Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.

Today, let's walk through the pre-call research I do for inbound leads or referrals.

One of my strengths is my ability to, from the outside, read the mechanics that make a business tick, quickly understand their clients, and then rapidly generate metaphors that will land for what I do and how it helps.

But it didn't just happen; I spent years getting it wrong and countless sales calls stumbling over my words, trying (and failing) to make a point.

So, I now have a system to help prepare 2-3 insights for any sales meetings to show that both I:

1. Know my stuff, after all, my business is me
2. Value their time enough to research and confirm there is a semblance of a fit before accepting this sales meeting

And that's what we're talking about today - the pre-call research I do for every new buyer who enters my pipeline.

Lead Generation

Most of my leads come from my "List of Allies" (a newsletter on building your own list of allies is coming soon, I promise). That includes friends, partners, current/former clients, and anyone else who knows my name.

Sometimes people find my website and book a call - these leads get far more scrutiny than a recommendation from my List of Allies. For the rest of this newsletter, we'll assume they came from someone I know.

Once a buyer enters the funnel, usually via an email introduction, we book a sales meeting, and I begin the research.

Fit and Risk

While researching, I am looking for Fit and Risk.

For Fit, I am asking myself:

And if not, can the Ally who recommended me explain why me?

For example, I coach the sales manager at a rapidly growing solar installation company. This isn't my area; I am a software and agency guy.

However, the Ally who recommended me said, "They need you to teach their new sales manager how to be a sales manager. He's a newly promoted seller who has never managed before, and the founder has never managed managers before. Teach them how to be a sales manager, not how to sell solar".

Since working together, that sales team has exploded and is making millions of dollars a month.

Risk

For Risk, I am asking myself:

I'm looking for potential objections the buyer may have before we speak, so I can tailor the examples and stories I will use.

For example, I want to see how many employees they have on LinkedIn, and especially how many might be sellers, to estimate their payroll and whether they can afford a sales consultant.

Where

To check Fit and Risk, and to also decide which stories or which analogies might be most relevant, I will always look at their:

• Website
• Linkedin

Sometimes I will do a Google search or ask ChatGPT for a summary, but only if I am unsure of something major.

On the website, I always look for a few key indicators:

• Homepage - Is it professional, or dodgy? Is there more than one page (i.e., a real business) or is it all one scroll with a "coming soon" (i.e., a start-up)?
• Wall of Logos - What sort of clients do they work with? Are the logos from clients, partners, or something else? Where are those clients located? How many are there? Do I know any of them?
• About Us - How long have they been in business? Do they only talk about the founder (s) or also mention the team? Are there photos of the team?
• Social Logos - Social logos or links usually appear somewhere on the homepage. I check whether these links work.
• Footer - I always check the Copyright year to see if they're paying attention to it. You'd be amazed at the number of websites with 2017 or 2018 in the footer.

On LinkedIn, I am looking at both the person's and the company's pages. I'm looking for:

• Photos - Are they professional for the profile and header of at least the individual
• Experience - Tenure in current company: do they have lots of "present" jobs or only this one? I'm skimming experience and looking at the years they were at university to approximate their age.
• Job Title - What do they call themselves? Are they really the founder/CEO/leader?
• Company Page People Tab - How many are there, where are they based geographically, and how many look like salespeople?

All in this probably takes 5-7 minutes and sets me up for the sales meeting with at least a baseline of where I expect the call to go.

Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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