Today’s Digital Sales Tip has to do with the 15 minute meeting request. It’s dumb! Stop! If you are meeting a prospect for the first time, and requesting to meet for just 15 minutes…look, you can’t build a rapport, understand their business pain, provide a preliminary overview of how you help, who else you’ve helped, and receive a commitment to move to the next step—in 15 minutes.
You see, rapport building takes time, and it can’t be limited to just a few minutes. As an example, I always start my virtual meetings—which are 100% of the time on Zoom Video—with a virtual background. Sometimes it’s a boat. Sometimes it’s a bridge. And it makes for a great ice-breaker with a buyer or a prospect. And that one part of the conversation ends up being at least three minutes long. Like, “Are you out on a boat right now?” So if I only have 15 minutes, then I really really only have 12 minutes left to understand my buyer’s business pain, provide a preliminary overview of how you help, and get a commitment to move to the next step. And that’s just impossible to do in 15 minutes.
Now this practice of asking for a 15-minute meeting came as a result of buyers having less time. And we as salespeople perceived that if we can just get them on a call, we can get their commitment to move to the next level in a short period of time. But it’s a short-sided best practice. I recommend: stop doing it.
I contend that if a buyer believes they have a problem, they will be willing to spend 30 minutes on the phone reviewing their problem, and what you might be able to do to help them solve that problem. Don’t sell yourself short by asking for a 15-minute meeting. Besides, why would you want to waste your time with a buyer who’s not willing to invest their time to solve a problem?
So in my humble opinion, this practice is, for want of a better word, dumb. And we’re forgetting the single most important thing in selling when we request a 15-minute meeting. And that is, we’re preventing ourselves from building trust! And trust cannot be built in a matter of minutes. Your buyer needs to see the authentic self, and needs to believe in you—that you can help solve their problem.
I hope that helps! That’s our Digital Sales Training Tip for the day. Visit Vengreso, or search vengreso on YouTube.
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