Approaches To Improve Your Sales Appointment Performance
Improve Your Sales Appointments General Pointers
- Be prepared
- Listen (the classic 2 ears and 1 mouth use them in that ratio)
- Act on buying signals
- Talking is not selling
- Know when to stop
- Dont be afraid to ask for the order
- Proof sources and prove it
- Demonstrations are good
- Suggestive sale – up sell and cross sell

Sales Call Fundamentals
When you go into a sales call there are typically 5 key elements
- You should have a clear objective what you want to take out of the appointment – note this doesn’t mean that you expect to close the sale there and then
- At the heart of any sale you need to identify and separate your prospects “wants” / “needs”. Typically one of these 3 reasons is why they want to buy something
- Profit: They want to make money
- Productivity: They want to become more efficient
- Image: or sometimes considered as emotion
- Circumstances
- whats the implication of purchasing
- whats the impact of not addressing
- The close: gaining acceptance and / or agreeing the next step
- The sale: whereby the customer agrees and importantly makes a payment
Handling Sales Objections
These typically occur due to the 4 following reasons, if they are shown by your customer then you need to have an approach to overcome the objection type
Objection type | Approach to overcoming |
Indifference | Refocus on identifying the customer needs |
Skepticism | Offer proof |
Misunderstanding | Refocus on identifying the customer needs |
Drawback | Refocus on the bigger picture highlighting the previously accepted benefits |
Important Note: “A sale is not a sale until it is paid for “
Sales Payment Good Practice
- For new accounts have an account opening form
- Credit check your customers
- Actually seek out references from their bank / trade
- Agree credit limits and stick to them
- Reinforce payment terms at point of sale
- Invoice quickly – immediately work completed / product supplied
- Build a relationship with the accounts department
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