the first 3 minutes I spoke with the customer (in most cases) decided the fate of our meeting. So here are some typical 3 minute traits I came across, and the trends that eventually lead to the prophecies. (The context: pitching sophisticated software solutions to businesses.)

The Blissfully Ignorant
“Hey, I don’t face the problem you claim I might.”

What a start! Time to provoke and probe (in that order). In a B2B sales scenario, rarely do customers acknowledge their problems. If it did not keep them awake at night, why would they accept the meeting request in the first place! Denial of the problem is the first sign that the discussion needs to start from first principles – how profitable is your company versus industry peers; are you satisfied with your operational efficiency; do you foresee this problem when your company grows?

Prophecy – This person might not be the right one to talk to; nonetheless now that I drove an hour for the meeting, let me at least get some internal references.

The Ostrich
“Aah!, I already solved that problem!”

Really? How did you do that? Did you deploy professional solutions or utilize internal resources to solve it? Is it working? I am sure it is to some extent, the more pertinent question though is to what extent, and would it continue to solve the problem when your business scales?

Prophecy – This one’s going to be a tough nut to crack. Competing with an existing solution is never easy; even tougher if it is an internally developed one, given the organizational emotions attached with it. Not a completely lost cause yet; let me find some competitive information and convince the customer of the merits of our solution.

The Eternal Shrugger
“I do face these problems, but I do not have the budget to solve them.”

Hmmm! So the customer is interested in listening, and wants me to build his case to request his management for funding.

Prophecy – This one’s going to be a long discussion, interspersed with many seemingly devil’s advocate role-plays. I’d better know my value proposition perfectly. Time to pull out my ROI calculations and case studies.

The Astute Deflector
“Your solution sounds good, but my industry is different.”

All right. So you need a case study specific to your industry.

Prophecy – This one knows the solution category, so it’s going to be an uphill task convincing why mine would work in his industry, even if we haven’t implemented it in the same. It will probably end up scheduling another meeting with our Application Expert.

The Perfect Target
“Here are my challenges. How can you help?”

Utopia! Why didn’t I find this person earlier! More than glad to help.

Prophecy – Isn’t it obvious?

Reflection – Is there a brotherhood of such people? Maybe I should check LinkedIn.

And the next one takes the cake; trust me this one is as true as others:

The Veterans Club
“So which B-School did you graduate from?”

Probably applies only to me or similar body structured individuals (lean, short, <5 ft. 6 inches)!
Reading between the lines – This customer is not happy that I came alone, without any seniors accompanying me to such an “important” meeting.

Prophecy – This meeting might not go anywhere.

So, fellow and aspiring ECLPs, and seasoned salespeople - I trust you have been in similar situations yourself. If you identify with any of these, please share your experience here. If you would like to share others, please feel free to add. I am sure many would love to hear your interesting experiences.

Posted by Milesh