Sales_Savage

Sales Director

Sending questions over to prospect prior to scheduled meeting

I was toying with the idea of sending questions over to a prospect before a discovery call or demo and in response asking for theirs prior just so everything can get addressed on said call. My thought here was that if they're willing to answer my questions and provide what they're looking for, we can get to the point of the matter sooner. Has anyone had success with this or run into any hurdles trying it?

8 comments

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salesnerd

WR Officer

Head of Growth

This can work to an extent. I hate it when someone sends me a list of like 15 questions to answer before a call, especially if it means I have to spend time typing out answers that are either a) easy to answer on the phone b) painfully obvious.

If you want to send over 3 or so questions to help tailor the meeting to my needs and it only takes me like 3 minutes to fill them out, fine go for it. If you send me a GMAT before the disco call, I'm not going to fill it out.

Also, tell me WHY I should answer the questions. And don't ask me bullshit like "what keeps you up at night?" keep it relevant to the demo/disco.

Sales_Savage

Member

Sales Director

Good feedback. Yes certainly tailored questions that are relevant to the conversation and not a laundry list just to check some boxes. My initial thoughts around this are similar to what Amazon does before meetings. https://www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/jeff-bezos-bans-powerpoint-in-meetings-his-replacement-is-brilliant.html

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

I agree with him here. If someone sends me a list of questions I don't have time to answer I either wait for the call or just skip it. I feel like you are more of making me do your work so im kinda bummed out. Keep it tight like 3 questions tops.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Hmm. Maybe if you had 2 questions you needed data that you couldn't find on your own.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

Yup stick with questions that only they can answer and that is important for the meeting, or within the scope of the meeting.

DaveFromCollege

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

All the Sr. AE's at my company do this. We noticed a huge downtick in responses if it's above 4/5 questions though. Personally, I have not tried it, but prefer to ask it when we set the agenda.

OldDogNewTricks

Opinionated

Sales guy

Agenda yes, questions no. Would feel like homework

Beasthouse

Opinionated

Corporate trainer

id recommend doing like a vidyard or a dub video over top of the email reading through the questions in a more engaging way preferably by the prettiest rep you have ... guy or girl doesn't matter

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Sales_Savage

Sending questions over to prospect prior to scheduled meeting

8 comments

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