Salespeople live by the motto “always be closing.” While Alec Baldwin’s delivery of this line in the film “Glengarry Glen Ross” is iconic, it might not be the most practical advice in today’s business world. Following the new rule of sales, “always be useful,” helps sales flow more naturally than traditional strong-arm tactics and leads to longer-lasting success.

Tim Hurson is the founder of his own strategic coaching and consulting firm called ThinkX Intellectual Capital. Tim Dunne is a professional trainer and coach, with more than twenty years experience in corporate selling, finance, training and leadership. The pair teamed up to write the book “Never Be Closing – How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself,” where they deliver an all-encompassing plan to improve sales results. Their Productive Selling approach focuses on solving problems, identifying opportunities and always being useful.

Let’s take a look at what you should be doing before, during and after meeting with a client to ensure the development of a lasting business relationship beyond a single sale.

Before:

Productive Selling begins well before a formal sales meeting takes place. Your goal before a sales meeting is to build credibility and become less of a stranger. People don’t like to buy from strangers, so you must aim to stop being one. Getting to know your client better will help you build credibility and allow you to sell to them more effectively.

The main objective for all of your preparation before a sales meeting is to get your prospective client to say “Yes” to meeting with you. Although you are trying to move past being a stranger to them, it is important to not appear pushy, insensitive or annoying. When following up with potential leads, it is helpful to find a connection – be it a person or an interest – and have some conversation topics prepared. You will also want to have a pen and your calendar on hand to take any necessary notes and to schedule a date to meet.

Once a potential client has agreed to meet with you, some intensive research is necessary to ensure the first meeting is productive for the client. Separate the facts you know about the prospect, their company and industry from the points that would be helpful to find out when speaking to them. Establishing a clear action plan for the desired outcome of the meeting will also help establish key topics of conversation. Being prepared will set you up to be perceived as a credible and helpful person, and as an ally rather than a stranger.

During:

Sales meetings should naturally follow a classical three-act structure, which was introduced by Aristotle back in 335 B.C.E and is still used today in great Hollywood blockbusters. The three acts should focus on the following:

Act I – The first goal in any meeting is to establish credibility with your prospective client and earn the right to ask some probing questions. By default, your prospect will likely be looking for ways to disqualify and dismiss you as someone they don’t need to talk to. Use your time in the waiting room to engage the receptionist in some small talk and take note of what they have on display in the room. This will help you to identify a common interest, which will start the meeting off on the right foot.

It is then important to identify whether the person you are meeting with is energized by context, results, ideas, processes, action or people in order to emphasize the aspects of the meeting that will most appeal to them. Taking notes is also extremely useful as it forces you to notice things and also helps you to track the success of the meeting later on. Spending the first 10 to 15 minutes of your sales meeting establishing credibility will then allow you to start asking questions, rather than only presenting the solutions you offer.

Act II – This act involves exploring your prospect’s true needs. Asking additional, open-ended questions will help you understand them more clearly. The questions should be constructed to illicit a detailed response, not just a “yes” or “no” answer. Focusing on what is creating their problems and the impact of those problems will allow you to zero in on the heart of the issue.

For each pain point you discover, you must then ask questions to identify the advantages of resolving the issue and any impediments that might stand in the way. Analogies can also be very helpful when getting to core issues as they can express complex ideas vividly and quickly, and are easy to relate to. The proper catalytic questions paired with an appropriate analogy will get right to the heart of the problem, clear away peripheral issues and open the door to interesting solutions.

Interlude – Taking a brief break between Act II and Act III, and allowing your prospect to reflect a little bit before moving on is often helpful. Some natural ways to orchestrate a short break include asking to take a quick tour of the prospect’s workplace or facility, taking a bathroom break, or discussing a personal analogy completely unrelated to the business at hand to get everyone into a different head space. The break produces an environment where creative ideas can incubate and take shape. Simply getting up and walking around for a few minutes can do the trick.

Act III – The meeting should conclude with demonstrating your usefulness to your client by providing helpful insights and resources. You are delivering options rather than selling a specific item. Make promises about the steps you will take to follow up that are specific to your individual customer. Doing so will propel your relationship into the future and explain how you plan to deliver value to your prospect should they decide to move forward.

The closing act does not involve power closing techniques or the use of a standard sales script. In order to become an effective closer, simply focus on being an inquisitive questioner, a creative problem solver and someone who follows through on their promises in a professional manner. If you have done all of these things well, your prospect will want to buy what you are selling.

After:

Productive Selling continues after the formal sales meeting has finished. Performing a proper debrief will help you to evaluate how the overall sales process has gone and help you to be more effective in the future. Take the time to translate all of the notes you took during the meeting into full sentences and document what was discussed while your memory is still fresh. Examining these notes could provide you with even more ideas about how to deliver value.

Once you have written up your notes, it is time to identify what worked well, what could be improved and what you should be integrating into future meetings. You will also want to examine the content of the meeting to look for additional bits of information about your client that could prove advantageous in the future. The main point of this debrief is to identify what you need to learn. The process takes time, but will turn you into a better seller in the long run.

The end of your sales meeting should be viewed as the beginning of a relationship. Scheduling how you plan to follow up and keep in contact with your client is vitally important. Generate a schedule of ways to keep in touch the following day, week, month and year. Creating varied touch points will keep you at the front of your client’s mind, and will also keep you learning more and more about them. Plus, they will love the attention.

Outstanding selling goes beyond tricks of persuasion or trying to force a commitment to buy out of your client. Instead, the most successful selling comes from a sincere interest in your clients and their needs. Incorporating these methods before, during and after your next sales meeting will help you to sell more effectively than ever before.

Authors Hurson and Dunne conclude with this message: “By developing a Productive Selling attitude and practicing the skills, you can become the kind of person others think about and recommend. The better you get at Productive Selling, the less time you’ll spend selling, and the more time you’ll devote to doing what we all naturally want to do – help people solve problems and seize opportunities. We wish you the best success.”