How To Structure Sales Meetings With Clients

A sales team’s ability to close deals can be the single most important factor that determines the success or failure of a business.

That’s why you need to train your sales team on how to structure sales meetings with clients in a way that drives the most conversions.

In this post, you’ll learn why it’s important to structure sales meetings and how you can do it effectively.

Q3 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Find A Qualified Financial Advisor

Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests.

If you're ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

Why Is It Important To Have A Structure For Client Sales Meetings?

Going to sales meetings with clients without an agenda, structure, and data is like shooting an arrow in the dark. When it comes to nurturing and converting leads, you can’t leave anything to chance.

That’s why you need a proper structure for sales meetings and should be well-prepared for all the questions they may have.

Here are some reasons why it’s important to structure your sales meetings:

Sales meetings can be stressful as it is and not having a structure can mean that you lose your chain of thought or fail to make a connection with the prospect.

You need to make your pitch fast and effective, and that requires a lot of preparation and structure. Now that we’ve got that cleared, let’s discuss the steps you need to take to prepare for and structure sales meetings with clients.

How To Structure Sales Meetings To Close More Deals

Here is a step-by-step process on how to structure sales meetings with clients for maximum impact.

Understanding your target customers is the first step to structuring and holding successful sales meetings.

Most businesses have multiple types of customers and need to segment them into distinctive categories. Use the following parameters to segment different types of clients:

A SaaS sales strategy could be different from a service business - the former creates a recurring revenue stream which makes it easier to offer trials and pricing discounts, while the latter is about creating a high customer experience that establishes loyalty. Your sales pitch should be tailored to meet these objectives.

At the end of this step, you should have well-defined client segments and a broad understanding of their defining features.

Next, you need to prepare idea boards and sales funnels for each client segment.

Not every type of client will follow the same process to discover your product, interact with it, and make a purchase decision.

Some leads will be generated from your affiliate or ambassador programs, while others may find your website through organic search.

Understand the different types of customer journeys to prepare well-defined sales funnels for each segment.

This will help you understand the various client touchpoints and reach out to prospects at the right time, with the right message.

Also, create idea boards for each segment and include the following information:

Then, create specific workflows for each segment. This would include things like:

Answer these questions to create a tailored sales pitch for each type of client before you go for any client sales meetings.

Hold a brainstorming session and involve your sales team to provide their ideas and inputs to make this as comprehensive as possible.

The first two steps are the foundation to give a proper structure to your sales meetings. But starting from this step, you need to deep dive to a more granular level.

This is the time to segment your leads and categorize them into various segments. You also need to score your leads and identify the most high-priority ones and reach out to them first.

Now you have all the preparatory information you need to start organizing sales meetings with clients. But before that, gather all the information discussed above at the client level. Let’s discuss more on that in the next point.

If you want to structure sales meetings in a way that’s most time-efficient and effective, you need data and loads of it.

One of the most important parts of any client meeting is data, both on your client and your product.

Do your research and find data that provides irrefutable proof that your solution works. Also, keep the client data ready to show why they need your help and exactly how you can help.

Not every client needs to be convinced in person via a face-to-face meeting.

For example, SaaS businesses offer free trials and get clients to enroll through a self-service portal. The sales team is involved only till the demo stage, after which the customers can create an account and start their free trials.

For high-ticket B2B products, however, a client may need more convincing and you might need to hold multiple sales meetings with such clients.

Your choice of channel should not just depend on the type of product you’re selling, but also on client preferences. Do your research and find out if the client prefers in-person meetings or virtual demos and sales meetings.

You can also hold hybrid meetings where some members of your sales team meet with a lead in-person, while others join remotely. Similarly, some client representatives can join in person while other decision-makers can join virtually.

So, you’re ready with all the data and a personalized sales pitch for a specific client. Great!

But not every client will make a purchase decision after a single meeting or remember everything that you explained. That’s why you need visual assets and informative resources like brochures, product guides, and ebooks.

Keep both soft and hard copies of such assets and share them with the leads at the end of the meeting.

Never leave your sales meetings without sharing the next steps. You don’t want to lose the leads at this stage.

Send an email sharing all the points discussed and the next steps. This could be another meeting, a virtual product demo, enrolment for a free trial account, or something else.

You can even direct your leads to informative resources that provide social proof for your products. These could be client testimonials, case studies, etc.

Ready to Convert Leads Through Successful Sales Meetings?

Use the tips and tricks mentioned in this post to structure your sales meetings with clients and close deals faster. Don’t forget to customize your sales pitch for each client and be ready with all the data that you may need. All the best!