3 must-dos to master the sales meeting

Olof Berglund, Sales Coach at Sting, has worked in marketing and sales for over 20 years in both startups and multinational pharma and medtech companies.

At Sting, you'll learn to identify and respond to the behaviour and emotions of your customers so that you can move the conversation in the direction you desire.

"Sales and marketing are about influencing people, and it's an enormously positive experience to influence people into buying a product. By using the right mix of marketing and sales tools in combination with training, most people can achieve success. I want to share my experiences so that you can succeed right from the start", says Olof.

Here are his top three tips for mastering your startup sales meetings.

Applications to Sting are now open! Join Sting Accelerate in the fall. Learn more and apply today!

Olof's top three tips:

1. Listen.
Many are prejudiced about how salespeople are and should be. There is, however, one important thing that the best sellers are extremely good at. Using their ears! You should listen to the customer. During the sales meeting, let the customer do the talking while you ask the appropriate questions that will create insight, a strong need and motivation to buy.

2. Identify the REAL problem.
Ask questions that help make your potential customer aware of a problem that needs to be solved and that creates a real pain in the customer's daily life. Identifying not only the true pain points but also the cost of them will help accelerate a deal.

3. Do not defend yourself.
Know how to handle objections. Do not practice answers, but questions, to meet the most common objections your customer will have. By asking the right questions, let them solve their own doubts. Once all objections are handled, you will be ready to close the deal.

Sting's sales training

The sales training is carried out several times a year and includes realistic role-plays that allow you to practice and make mistakes in the “classroom” rather than at an important, live sales meeting. These are some of the many critical things you will learn:

• How to create strong need within the customer. We will teach you what questions you should ask to make the customer truly understand their problem and how serious it is. The questions are open, powerful and motivating and create a will to remove that problem and a need to buy your solution.

• How to handle objections. Another common reason why a deal does not happen is that the customer objects at the end of the pitch and the seller doesn’t really know what to say. We will teach you how to turn the objection into something positive that leads to a close.

• How to close the deal! Without a strong closing technique, it can be extremely hard to finalize a sale. We teach you different ways to ask the right questions and close the deal, instead of asking for another follow-up meeting.

• Cold calls. Yikes! This is one of the most difficult tasks in sales. How do you cold call a person you have never met before and make them not only stay on the line, but actually accept a meeting? We will teach you how to get those sales meetings into your calendar.

• The sales cycle. What does the sales process look like for your particular customer? What are the different steps to get ahead at each stage so you can finally come to a close? You will learn how to set goals and what steps you should keep track of to speed up the sales process.

Got questions?

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Want to discuss your startup, test your pitch, or get input on a challenge you're facing? Reach out to one of our startup coaches.