The first meeting with a high-value prospect isn’t about selling a product — it’s about selling yourself. Here’s how to win trust, read the room and turn a handshake into a deal.
Congratulations! The CFO of one of your high-priority prospects has finally agreed to either an in-person meeting or a video teleconference. Now, it’s showtime, and you need to prepare for the most important stage of any sales cycle. Few things are more important than making a good first impression — particularly when meeting a high-priority prospect for the first time. Your ability to make a positive impression on the CFO in that first meeting is the biggest predictor of whether you will turn this prospect into a customer. Let me help you make the best first impression.
Pro Tip: Your goal for an initial meeting is to sell yourself as an equipment financing specialist and trusted advisor, and your company as a reputable player in the equipment finance industry. Don’t try to sell any product or salivate over a potential deal. For this reason, I would always push for an in-person meeting if feasible, even if it means dealing with the inconvenience of travel. I assure you that meeting in person is a more effective forum for selling yourself and your company than a Teams call. Unfortunately, COVID has materially decreased the number of in-person meetings, probably forever. We’ve all become so addicted to video conferences that now they’re the go-to meeting format. Nobody will ever convince me that relationships built virtually are as deep and strong as the personal relationships forged through in-person meetings.
PREPARATION IS KEY
Put in the time to learn about your prospect. Take advantage of the various sources of information that your company subscribes to, such as D&B, Hoovers, Moody’s or S&P Reports, if applicable, or past call reports on this prospect in the CRM program used by your company. Study its website and Google searches and look up the CFO on LinkedIn to see if you have any possible connections. After digesting all this information, write down the questions specific to this company that you want answered (this shows you put in time to prepare), in addition to the standard questions you ask every prospect.
If it is a public company, a deep dive into its financials before your meeting is crucial, and the presumption is that your credit team has reviewed the financials and deems the company a worthy prospect.
SCIENCE OF SELLING TRUTH NO. 3: THE UPSIDE-DOWN PYRAMID Use what I’ve dubbed the “Upside Down Pyramid” to help visualize the chronological steps to follow at an initial meeting with a prospect. Each section of the pyramid has questions that you could ask the CFO in the meeting. The top of the upside-down pyramid is the widest block, representing the broad, open-ended questions you ask about the company’s history and the CFO to initiate the conversation. These are icebreaker-type questions to establish rapport and show interest in learning about them and their business. Feel free to take notes, but don’t let your note-taking be a distraction or prevent you from making critical eye contact with the CFO. As you work your way down the pyramid, the blocks become narrower as your questions become more focused on their equipment purchasing and financing needs, building off the answers to your previous questions.
THE ART OF SELLING TRUTH NO. 3: LEARN HOW TO ADAPT AND CHANGE COLORS LIKE A CHAMELEON
Every CEO I’ve ever met loves to talk about their company. CFOs, on the other hand, can have quite different personalities, and may require you to be a bit of a chameleon — ‘changing colors’ to adapt to the personality and style of the CFO. You’ll quickly get a sense of whether the CFO is more conversational or reserved. If they are a talker, keep asking open-ended questions and let them talk. If their answers are brief and they give you the “restless” clues, then jump right into the meatier questions to show you don’t want to waste their time.
Initial meetings can be very unpredictable, so channeling your chameleon traits will be helpful. I want to share with you a true story to hammer home this point. When I started cold-calling at GE Capital, the CEO of one of the larger trucking companies in my market agreed to meet with me. I was excited about the meeting and prepared as much as possible with the limited information available at the time.
As soon as the meeting began, he came out ‘guns blazing’ saying, “I had a relationship long ago with GE Capital and would never do business with your firm again.” He then showed me a bunch of business cards of past GE Capital reps who had tried to no avail in recent years to reignite a relationship with his firm and asked, “Why do you think you are any different than these sales reps?”
This was 30 years ago, and I don’t remember the exact words I used. Still, I gathered myself and responded with something like this, “Sir, I have no idea what your experiences with GE Capital were in the past, but you are one of the largest trucking companies in my market, and GE Capital is one of the largest lenders to the trucking industry. It’s my job to figure out whether your company can benefit from our services and be your advocate within our company and not waste your time if there isn’t a good match. You set aside some time to meet with me today, so why don’t we explore the possibility of doing business together?”
About 30 days after that first meeting, I recall driving to his house in a suburb of Indianapolis for a 7 a.m. meeting with a set of financing documents to close a deal that he signed while walking on a treadmill.
How was I able to turn him around and make him a customer again? Because I acted like a chameleon and realized the upside-down pyramid approach wasn’t going to work. So, I jumped right into the fire and found out his hot buttons were responsiveness and ease of doing business (it’s not always about the lowest rate) and focused on selling myself as someone he could trust and envision doing business with. He saw that I approached this business professionally and that I wasn’t going to waste his time. He had an immediate truck financing need, and I provided him with a proposal that he accepted, along with a quick, hassle-free credit approval. I also demonstrated that I was willing to meet him whenever and wherever necessary to close the deal.
During the natural flow of conversation at your first meeting, use industry jargon, such as, ‘How is your driver turnover?’ to a trucking firm, and interject equipment financing ideas to show industry knowledge and competence. You might share a success story about how you met the equipment financing needs of a company in their industry. If you can get a customer’s permission to use their name as a reference, that is a home run.
As you near the end of the meeting, peek at your questions and notes and make sure all were answered. Also, ask the CFO if there is anything that wasn’t covered in the meeting to make sure his/her needs are addressed.
If you have answers to the following questions, it was a productive meeting:
- What type and how much equipment will you be purchasing in the next year?
- How have you traditionally financed equipment purchases? If so, with whom?
- Have you used true lease financing in the past? If so, why? If not, why not?
- Do your financial covenants on your senior credit facility limit additional debt or leverage or allow for a certain amount of operating leases?
- How do you analyze and compare financing and leasing options, and who is involved in the final decision?
- Other than rate, what are the most important attributes you are looking for in an equipment financing source?
- Would you be willing to provide your financial statements so I can review with credit to help me structure the best financing product for you?
A private company is rarely going to provide financials at your first meeting unless they have an immediate financing need, but if they do, that’s a huge sign that you have gained their trust. If you can’t get their financial statements, make an effort to find out whether they have any tax loss carryforwards or are unable to fully utilize the current year’s 40% bonus depreciation. If you know, or have a sense, they are a highly leveraged company, another great question is whether their interest expense is approaching or exceeds 30% of EBIT. If they say yes, they are a true leasing candidate — more on that in my next article.
That initial meeting, whether in person or virtual, is your time to shine and prove you can be a valuable equipment financing partner to this prospect. Take it seriously and prepare to ensure you maximize the information gathered and, more importantly, get the CFO to determine that they would benefit from doing business with you and your company. •
Scott Kiley is a seasoned equipment finance professional with over 35 years of experience in capital markets, indirect and direct originations, and syndications. As the In-House Lead Instructor for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), he provides industry training, equipping professionals with the knowledge and strategies needed to excel in equipment leasing and finance. Kiley spent more than two decades at Fifth Third Bank, where he led the Equipment Finance Capital Markets Group as a Senior Vice President. Prior to that, he spent 21 years as a Vice President of Indirect Originations. His early career at GE Capital involved managing sales teams and driving tax lease sales for middle-market companies.
