Always prepare a slide detailing a getting started plan or next steps for when a prospects says “This sounds great, how do we get started?”
Prepare Your Getting Started Plan Before A Prospect Asks For It
You have to be able to weather rejection when you are introducing a new product. It’s hard. What can be harder is being unprepared the first time a prospect says “This sounds great! How do we get started?”
I can remember working with a team that had gone to many prospecting meetings that had ended with some variation of “you seem like very nice guys but we don’t have the problem you have outlined and don’t know anyone who does.” Until one day, as we had already started to pack up after showing the “Questions, Comments, Suggestions” slide at the end of the deck we heard “we have been looking for help on this, what’s the best way to get started?”
There was a long silence and finally the CEO said, “We are not sure, no one has ever said that before.”
Although his statement was correct it proved to be hard to maintain the prospect’s interest in working with us. Ever since then I always make sure to have at least one slide on “Getting Started” or “Next Steps” and to rehearse the likely questions a prospect will have about implementation.
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Image Credit: “Binoculars” (c) Doug Berger used under creative commons.