Do you need help with your pre-call sales preparations?

We know that pre-call sales planning is integral to every sales rep’s life.

A sales call isn’t a thing that can happen without preparations. Because if you do, you undergo a massive risk of losing prospects, and it’s like a “must-have” exam preparation before the final exam.

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In this article; we’ll show you 5 steps to win prospects with a killer pre-call sales planning Strategy.

Let’s dive in!

What is Pre-Call Planning in Sales?

The overall research process about prospective buyers before an actual sales call.

It includes finding out the minor details like prospects’ pain points, challenges, and goals they’re seeking to accomplish that you’d like to cover in the upcoming sales call.

Those details are essential for you to know because that’s when you’ll be able to pitch your product/service effectively.

Pre-call sales planning includes:

• Anticipating potential objections.
• Figuring out ways to tackle them.
• Providing ways to solve them

Recommended podcast: The Top Programs to Scale B2B Prospect Meetings.

Why does Pre-Call Sales Planning matter?

One Hubspot study shows that it takes 18 calls to connect with the buyer.  

With each sales call, you become more skilled in tackling the problems of your prospective buyers.

The more you prepare, the more you can analyze the differences and prepare well.

#1 Boosts confidence

Confidence is a trait that shows up only with practice. The more you prepare, the more you know where and how to navigate the conversation.

#2 First impression is the last impression

When you prepare well enough. It shows up in your behavior. Prospects can feel your vibrations, and it helps to sell better. Prospects love confidence and love to work with energetic, high vibrational individuals.

#3 Give a bird’s eye view

You can’t pitch your services directly to the clients, and you need to take them through different stages of the sales journey and build rapport with them, which requires a procedure and a sales strategy. Pre-call sales planning shows it to you.

What is the Pre-Call Sales Planning Process?

Pre-call sales planning consists of strategic steps. Those steps are as follows.

1. Study the prospects thoroughly.

If you don’t understand the person, you will not be able to cater to their needs. 

What do they want? What problem are they trying to solve? What’s their budget? What kind of products do they usually buy?

Research about their company history, competitors, their industry, etc.

           Here’s how you can do it.

• Check their website: The website will give you more than enough details about their company, products/services, USP, brand values, and ultimate purpose.

• Check out the social media profiles: The social media profiles such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, would give you enough information about them as a person.

• Interact with their customers: This step will provide you with enough information about the kind of solution they’re trying to provide. Also what they want to be and what they want to deliver.

2. Know the objective of the call.

First things first, know the reason– “The Why”

When you know it, you don’t end up wasting time. You can tailor the messaging around it. Be clear with the objective of sales calls. It’ll help you as well as the prospects to stay on track throughout the sales call.

For instance, if the prospect’s goal is to generate leads, your sales call should be focused on finding ways to generate leads for them, or if the prospects face an issue such as not getting enough traffic for their website due to a lack of brand awareness, talk about ways to solve brand awareness.

You’ll be a lot clearer with the objective before the sales call.

3. Create the list of the questions

Every excellent research begins with a set of questions. 

You must prepare a list of questions you want to cover inside the sales call. Composing this kind of question will keep you on track. Referring to someone your client knows already helps to build a trust factor. Studies show that 76.2% of prospects prefer to work with businesses that have been recommended by someone they know, like, and trust.

Some of the questions might include

1. Product/solution

• What your product/service is all about?
• What problem are they trying to solve?
• Are they filling the gaps in the market?

2. Hub

• Who do we both know in common?
• How to connect with prospects, companions/colleagues?
• Where do the prospects spend most of their time?

           3. Pain points and problems

• What troubles are they most likely dealing with? 
• What kinds of inquiries and concerns are they most likely to have?
• Take the time to investigate and organize your thoughts around your client’s primary concerns. 

4. Anticipate the objections

Objection handling is one of the biggest challenges in sales processes. But which sales deal is complete without sales objections? Do you expect your prospects to buy from you out of nowhere? Put yourself in their shoes. Would you buy a product without counter questioning the seller?

No, right?

Empathize with your prospects. Sometimes people want someone who can understand them. Do it until they build a trust factor. It will ease the objection handling process. 

Related: How to handle Objections Effectively?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

5.  Give them an overview of their competitors

As part of a pre-call sales planning, the best thing you can do is to let them know about the potential gaps they can fill in the market—research well about their competitors. 

Find what strategies their competitors are using and what more they could work on to stand as an expert in the niche.

By doing this, you’re helping them ease the process with competitor research.

Here are two types of competitors you should study:

• Direct Competitors: They have the exact product/service, have a similar target audience, and cater to similar needs. They are the best data source to know what’s working and what isn’t.

• Indirect Competitors: They have a similar audience and cater to the same issue solving the same problem but having an alternative approach.

Are You Ready To Ace Pre-Call Sales Planning?

Pre-call sales planning must be a part of your sales strategy. If not, You’re missing out!

But it can be not easy without the right tools in hands.

Convin is an AI-assisted Conversation Intelligence platform that helps B2B SaaS businesses record, transcribe and analyze sales conversations to get the best insights for pre-call preparation. 

Do not underestimate the power of 1% improvement; sign up with Convin today to avail the benefits of pre-call sales planning.