Richard Smith is the Head of Sales for conversation intelligence and coaching platform - Refract. He is passionate about developing sales people, analyzing the science behind sales conversations, and changing the broken culture and mindset towards sales coaching.

As part of any Sales 101 course, we are forever being told about the importance of ‘getting next steps’. Getting next steps from our prospect to assist with our sales process, is almost too obvious that for me to be writing an article on this topic, may appear to be patronizing to the naked eye.

Yet incredibly, time and time again, it is a key aspect of a sales conversation which is sadly missing.

And often the concept is so incredibly simple. So incredibly simple that I bore myself as I harp on about it so much. The simple concept of ‘getting the next meeting’.

Sometimes when we are coaching salespeople, we are reviewing sales calls, social media interactions, and yes- even email. Wherever and however the conversations are happening, we want to know about it.

Below are examples of 2 different emails sent into us from clients, how we edited them, and why. From that came 4 questions you should be asking before you send your next sales email.

I attended a networking event last night. My goal coming in was to track down, and connect with a top prospect in a strategic account I was trying to penetrate. I wanted to know if I can help them solve their business challenges.

After about an hour of meeting various people I finally found him standing alone. I walked up and said “Hey John, I’ve been looking for you”. He didn’t seem remotely excited to see me.

There is a negative perception of sales today that has been around for a long time. Last week I was reminded why that is when I got this email:

“Thank you for creating stellar content! “Your blog rocks. Thanks for providing unique stories. I always share it with my sales team and they love it. Thanks!

We launched XYZ company recently to tremendous success, focusing on <blah, blah, blah>. In the 6 month since launching, we have gained 16,000 users worldwide including <yada,yada, yada>.

We want to work with you to help take us to the next level. We have been allocated marketing budget to spend on developing partnership with blogs like yours. I’d love to set up a time to speak. Are you interested ?”

However when I went to see if the person was subscribed to my blog, they weren’t. In fact, no one at the company was. And so I replied;

What will it take to create respect for the sales profession?

The state of sales today reminds me of what the state of the medical profession from the 16-18th centuries was. Sales, like medicine, has been evident since the beginning of recorded history in one form or another. Like salespeople today, being a medical professional (doctor, surgeon, apothecary) then did not grant the same level of respect that modern medical professionals take for granted today.

Prior to the 16th century, medicine was more mystical and based on the observations of a few. In fact, if you wanted to study medicine prior to the 16th century, it would include both physical and spiritual therapy from herbs and suitable diet as well as Mass, prayers, relics of saints, and music.

Probably one of the most important lessons I have learned from working with Unbound Growth is to play it cool.  Fonzie cool.  Remember Arthur Fonzarelli from Happy Days?  Now picture the Fonz as a sales rep.  Do you think he would be chasing people that didn’t want to talk to him?  Do you think he would call someone just to “check in?”

There is a lot of content and conversation about the need to prepare and do your homework before you get on a sales call or into a meeting. And that’s a good thing. But like note-taking, when is too much of a good thing? When does preparation become a bad thing? What should you look out for to know when enough is enough?

When I was about 10 years old, we put new carpet in the house.  Anyone that grew up in the 80s in the Dayton/Springfield Ohio area probably heard the commercials for Buddy’s Carpet Barn and Bryant Brothers.  I still have the “Forget the others, go to Bryan Brothers jingle” in my head.  So we go to Bryant Brothers first.  I still remember this.  The sales lady walks us through the store, showing us samples; I’m really just along for the ride.  But I remember the up sell attempts at thicker pad, stain treatment, etc.  We eventually got to a price.  My Mom and Steve looked at each, then looked at me, back to each other, then the sales lady.  “Thanks, we want to go over to Buddy’s to see what they have."

When we hear as salespeople that we need to understand our buyer, it sounds so easy to do. Ask enough questions and you will get a picture of their world and what is going on in their minds, right?

*Today's guest post is from Nichole Stohler, a current client who is dedicated to helping CIOs and CISOs take a risk-based approach to information security by developing a strategic and holistic data protection plan and the tools and resources to execute it.*