I love the Apprentice. It has so much potential for filling hundreds of blog posts. Amongst the many things that really stood out for me last night night was the sales meeting of the female team and the hotel manager. I have seen some bad meetings in my time (and have to admit to running some of them), but this was a great example of how not to do it.
The challenge entailed setting up an overnight laundry and winning and completing as much business as possible in less than one day. ‘SrrrrAlan’ had arranged for the team to meet with two potential clients; firstly a hotel and secondly a fish mongers.
The female team made a complete hash of their meetings as I have disected below:
- Lack Of Research — Both teams had little or no prior knowledge of the Industry. Whilst the male team did some research and rang around some existing providers on the way to the meeting, the female team picked a price from thin air without doing any research. This lack of preparation showed when they quoted a figure of £4900 to do the job. The Hotel manager was obviously taken aback as his existing contractor charges around £200. I know this is an extreme example but the moral of the story is - do your research and understand the market pricing and the value you offer. The female team clearly did not understand this. I am forever encouraging my clients to increase their prices based on the value they bring but I don’t think I could have trained anyone to sell at over 20 times the market rate in a highly competetive, commodatised marketplace - without adding any value!
- Sell on Value to the potential Client — Having lost all credibility from the outset the female team then tryed to substantiate their offering with their added value services. “We will provide you with 2 Account Managers, and you will have our direct dial mobile numbers”. Perhaps if you were setting up a business bank account this would be something of value (although i would argue not as service should be a standard - not an option!). However when dealing with washing and ironing hotel sheets with a turn around of a few hours this had no value whatsover. How many sales meetings do you hold where you are offering your prospect something that has no value to him whatsoever? Unless you understand and professionally question the prospect, never assume that you know what will be of value to them.
- Inability to Say “We were wrong” — With so much at stake for the teams the hotel client was critical. The female team selling at the meeting had no fall back options, nothing to negotiate with and not enough courage to say “We are sorry, we made a mistake. Lets start again”. Everyone in the room knew it was a set up meeting for the Apprentice so they could easily have been allowed this slip if they had the courage to own up and start again. In reality they had very little to bargain with but at least they could have made the decision as to wether they wanted the business on the terms of the hotelier
- Over Reacting to the Outcome — Having made a mess of one meeting they failed to stop, asess where they had gone wrong and learn their lessons. They went to the next meeting without doing any research and ended up quoting around 20% of the usual price the job was done at. The client was obviously stunned and had to ask about 5 times to make sure he had heard correctly. Even then the team stuck to their guns and kept to the price. Silly mistake.
These lessons are easy to learn and will ensure your sales meetings don’t go the way of the female team who lost profitable work and gained akward, unprofitable work.
In coming blog posts I will be having a look at how you can build value and demonstrate that at face to face meetings.
Speak with you soon
Peter
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