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Training Sales People Using Customer Run Meetings
Customer run meetings can be considerably more effective than other conventional on-the-job sales training methods. Your sales people hear directly from the customers mouth what they like and what they do not like. However, if you are considering using this technique to train your sales team, then there are six important points you should take into consideration when organising the customer run meeting. These points are described below.
Point 1. You must set yourself clear goals
The most successful customer run meetings are based on careful planning. It is not enough to simply invite a few customers along, put them in a room with some of your sales people and hope for the best. You should determine, in conjunction with your colleagues, exactly what information you want to get from these meetings.
The most frequent objection raised by sales people on the topic of customer run meetings is, “Why do we need an extra meeting when we are constantly talking to our clients anyway?” The answer to this objection lies in making it clear to your sales people that because a customer run meeting takes place in a completely different atmosphere to other sales meetings it is therefore more open and informative.
Point 2. You must invite the right customers
Do not invite too many - two or three customers is enough. Your choice of who to invite to the meeting should be based on what kind of information you are aiming to acquire. For example, if you are aiming to improve your relationship with a particular company then the customers you invite should all work for tha company.
Send your intended guests a written invitation and you should also confirm the appointment in writing too. Place the confirmation in a separate file and make a note in the same file the aims of that particular meeting.
Point 3. You must ask the right questions
Most customers are reluctant from voicing criticism openly in a face-to-face situation. Therefore you should ask a “harmless” or “neutral” question at the start of the customer run meeting, such as:
“What is the main aspect of our service which most interests you?”
“What do you look out for when you first meet one of our sales people?”
“What does your first impression of a sales person depend on?”
Once the atmosphere is friendly and the customers have warmed up you can get on to the more critical questions, such as:
“On a scale of 1-6, how would you assess our service?”
“What do you think we should do to improve our service?”
Additional topic areas for customer run meetings could also include:
How your sales team make initial contact with customers.
How your sales people find out about the client’s branch of industry.
How effectively your sales team defuse typical objections.
How your sales team get around budget limitations.
What is the most effective way to structure an offer and product presentation.
How can your sales team find the right decision-makers.
Point 4. You must create a warm and open atmosphere
The majority of customer run meetings take place in a conference room at the host’s company. This has the additional advantage of being able to include a tour of your facilities with the meeting, which usually goes down very well with customers.
Ensure that you foster a friendly atmosphere in the conference room. Use the following checklist of ideas to help you get the right open atmosphere:
Is the room clean and tidy?
Are there interesting pictures on the wall?
Are there enough seats and are they comfortable?
Is the table set out in such a way that the participants in the meeting can communicate with each other in a comfortable way?
Is there paper to write on, and have you provided pens?
Have you provided enough refreshments for your guests?
Point 5. You must have a de-briefing immediately after the meeting
The debriefing meeting gives every sales person the opportunity to summarize the information which has been acquired during the meeting and to draw the requisite conclusions from this.
Point 6. You must draw up an action plan
You should work out with your sales people the best way to translate the criticism and suggested improvements into tangible action. As the sales manager, you should also write down any issues that indicate that refresher sales training is required, either for the entire team or for named individuals within your team.
It is also useful to make a note of some suggestions for future customer run meetings. Get into the habit of summarising every customer run meeting on the following lines:
The goals: What were the aims of the customer run meeting?
The customers: Which customers were invited to the customer run meeting and on the basis of what criteria?
The results: Record the five or six most important results which the customer run meeting produced.
The customer reaction: How satisfied were the customers with the customer run meeting?
The sales people’s reaction: How satisfied were your sales people with the way the customer run meeting went? What was the most important piece of information they got from the meeting?
The action plan: What improvement suggestions came out of the customer run meeting and how are these improvements going to be implemented in the future?
By running regular customer run meetings in this way you can maximise the learning opportunities for your team and as such the meetings can form part of a balanced approach to delivering effective on-going sales training.
