23 November 2009 | Miller Heiman

If you could only ask one question of your sales team this week to move sales forward, ask this:

Are you able to articulate why this meeting should be high priority for the key decision maker?

It’s the end of the year – and understandably, the prospects and customers you need to connect with are as busy as you, if not more so.

By stating a valid business reason and emphasizing how your conversation will help with the contact’s priorities,  you encourage contacts to meet with you because it quickly highlights your reason for calling and shows you know what is relevant to them. Valid business reasons also help persuade buying influences to meet with you because it shows you’ve taken the time out of your day to research their business challenges and are prepared to demonstrate how you can help them meet or exceed goals and objectives or minimize problems.

Put yourself in your contact’s shoes: would you agree to a meeting if the other person was vague about what it is about? Probably not. Would you agree if you knew that the meeting would help you accomplish something within your own organization?

Listen to three examples of a valid business reason here and begin crafting yours today.

photo credit: koyochi