Does it feel like your conversion rate from 1st to 2nd meeting is too low? It may be for 1 or more of these 3 reasons.
It is one of the highest leverage points in your sales process. If you can increase the number of 1st meetings which convert (to high-quality opportunities) the down funnel impact is substantial.
A 10% increase in 1st meeting conversation rate could result in a 33% increase in won deals for cyber security sales teams.
Here are 3 reasons your 1st meeting conversion rate is low
No agreed problem worth solving
No problem = no deal. Too often we are so caught up in the magic of our product. The amazing innovation our company has brought to market. That we forget that very, very few prospects are willing to assign time, resources, and money to something that does not solve a problem for them. If we don't do great discovery to understand the problems the prospect has (as well as the logical and emotional impacts of them) why would the prospect want to keep working with us?!
It's like me wanting a Tesla. I'm intrigued by Tesla. I love the idea of the company and what they are doing. Some of the models look awesome. But I haven't been in the market for a new car for a while. My current cars work fine. THEY ARE NOT CAUSING ME PROBLEMS. So unless something changes, I'm not buying a Tesla!
You haven't made it easy for the prospect to take a next step in cyber security sales
I worked at a cyber security start-up a few years ago where the demo was really, really good. In fact, it was too good. Often prospects didn't know what to do after the demo because it was so different. It was common at the end of the demo to hear "wow, that's amazing and so powerful.... we are going to have to think through what it could do for us and how. LET'S TALK AGAIN IN A FEW MONTHS."
To combat this 2 things should happen:-
1) spend the time before the demo to find a big problem to solve. Find your starting use case before the demo!
2) have a planned, easy step for them to take right after the demo meeting. Don't ask them to do too much. In fact, play into their uncertainty. eg, in the company I mentioned the good sellers would often hold a 1-hour "use case workshop" with a prospect to help them understand how others had started and the possible starting points inside their own organization.
You've confused the prospect with your sourcery
If you confuse you lose. Simple, but happens way too much.
I was working with one cybersecurity startup and they had a 1-hour first meeting with the CISO of a retail chain. A full 33 minutes into the meeting the CISO said "I'm following along fine, but I still don't know what you guys do."
Prospects must understand very clearly what you do, how you do it, and why you are unique and different from all the other companies in the same space (there will be lots)
Now what?
Listen to your calls in your Conversation Intelligence tool of choice (get one if you don't have one!) and ask yourself how well you are avoiding these 3 problems.
