The first meeting that feels good but proves nothing
The meeting that feels great but produces no evidence is the one that quietly kills your forecast.
- A meeting can feel good yet establish no problem, magnitude, path or reason to act now.
- The cycle has not started until the buyer takes a meaningful action.
- Be paranoid. Look for the no, not the happy ears.
The most dangerous first meeting is the one that feels good and creates no evidence the buyer is actually involved.
False momentum looks like progress
You leave feeling positive, but no problem was established, there was no sense of its magnitude, no path to the right people, and no reason to do anything now. That is false momentum. It looks like progress in the CRM because you ran a demo, but the buyer has not understood the value or taken any meaningful action. The sales cycle has not actually started until they do something: correcting your point of view in a follow-up, bringing someone else into the next meeting, or digging out information they did not have.
The cure is discipline. Be paranoid about every first meeting, and as Laurie puts it, look for the no rather than trusting happy ears.
More in coaching deals with MEDDPICC and why MEDDPICC fails.
Related: How to Run Discovery Calls in B2B: What First Meetings Actually Need to Achieve, First Meetings: How the First Sales Conversation Sets Every Deal That Follows, Five ingredients of a first meeting that creates momentum.
