The 26 sales meeting mistakes to avoid

This is a list of mistakes made before, during and after sales meetings and conference call which are to avoid.
Although most seem obvious, many of them occur frequently:
- Giving a bad impression
- Feeling of being less important customer
- Losing trust

Before the meeting

1. Ignoring small customers
You don’t want to waste time by meeting small customers that don’t increase your sales significantly. Ignoring those companies saves a lot of time.
- Smaller companies can grow bigger. Management of small companies can refer you to friends and relations in bigger companies. References help selling.

2. Travel more than meet
You spend more time traveling than meeting face to face with the customer.
- Plan your travel better in order to have more time available to meet and to prepare your meetings.

3. Always rescheduling meetings
Rescheduling meeting or conference calls for whatever reason gives a bad and unorganized impression.
- When the appointment has been made to meet or to call just make the call on time. Stick to it as your customer needs to be available too.

4. Arriving too late
You know you will be late for a meeting is a sign of lack of respect for the time of your customer.
- If you know in advance you will be late, so warn him by giving him a call.

5. Getting lost
Getting lost is no excuse anymore as GPS systems are available at fair prices. Driving without a GPS is like taking an additional gamble to miss a sales deal.
- Get a GPS system.

6. Key content missing
When having planned a meeting or call but missing an important piece or key person the event will have less value. Why meet when the information is not available or the specialist is not able to participate?
- Once the meeting is scheduled make sure the valuable time with the customer is spend wisely and your opportunity keeps in existence. If key content is missing then cancel the meeting.
- If the specialist cannot be present physically, getting him to call in by phone or video conferencing can be a feasible alternative.

7. Basic customer investigation
Not knowing anything of the customer business or news seems a lack of interest in this era of the Internet.
- Before you have a meeting make sure you visit their website during 5 minutes allowing you to prepare some questions showing your interest in their business and awareness.

8. Meeting with somebody
When addressing the reception desk without knowing who you will be meeting gives a very bad impression and indicates being a less valuable customer or person. As receptionists speak with most employees and managers of the company the word will travel fast in the company.
- Make sure you know exactly who will be in the meeting.

During the meeting

9. Not knowing your customer personally
Your meetings and telephone conversations are limited to the business.
Still you miss out the human part and possible relationships.
As relationships matter in sales you miss a very important part.
- In order to be able to understand the problems to be solved and their decision process you need to know the customer better by using the small talk before each business conversation.

10. Smart phone playing
Playing with your smart phone during the conversation gives the impression of being uninterested as your toy is more important or interesting.
- Just keep your phone in your jacket and put it in meeting mode or even turn it off.

11. Cell phone answering
You just answer any phone call on your mobile that you receive during the meeting or even a conference call.
Your customer will feel unimportant and not respected.
- Set your telephone to quiet mode or even turn it off as during a meeting or conference call your customer is the most important (at that moment).

12. Too long presentations
Your presentations just take too long wasting the precious time of your customer.
- Be to the point with your presentations. Moreover the attention span of all people is limited.

13. Time flies
Your meetings and telephone calls always demand more time than average.
- Stay on topic and be brief with your information concentrating on the possible business opportunities. Effectiveness counts while not wasting the time of the customer.

14. You always talk
You just keep on talking and pitching and forget about their problems.
- Make sure the customer talks the most and explains you about their problems, situations and limitations.
Ask open ended questions.

15. Wild guesses
Pretending to know what you’re talking about while you really haven’t got a clue. As the customer probably knows more than you, he will spot this immediately and your trust is destroyed.
- Be honest and admit you don’t know, write down the question while promising to get the information as soon as possible which gives you a cliffhanger for having a subject during a follow-up conversation.

16. The big pretender
You pretend to know all in order to make a big impression.
- A meeting is not to impress, but to co-operate and find solutions together.

17. No added value
Your information is what can be found on the company website or internet: there is no added value from your visit.
- Bring your expertise or experience in order to make a meeting or telephone call interesting and beneficial for the customer as you help to solve their problem.

18. The co-operation lie
Your co-operation proposition comes down to selling stuff to them or through their channels. You have raised expectations that wasn’t your plan thus distrusting your customer.There has to be a benefit for both in a co-operation.
- If you want to sell to them, then make it clear upfront.

19. Trashing the competitor
In the heat of the discussion you could trash your competitor.
- Never ever trash your competitor as it will likely trash you too. Your customer considers the company as your competitor due to a certain merit or impression created.

20. The questioner gets all the attention
During the meeting you mainly pay attention to the person asking the most questions. However it is likely this person is not the decision taker but merely an influencer He is probably a geek who can ask more questions than you ever can answer.
- Make sure you pay enough attention to the decision taker and involve him into the conversation in order to find out what he really wants. Geeks don’t buy.

21. Yes man
Promising to do everything or being capable of delivering everything the customer asks won’t fly long.
- You need to say no to your customer.
Limit your offering in order to stay credible and being capable to supply what has been promised within the agreed delay time.

22. Granting additional discounts
In order to win a customer, you give additional discounts.
- Once you have started this discount game, customers will continue to ask for more discounts for the next purchases.

23. The soon promises
Your production or shipments are delayed still you keep the customer believing the goods or services will be delivered soon.
- Be honest and set the exact new delivery dates you can keep instead of lying. Breaking the trust will be reflected in your future sales.

After the meeting

24. Dropping slow customers
If a customer or lead requires too long to decide, you forget about them.
- Slow moving customers can become big customers as these bigger companies have a longer decision process.

25. The invoice
After all the negotiations on delivery terms and pricing, a minor item gets added to the invoice. Why did you have all those meetings for?
- Make sure there are no surprises (even minor ones) on the invoice as the price has been agreed upon as you need to have new meetings with them.

26. Neglecting to contact afterward
Once the deal has been closed and the invoice paid, you forget about your customer as you don’t find it anymore challenging or you see no obvious additional sales.
- Acquiring customer cost many times more than keeping a customer.
A customer who has decided in your favor, you need to keep as they have taken the risk with you.

Any of these mistakes apply to you?