3/4/2024-Upper Funnel Selling

If you spend too much time pitching how great your company is, you’ll create uncertainty and disinterest in the prospect, no matter how great your product is.

Commit this to memory: you’re selling TRUST in the first pitch meeting with a new prospect.

You’re selling YOU more than selling your product.

As you build your agenda for a first meeting with a prospect (congrats…meetings are hard to get), consider a short, tight agenda. Less is more…especially for the first meeting. A little bit about your offering goes a long way on your first date.

On meeting one, your primary goal is to get the buyer talking and feeling comfortable with you.

Build a carefully scripted agenda for an upcoming first meeting with a prospect. Maybe it looks like this…

After opening chit-chat and your agenda, offer this line:

"I’m eager to share details of my offering to determine whether or not we have the potential to work together, but I first need to ask a few questions to know how to shape my value prop."

Ask your three prepared questions about their needs, BRIEFLY present your value prop…rinse/repeat.

Don’t over-pitch. Play it cool and get outa there before the designated end of the meeting.

You can’t begin to build trust as a solution provider OR be a solution provider until your buyer feels it. That means you have to truly care about where it hurts for the prospect…both for their company goals and their personal agendas.

The sales cycle requires many meetings, but the first is the most important. That’s when the buyer learns whether or not you really care about them.

Unfortunately, you play in a one-strike-and-you’re-OUT game.

If you spend too much time pitching how great your company is, you’ll create uncertainty and disinterest in the prospect, no matter how great your product is.

Even if the customer is tight-lipped and makes you go first….resist the temptation to talk long about your offering. On the other hand, don’t keep firing questions at the prospect.

It’s a balancing act.

Perfect the art of give a little, get a little…rinse and repeat.

This YT Short highlights a really good exercise that will make you focus on building buyer trust.

The recommendation is simple: track how often you ask versus tell in your pitch meetings.

The point of the exercise is to be mindful of getting the buyer to talk and share.

Just think about when you’re a buyer: what amount of time do you want to spend listening to a sales pitch versus talking about yourself and your needs?