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I have a great method for keeping sales calls short, and pretty much 90% of my meetings are 30 minutes or less. * Agendas: I do not take a meeting request with
by burnte 3y ago
I have a great method for keeping sales calls short, and pretty much 90% of my meetings are 30 minutes or less.
* Agendas: I do not take a meeting request without an agenda. 50% of the time this eliminates the meeting because either it's a few questions than can be an email, or they cancel the request because doing that is too much work. This is ideal when people are using meetings to transfer cognitive loads to other people.
* Time cap: All sales calls are capped at 30 minutes, no exceptions.
* Know yourself: I do research on the product/company beforehand in my own time, and know my needs so that during the call we can skip the parts I don't care about. This alone takes 60 minute meetings generally to the 30 minute mark.
* Take charge: I never let the salesperson lead the call. They're not the most important person on the call, I am. I'm the one with the need and the money.
* Limit the scope: I skip all the prelim questions where they "learn about your business" which is just looking for other opportunities to pitch me things. I know my business, I know my need, let's talk about how your product fits that.
While generally in the first few minutes it's a bit unsettling for the salesfolks, generally when I explain that my goal is to make this as quick as possible, the vast majority wind up appreciating my approach as they get off the meeting in 20 minutes most of the time.
The problem isn't how much time salespeople waste on summaries, it's how much time they waste overall. Too much glad-handing and not enough focus. I'd much rather see a tool like this help salespeople cut their pitches in half than simply making a summary email I'll ignore.
- ghaff 3y agoIn general, MOST calls should be 30 minutes. There are valid exceptions but with the increasing default to video calls one of the trends I favor is a general shift to 30 minute calls for most purposes. Long pre-pandemic, as an analyst, I found that most topics could be covered in 30 minutes. If you were a client I'd cut some slack but otherwise 30 minutes.
- burnte 3y agoYeah, since I hit upper management in healthcare IT about a decade ago, I've been pretty firm about 30 minute limits and only RARELY do we go over. It's actually really great. After the initial shock they tend to like it a lot.
- candiddevmike 3y ago> I skip all the prelim questions where they "learn about your business" which is just looking for other opportunities to pitch me things. I know my business, I know my need, let's talk about how your product fits that. The only way for the sales folks to tailor a demo or presentation for you is to learn about your business. Your method here comes across as very transactional and impersonal, you need a relationship with your sales rep as much as they need one with you so they will have your back or give you discounts. It's how the game is played.
- thereisnospork 3y ago>The only way for the sales folks to tailor a demo or presentation for you is to learn about your business. Your method here comes across as very transactional and impersonal, you need a relationship with your sales rep as much as they need one with you so they will have your back or give you discounts. It's how the game is played. My POV: Most of the time none of these things are only value-detractors, not value-adders. 95+% of the time I know what I want I just need a price and someone to hand me a credit card form for it. Very occasionally I have a specific need and am fishing for a solution. As for relationship and trust? There is a complete divergence of interests between me and people selling me stuff, there is not and cannot be 'trust'. Sure it is nice to small talk once in a while but that's really not why I'm calling. Accordingly I divert my spend to the largest extent possible towards suppliers with transparent pricing, transparent technical data, and a friction-less sales process (Read: no synchronous communication requirements).
- hermanradtke 3y agoAs an engineer, I am the same way. Since I’ve been working more closely with sales I have learned the overwhelming majority of people are not like this.
- seanhunter 3y ago> The only way for the sales folks to tailor a demo or presentation for you is to learn about your business. Yes and it's their job to do that, not waste the buying decisionmaker's time doing their homework for them.
- p2hari 3y ago> I skip all the prelim questions where they "learn about your business" which is just looking for other opportunities to pitch me things. I know my business, My two cents...But do you know all the best practices? Let's say the product you are evaluating is used by your peers. It would be good to know what they use the product for or customizations they have gone through. For that the sales guys will need to learn how you are doing your business.
- mikecoles 3y agoYes, I do know. I talk to my peers. Why would any salesperson think they are more trusted than a peer?