Now that you have secured the first appointment with a new prospective customer, it’s time to start preparing for the first meeting. This first meeting is critical to showing the value of your services and helping you close the deal and this article provides some tips and best practices for a successful first meeting.
The initial meeting needs to be a conversation. As you learn more information about the prospective customer, you may come up with additional questions to drill down and get more specific. The goal of this meeting is to uncover inefficiencies and pain so when you come back to do a demo of the technology, and then again with your proposal, you have identified specific areas in which you can streamline and create efficiencies for them. This is where you’re going to be able to add the most value.
Below, we’ve provided some high-level guidance on some topics that you’ll want to make sure to discuss. If you need examples for specific questions you should ask, please reference “Selling Smart HR Technology: In-Depth Questions to Enhance your Sales Process.”
Opening the Meeting
Thank the prospective customer for their time and build some rapport. Reference something you saw on their Linkedin company page, website, or business journal. This could be something about their specific company or industry, in general.
General Information You’ll Want to Gather
- How many employees?
- All under same FEIN?
- What states?
- Current Method?
- PEO?
- ASO?
- Payroll?
- In-house?
- Who is involved in decision making process?
- Other options they are looking at?
- Why are they looking to switch systems?
- Goal of making a change?
- Time frame?
- Are they under contract?
- What 3 things do you like about current provider?
- What 3 things you’d like to see improved?
- Walk through employee lifecycle and ask what this looks like for them –
- What does recruiting look like? Applicant tracking? Drug tests? Background checks?
- Growth plans
- Next year
- Next 3 years
- Where do you find talent?
- How do you attract and retain?
- Turnover?
- Once they hire someone, what does onboarding look like? Manual/Paper? Electronic?
- Employee handbook?
- What if there’s a change?
- Who updates? How are employees notified?
- What if there’s a change?
- Job descriptions?
- W4
- I9s
- Employee handbook?
- How do their employees enroll in benefits? Paper? Electronic?
- What kind of plans do they offer?
- How many?
- Contribution strategy?
- Waiting periods?
- When is their open enrollment?
- What’s in place for ACA tracking and reporting?
- Other employee benefits?
- 401(k)
- Provider? Is it integrated with current system? Or a manual process to get info over?
- Match?
- Eligibility?
- Ancillaries? (Dental, Vision, Life, STD, LTD, AD&D)
- Contribution?
- 401(k)
- Now that the employee is onboarded, what does their experience as an employee look like?
- Time and Labor Management (TLM)?
- Tell me about how you’re currently tracking time or hours?
- PTO tracking?
- How do they request time off?
- Payroll?
- Pay cycle?
- Direct deposit? Manual checks?
- Reporting (payroll and in general?)
- GL integration?
- Certified payroll?
- Labor distribution?
- Does TLM accommodate that?
- Performance Management?
- Certification/License tracking?
- Doc Management?
- Time and Labor Management (TLM)?
- What happens if an employee leaves?
- Termination process in current system? Does it automatically notify carriers? Does it trigger COBRA (if applicable)?
- If not, who handles making sure that everyone is notified?
- Has there ever been a time when you’ve called and three months later, you realize you’re still getting billed for benefits of an employee that’s left?
- Was it a hassle getting reimbursed?
- What is the process if the termination was involuntary?
- Disciplinary processes?
- Documentation?
- If that employee wants to come back, does system store info to make rehiring easy, or do you have to start from scratch?
- Termination process in current system? Does it automatically notify carriers? Does it trigger COBRA (if applicable)?
- Who handles compliance?
- Laws are changing rapidly. How do you keep up?
Closing the Meeting
Thank you again for sitting down with me today and helping me learn more about your business, I truly appreciate it! What I’d like to do next is [provide details here on the next steps in the sales process. This could include gather documentation for underwriting, risk visit, or HR consultation. It should definitely include a technology demo and proposal meeting. Whatever the next steps are, outline them here].
Todd Starkey says
I like the blogs you post on here; good reminders! One important item to note is to make sure that first call is with the Owner(s) or a CxO level person. They may not know all the information you are talking about, but chances are they give the final approval, so its important you get an audience with them as soon as you can.
Venessa Wilson says
Great reminder! Yes, it’s incredibly important to make sure that you’re at the right level during these meetings. The last thing you want to do is sell your value to someone who isn’t writing the check. Too many salespeople spend their time selling to assistants or operations, and they’re surprised when they receive a “no”. The person who has the ability to say “yes” hasn’t heard your pitch! Thank you for your input!