How to Prepare for Sales Calls with Executives

22 Sep

22Sep

You have a meeting with an executive. You think you’re ready because you have plenty of experience with sales calls. In fact, you close lots of deals. You think you have nothing to worry about.

However, sales calls with executives aren’t the same as sales calls with other lower-level employees that you might be used to. When it comes to selling to executives—like CEOs and CFOs—you need to do your due diligence and spend way more time preparing. Your preparation doesn’t just stop at last year’s annual report, either. You need to be up to the minute and you need to dig deeper. Your marketing materials will need to be based on the information that these C-level executives want and need to be able to make decisions.

Here’s how to prepare for sales calls with executives.

Dig through Your CRM Files

If you want to close the deal, you’ll need all the right information for your sales call. Among other materials, this can include data on the competition and personal background information. You can find a lot of this data in HubSpot CRM—where you keep and update all of your critical contact information. There could be valuable information hidden in plain view in your files—so make sure that’s where you’re looking first.

The timeline feature records every interaction between a contact and a company and shows you a chronological list of all calls, emails, notes, website visits, video views, social media mentions, webinars, and more. You can even filter the timeline to see specific information you’re interested in.

Use Sidekick

Though you might use HubSpot’s Sidekick primarily for help with prospecting, you can also use it to discover more information about your executive clientele before your sales calls. Simply go to the company’s website and let its tool, Insights, effortlessly collect pertinent data for you. Using Sidekick will also allow you to save a lot of valuable time during this research phase, so you can spend more time on your selling strategy, which is especially important when you’re under time constraints. Find out more about using Sidekick Contact Profiles.

Use Google Alerts to Stay Up to Date

You should also set Google alerts, which is a free service, to follow the company you’re selling to. Set keywords and Google will send you any news stories, web content, blogs, videos, or online discussions that match your terms in real time. You’ll get notifications immediately when the company is mentioned online. It’s an easy way to stay up to date on the latest goings on with your prospect, so you don’t miss any critical new data that could make or break your presentation.

Access the Company’s Quarterly Earnings Conference Calls

If the client you’re trying to sell to is publicly traded, then you can find a wealth of data in its quarterly earnings conference calls. You’ll be able to hear the chief executives discussing, openly and honestly, the results they’ve seen from the previous quarter. Even more valuable though, is that you’ll be able to hear exactly what their strategy is moving forward.

Check the company’s website for a recording, PowerPoint, or PDF presentation of these calls and you’ll be able to prepare for your sales call more strategically—by being able to target the precise needs of the executives, without guessing. Another great resource to find conference calls is Yahoo Finance.

Check Out the Company’s Own Presentations

Executives are always discussing their companies’ needs, opportunities, and challenges with analysts, keynote speakers, and investors. And you can typically find all of the presentations they’ve prepared for these audiences on their corporate website. You can also check out SlideShare or the company’s YouTube account. These presentations are rich with content that you can use to better prepare your sales calls.

You Have to Prepare for Success

The easiest way to fail during your sales calls with executives is to think that you have all the answers and that you don’t need to prepare. If you want to close deals with C-level employees, you need to have the right materials. Use your HubSpot CRM, Sidekick, Google alerts, and your clients’ websites to find all of the relevant and up-to-date information you need to have meaningful and fruitful conversations with executives.

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