An integrated B2B sales and marketing process - part three of four

In part two of this series we got as far as arranging a meeting with a prospectus customer. Now I want to look at how we go about collecting information to make sure that the meeting and follow up are as successful as possible.

Step four: IDENTIFY key information about your prospects.

The two main issues we face when it comes to this task are:
•    What do we need to know?
•    Where can we get that information?

In step three I suggested that when you are looking to set up a meeting with the prospect you do some basic research on them. I mentioned that the web is the ideal tool for ‘quick and dirty’ information gathering, including identifying some problem areas that the company may have.

Assuming that you have arranged a meeting there’s a need for you to do more detailed information gathering. I would suggest you need to do some ahead of the meeting so that you prepared for it, some at the meeting (in fact this is the best time to do it) and some after the meeting using the discussion you have with the prospect at the meeting as a guide.

Before the meeting
The more you can find out about the prospective customer’s current situation the better. Delve deep into their website and search blogs, forums, Twitter … anything where their customers might be talking about them. Clearly both your sales and marketing functions have an important role to play here, since both should be involved in research of this nature.

It also sometimes pays to ask around your colleagues and contacts: what do they know about the company? Has anyone worked for them in the past? Is anyone one of their customers? Take a look at their competitors also for clues about any industry-wide issues.

Sometimes of course, you can ask the prospect what they want to get from the meeting. Often they will be vague but now and again they will be happy to provide lots of information to give you a steer on the sorts of things you need to prepare.

Where there are blanks in your knowledge, prepare some good questions to take to the meeting in order to show that you are interested and also to get the discussion going.

At the meeting
The meeting is of course your main opportunity to find out more about the prospective client and what they want to achieve. The crucial skill here of course is to listen more than you talk and to gather as much information as possible.

The ultimate goal is to take a truly consultative approach to the meeting where it feels as though you and the prospect are working together to help them address issues and solve problems. Partnership may be too strong a word at this stage, but that is where everything should be heading.

The questions you will have prepared are vital here. Obviously you don’t want to be too scripted but the sort of questions that usually work include:
•    'What is the business pain you are trying to resolve?'
•    'What have you done so far to address these issues?'
•    'Is this working to some extent?'
•    'What would be the value of resolving these issues?'

Some sales people go as far as saying things like: ‘What’s stopping you from asking us to provide you with our solution?’ This is a way to find out objections that you can then overcome. However, it is often possible to identify the objections without such blunt questioning.
 
It also makes sense to get as much clarity as possible on things like timescales and the budget available, although sometimes the prospect won’t be willing or able to provide this.

After the meeting
You don’t need me to tell you that it’s standard practice to send a polite email to thank them for the meeting and clarify the agreed next steps, including when and how you will send them a proposal. It’s also perfectly reasonable to contact the prospect again to seek clarity on anything that you feel in hindsight is required when you are putting a proposal together.

In part four, I’ll look at the final stages in the process: the important sanity check and the closing of the sale.