Here’s a sales process checklist to prepare your executives before sales calls. As sales professionals, it’s our job to ensure we’re driving flawless sales execution. We recommend every sales professional follow this checklist and the sales process best practices before engaging executives in sales calls and customer meetings. Following this checklist will improve the quality of your meetings and win rates. Also, your buyer’s will see a united front which reveals what it’s like working with your company. You’ll be a better salesperson and your executives at your company will enjoy working with you more than other salespeople at your team because you’re organized and better prepared.
Checklist For Salespeople To Prepare Executives
#1: Define roles for everyone attending the meeting including your executives. All meeting attendees should understand precisely what each person’s role is. Everyone should also know who owns which parts of the meeting including a simple thing like who will kickoff the meeting once everyone sits down at the start. #2: Have an agenda for the meeting that’s been vetted with the customer champion and meeting attendees. Send the meeting goals and agenda in advance to the company’s meeting sponsor and ask them to confirm that this is what they expect and also ask that they kick off the meeting. #3: Review the agenda for the meeting before the meeting with your executives to avoid any surprises or the meeting agenda getting hijacked. #4: Be clear on expected outcomes of the meeting. Each team member should know exactly what they are expected to accomplish at the meeting. #5: Set up a pre-meeting call to prep. Don’t wait until five minutes before the meeting in a lobby or elevator to brief your executive. #6: Share the deal strategy, deal details and account brief with executives in a typed up brief or as a short video/audio story for easy consumption. #7: Share profiles briefs for each person attending the meeting including their LinkedIn profiles. Make it easy. Email the list ahead of the meeting or put it in a calendar invite for your executives to find and do their own meeting preparation. #8: Schedule a meeting debrief to hear everyone’s impressions of the meeting, including observations you may have missed.
Guide to Running Remote Meetings
It’s Up to Front-Line Managers to Reinforce
| Managers are responsible to reinforce this checklist with their teams. Front-line managers should inspect every deals and sales meeting that involves an executive as your company. Following this list is a non-negotiable for high performing sales teams. Here are some resources you can use to enable your teams. Click to learn more. |
 |
Implications For Training and Onboarding
It’s a good practice to incorporate this best practice into a repeatable training and onboarding program. Sales process and sales execution best practices should be part of your sales enablement program. Document the expectations and incorporate with all sales process and sales playbook assets. Create a template that covers your sales process that is easily discoverable by sales teams. Incorporate sample briefing checklists and briefs in onboarding. Get your top sellers to record their tips and the importance of preparing their own executives for big customer meetings. Reach out if you’d like access to our Library of Premium Content to help you scale your sales coaching and better sales execution. Our Premium Content includes topics like Getting To Power, Sales Call Planning and so much more.
