Tips for Pre-Call Preparation

I’m often asked how I prep for customer calls. Here’s the 5-point, 15-minute checklist I’ve been using over the last decade before every customer meeting: 1/ Look up all attendees on LinkedIn Goal here is to know who you’re talking to and where they’ve worked. Pro-tip is to find 1 commonality with each person to quickly build rapport (ie college, living location, previous employer, etc.) 2/ Browse their website This is the most obvious thing that is not done enough. Go to their website and learn about their products and value prop. Jot down a few of their key customers to reference. See if they have any unique channels like a partner program. This one is a no-brainer that is skipped way too much! 3/ Study their LinkedIn company page I’ve found that LinkedIn company pages are full of unique insights you can’t find elsewhere. They have the most accurate employee counts, can give you a pulse on recent posts, and provide an up-to-date company mission in a few short lines. 4/ Find the latest news via Google News Do a Google News search for the company. Heading into a meeting, I’ve found huge nuggets here like a CEO change, a recent acquisition, or even controversies to steer clear of. 5/ Understand their market via a competitor search Do a simple search for [company name] competitors. This will give you a good sense of the landscape and who they are competing against. And 2 bonus points if you're meeting with a public company: 6/ Look up their stock ticker on Google Finance This will give you a real-time view into the company financials. I like to zoom out to 1 or 5 year performance, and do a quick glance into the “news” section for insight on recent earnings. 7/ Understand the company history via Wikipedia This one is not used enough, but there are tons of juicy details you can find on Wikipedia pages. Almost a mini-history lesson on a company. What else do you do to prep for your customer meetings? #sales #salesenablement #learning 

I spent some time with an AE team at Braze last month. We worked on our Discovery skills and one small lesson really stood out. I asked: "How do we prep for discovery calls?" Their main focus was researching what was happening at the account, looking at news articles, etc. Good start but not the whole picture. Here's what I suggested as a "checklist" before a disco call to write down in your notebook: 1) What’s the purpose of the call? Why do we have time on the calendar? What's the agenda? Are we and the prospect super clear on this so that we don't get derailed? 2) What’s the outcome/next steps you’re driving for? If you don't know where you wanna go, how will you know when you get there? We need a map. Ask yourself: If this call goes according to plan, what's my proposed next step? Get specific. When should it be, who needs to be involved from both sides, what action items need to happen to make it a reality. This small step will do you wonders. 3) What questions do you need answered? Reps typically have a laundry list of questions they want to ask. This can feel more like an interrogation than a conversation --> that's a turn off for buyers and is not valuable. But there are also questions we need answered to best serve the client. So actually WRITE THOSE DOWN ahead of time so that when it's gametime you don't get distracted. 4) What is your POV? This is more about the company research I mentioned before. In short, what is going on that makes you believe we may be able to help them? 5) Prep your state Probably the most overlooked part of this. Steph Curry doesn't just show up for tip off. Cardi B doesn't just get on stage and start rapping. They have warm up routines. Examples: If I'm feeling nervous before a big meeting, I'll close my eyes and take a few box breaths to slow down. If I'm feeling low energy and low in confidence, I'll put a song on from my Vision Playlist (such as: Put On by Jeezy) and get hyped up for a few minutes to get the energy going. TLDR: 10 minutes of prep can possibly save you weeks of chasing your tail on deals. Getting the meeting is hard, so once we nail it down, let's make the most of 'em. PS - Want me to come train your team like Braze did? My dms are always open 😎

If you shoot from the hip, your sales will dip. Prepare to crush your discovery call With this pre-call plan framework: -------------------- 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 What relevant information did you find? What is your outside point of view? -      Firmographic data -      CEO vision -      Strategic priorities -      Challenges -      Related projects or initiatives -      Tech stack -      Partners -      Investors -      Funding status -      Recent announcements 𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐒 Name, title, research notes -      Current role -      Work history -      Previous companies -      Location -      Universities -      Recent posts -      Things they care about -      Interests, skills, -      Common connections -      ‘People also viewed’ on LinkedIn 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐄𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 Name, title, research notes -      What is their org chart? -      Who do the attendees report up to? -      Are there any connections to the top? -      Any patterns between groups of people -      (used to work together, same school, etc) 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 (𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐋𝐒) What do you want the buyer(s) to do, know, and feel? What do you want to accomplish? -      Agree to a follow up meeting -      Provide documentation -      Intro to leadership -      Motivated to take action -      Agree to text 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 What info & opinions do you need to validate? -      Use Case -      Problem -      Consequence -      Required Capabilities -      Value Impact -      Constraints -      Alternative solutions -      Decision process -      Buying committee -      Budget, Timing 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 What points or topics do you want to emphasize? -      Share research (company and people) -      Name drop (common connections and key execs) -      Why US -      Customer stories -      Buying process 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐒 What metrics/KPIs/OKRs are they likely to care about? -      Revenue growth -      Cost reduction -      Completion rate -      Error rate -      Fraud exposure 𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐄 What questions might the buyer have? What will be your response? -      Competitive landmines -      Pricing -      Experience -      Security -      Integrations -      Implementation process 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 What are the meeting topics, sequence, and timing? -      Attendee roles -      Opening (building rapport) -      Agenda -      Next Steps -      Highest person in the meeting -      Potential blockers

The top 1% of sellers train like Olympians. The top salespeople don't just grind endlessly and hope for luck. Like gold medalists, A-players know success relies on meticulous & consistent preparation, not mindless hustle. While long hours can have their place, true mastery comes from sculpting your skills through focused practice and deep knowledge. Just like an athlete studying film, top salespeople disseminate every call, analyze objections, and refine their approach. So, what separates the podium finishers from the pack? Here are a few key prep rituals that elevate your game: Deep Dive on Your Prospect: Go beyond the name. Uncover their challenges, goals, and decision-makers. Use LinkedIn, news articles, and their website to craft a personalized narrative that resonates. Script Your Opening Play: Don't wing it. Craft a compelling intro that hooks them in the first 30 seconds. Practice delivery to radiate confidence and enthusiasm. (Your tone matters, a lot! Don't ever forget about this.) Anticipate Every Objection: Think like a chess player. Predict potential roadblocks and have persuasive counter-arguments ready. Don't let "No" derail your flow. Expect it. Practice Makes Perfect: Rehearse your pitch, anticipate questions, and refine your answers. Role-play with colleagues or record yourself to polish your presentation. Remember, championship-level results require championship-level prep. It's not about the "hours you work", but about what you do with those hours you work. Embrace the power of meticulous preparation. Would love to hear from any top sellers out there in regards to how they approach call prep so we can all get better. Drop a comment below! 👇

I'm one year into selling software. I've done something like ~750 sales demos in the last year. Before starting Positional, I'd never done software sales. Here are a few key learnings I've had so far👇 - Ask lots of questions upfront — In the beginning, I wanted to jump into sales demos as fast as humanly possible. Our conversion rate from demo to close is significantly higher when I don't actually start the demo until 10 minutes into a 30-minute call. How did you hear about us? ... Oh, you listen to our podcast. Do you have a favorite episode? What made it your favorite episode? Why did you book this call today? What tools are you currently using, and why? I try not to jump into a demo until I've run out of questions to ask. - You don't always need to do a demo, even if they booked a demo — I try to start our calls by being as helpful as possible. And if that means chatting about the prospect's problems or the questions that they have about content marketing and SEO, that is totally fine. I am more than happy to spend the first 30 minutes getting to know them without selling them anything. We can always schedule another call if it is a good fit, and the conversion rate on second calls is 2x. - Spend 10-20 minutes before the call prepping — This might be obvious for most, but I had to get into a prep routine. I try to come prepared with at least two things that we could very clearly help you with today. For example, revamping an internal linking strategy, or identifying old content needing optimizing, etc. And then I prep their company's website within our toolset so that we look at live examples on the demo. Since we have eight tools today, not all of our toolset might be interesting or actionable for that prospect. And so I need to tailor the demo to their specific problems. - Learning when to say you aren't a good fit — This was a hard one. Initially, I tried to fit every sales prospect into the box. Ultimately, if I need to try to force the prospect into our box, they aren't going to have the best experience once they've been onboarded, and they will probably churn. It is OK to be upfront if our solution isn't a great fit, or if there is a stage-mismatch. In our private beta, I've manually onboarded all of our customers. This process has just been so helpful for collecting feedback and has allowed us to build a stronger relationship with our early customers. 💙

Sellers, do you ask more than one question at a time? Rapid firing questions is one of the worst things you can do in discovery, why? 1. Your client can't answer multiple questions at once, so they pick the last thing they heard and skip the rest - you just lost valuable information 2. It makes their head explode and feel overwhelmed, so you are emotionally triggering them and causing anxiety 3. You appear nervous and disorganized because you aren't focused 4. It doesn't give you space to dive deep into anything because you are just getting answers and rapidly firing to the next thing, which is the biggest mistake in all of discovery. Deep answers are better than lots of answers. Now look, I get why you are doing it. You are excited, you have a lot to figure out. You want to know all the things. This is good. But you need to control this energy. Here's how: 1. Write down your questions BEFORE the meeting so they aren't in your head 2. Take notes during the call and write unanswered thoughts down to circle back to 3. See bullets one and two...do this :) If you have this issue and don't solve it, you are leaving a tremendous amount of money on the table and losing winnable opportunities to help people, because you are missing the valuable depth of information and trust that is built by thoughtful conversation. If you are struggling with this skill, next time, prep for the call, write your questions down, and just ask ONE. Dig into those answers, write more questions based on those answers on your sheet of paper, and slowly go through everything. I promise your discovery will be transformed overnight.

This is the most crucial section of my pre-call prep 👇 It’s called “who’s on the call”. Within that section, I outline: ✅ Name of the person ✅ Company tenure ✅Their location ✅ Their role And ✅ A fun fact or observation from their LinkedIn Doing this let’s you start the call in a way few reps do. And skip low value questions like: ❌How long have you been with the company ❌Where are you based? ❌What’s your role? The other day I did this on a call with 3 people. I was able to address all of them individually. And pointed out: ✅ How one person was from Paraguay ✅ How one person lives near my cousin ✅ How one person was an army lieutenant And guess what? It got them ALL talking. When you show each individual that you know them. And address them at the start of the call. ✅It warms them up. ✅They feel seen and acknowledge. ✅They get a small kick of dopamine. And you don’t have awkward silence 🤐 So don’t start your next call before you know 👇 “Who’s on the call?” 😎 For more tips on how to have awesome customer calls, click here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e9kh3ai4

I recently met with someone outside of Stitch who was looking for my feedback on his current business idea. That coffee meeting got me thinking about some essential characteristics that differentiate the best consultants from the rest. The meeting last week started with small talk, but it felt natural. The other person said, “I have three topics where I’m looking to get your feedback.” Praise be! Preparation. He then provided context (he even had his pitch deck up) before digging into the areas where he wanted my point of view. He had plenty of questions for me. Additionally, I got a ton of value in how I think about Stitch based on some of his ideas and questions. Mutually beneficial. Three attributes made that meeting stand out: 🟪 Preparation for the meeting - Clarity on the point of the discussion. Lots of research was performed before the meeting. Etc. 🟪 Curiosity - Plenty of questions were prepared before the meeting, and impromptu questions were added based on the flow of the conversation. He was genuinely interested in what I had to say. 🟪 Engagement - He showed up with interest and emotion. I could tell he wanted to be there. Again, he showed up. To succeed as a consultant, you must do this daily. Every call. Every meeting. Prepare. Be curious. Show up. I shared this story last week with the Stitch team and then followed up with more details on how to stand out: 🟩 Prepare - Do background on the call. Come with topics you want to hit. Understand where/how you can add value. Understand the customer. Understand the opportunity. Be ready. 🟩 Curiosity - Have questions on the ready. And prompt yourself to ask questions during the meeting. There are no wallflowers at Stitch. When multiple Stitchers are on a call, that doesn’t mean anyone can fade to the back. We are all on the hook for engagement and adding value. Even if a customer or prospect has somehow (miraculously) answered all the questions, ask questions. Questions express interest and engagement with the other party. Be ready. 🟩 Show Up - Be emotionally ready. As Bobby has called out in the past, every call with a customer, prospect, or Braze employee is our Super Bowl moment. Turn on your cameras. Show up even when the customer may not reciprocate. Show up. Expectations are high for Stitch! #Braze #InterdisciplinaryMarketer #StitchAndBraze

Here's my simple pre-call prep routine I've used for years You can do this in as little as 3 minutes 1. Review any notes or do key research 2. Get clear. What is the intention/desired outcome of this call? For the prospect? 3. Move my body 30-60 seconds air squats, jumping jacks, pushups 4. Take a few deep breaths with eyes closed, take a sip of water 5. Smile & start the show So frequently I used to run to calls fried, tired or exhausted Slouching down sitting in my chair, going through the motions And I'd wonder why my sales calls sucked? I would hunt for the next sales training, book or silver bullet tactic Thinking that would finally be the key But then I realized, When you show up like 💩💩 You get the same results This process gets all elements of my body and mind ready to go. Ready to operate at my best for each call What else do you add? What have I missed? #sales #peakperformanceselling #ae

When I ask prospects how they prepare for their upcoming sales call, they often look at me funny and say, "well, I plan to go sell them." Yikes. If I ask my next pilot about his preparation for my next flight, I hope he doesn't say, "well, I plan to fly the plane." Or my surgeon saying, "I'll figure it out when I get in there," before an operation on me! Preparation is the mark of professionalism in EVERY industry. A lack of preparation will lead to an increase in chaos. And in sales, chaos means deals getting pushed to the next month or next quarter, frustration for both prospect and seller and many missed opportunities. If you want to be well-prepared before your next sales call, here are a few of the questions you need to answer: 1) Why does the prospect think you are meeting? 2) What are some general industry trends that may be impacting your prospect? 3) What are some problems they told you they were facing on your initial phone call? 4) What are some questions you must ask to better understand their opinions about their current situation 5) Where could you screw this up? 6) What is your biggest fear that you need to share with your prospect at the beginning of the sales call? There are more questions, of course, but this is a good start. Take 5 minutes after you set the appointment and answer these questions thoughtfully. I guarantee you'll find yourself in a much better position before AND after you meet with your prospect than if you hadn't.