How to Have Awesome First Sales Call Appointments

Trap 1 — Show Up and Throw Up
The first way that many salespeople can go wrong with sales appointments is to go into the meeting and make it all about them (the salesperson’s product) by spending the entire meeting talking about their company and the products that they sell. We call this the “show up and throw up”.

This is not optimum because not only is the appointment a great opportunity to learn some new information directly from the prospect, but it is also a very self-absorbed way to interact with someone. It is like going to dinner with someone and all they do is talk about their own life and don’t ask you anything about you. You can make a better impression, start build a stronger relationship, and have a better meeting overall.

Trap 2 — Order Taking Mode
Another way that we can go wrong is assuming that since the prospect agreed to meet, they already know what you offer and are interested in buying. If a salesperson goes into a sales appointment with this mindset, they are more likely to be a little less prepared and operate with an expectation to go into the meeting and take the prospect’s order.

There is still a lot of work to do after the prospect agrees to meet. In many cases, a prospect might agree to meet with little information on what you do and your company. As a result, you should start from the beginning of your pitch in terms of asking good questions and communicating how you help.

Trap 3 — Winging It
Your ultimate goal is to close sales for the products that you sell. You also probably have a lot of knowledge of your products and can talk about them all day given the opportunity.

When you combine those two things together, it can be understandable for a salesperson to get a first sales call scheduled and feel confident that they can improvise and work their way toward a conversation about their products and then they will know what say from there because of their depth in terms of product knowledge. We label this sales approach and miscue as “winging it”.

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