Go through your checklist.  It’s as simple as that.

We should all have a simple checklist of things we do before every meeting every time. There’s a book called “Checklist Manifesto – How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande that talks about the importance of developing checklists and what an impact they have on reducing errors.

For example, if you recently flew on an airplane, the pilot more than likely has flown hundreds of flights and thousands, if not millions, of miles.

What is the first thing a pilot does when they get into the cockpit regardless of how much experience they have?  You got it; they go through their checklist. What’s your vector, Victor? Roger. Over. Doctors do the same thing when preparing for a surgery.

If pilots and doctors (whose jobs are a bit more important than ours) go through checklists to reduce errors, then why wouldn’t we? I suggest developing your own checklist that you can go through in less than 15 minutes before every call / sales meeting. You can then create a template for taking notes that includes all the checklist items. I personally use Evernote to take my notes and have a template in Evernote for all my qualification calls.  Some of the things on my checklist include:

• Going to the “About Us” section of the client’s website to get a clear understanding of what they do, and then cutting and pasting it into the meeting notes template.
• Researching the news/events section of the client’s site to see if there has been any recent news I can reference during the conversation.
• Look through the LinkedIn profiles of everyone on the call to understand roles, responsibilities, previous employment and any connections
• Write down my SMART goals for the sales meeting and know exactly what I want the next step to be
• Have a shared agenda with the client
• Write down 2-3 open ended questions in addition to the basic qualifying questions with the goal of getting them to talk

For more significant sales meetings, develop a more extensive checklist but at least cover the basics for every meeting every time.  Make it happen.