Why Executive Briefings Are Essential for Sales Success: A Guide to Using Insights in Client Meetings

As many articles here have described, using an executive briefing is how we open a first meeting. We prefer this insight-based method because it creates much value for the salesperson to offer their client. Here, we will explore eight ways this approach benefits a prospective client.

1. Open a Sales Meeting with Market Trends and Insights

While most sales reps still start the conversation by talking about their company, clients, and solutions, this legacy approach fails to create value for the contacts because it is self-oriented rather than client-centered. By opening with real insights about current market trends, forces, and factors, you can help buyers and decision-makers appreciate the reasons they may struggle in the near future. Think of insights as the fuel powering the engine of the conversation, propelling it forward with relevance and urgency.

2. Use Insightful Questions to Elicit Valuable Client Information

Once you’ve provided relevant insight into the client’s market, you can ask them questions about what is happening in their world. In doing so, your contact may confess that they are already facing problems. They may mention a challenge that you didn’t include in your brief. If this happens, ask them to tell you more. After the meeting, you can add the new problem to your list of common issues or failures.

3. Differentiate Your Sales Approach with an Executive Briefing

By using an executive briefing in the first meeting, you immediately differentiate yourself from sales reps the client has met before. You need to stand out from the crowd and distinguish yourself in a meaningful way. Otherwise, you’re just another sales rep pleading for an opportunity. Without differentiation, you're a drop of water in an ocean of salespeople, nearly impossible to notice.

4. Increase Your Sales Status with Expert Insights

You may not know that your clients assess your sales status. A high sales status suggests you know more than your lower-status competitors. By showing up with a useful perspective and expertise, you position yourself as a preferred option over the many other salespeople the client has interviewed and dismissed.

5. Establish the Urgency for Change Early in the Sales Process

The executive briefing allows you to use the beginning of the sales conversation to establish reasons the client must change. There is a difference between asking the contact about their problems and knowing the contact’s problems better than they do. Most salespeople wait too long to address why the client needs to change. By the time they do, the client may not be motivated to take action. Leading with “why change” is like diagnosing a patient before they have symptoms, providing the remedy before the illness takes hold.

6. Attract Key Stakeholders with a Comprehensive Executive Briefing

When you provide an executive briefing, your main contact is likely to share it with others in their organization. This makes them more likely to introduce you to additional stakeholders who will weigh in on the decision. Because the contact trusts you, they feel it is safe to bring in more people. The briefing makes it easier to identify key contacts earlier in the sales process.

7. Boost Your Chances of Securing a Second Sales Meeting

We’ve worked to teach many sales reps how to use executive briefings, and most of them report that this approach makes it much easier to secure a second meeting. With this approach, as many as 95 percent of a salesperson’s contacts agree to a second meeting. This is particularly valuable at a time when many sales reps struggle to secure a follow-up after the initial meeting.

8. Strengthen Long-Term Client Relationships with Ongoing Insights

Using a briefing early in the sales conversation is highly effective. Because the external environment is constantly changing, you must update your brief as needed. Clients you have shared your briefing with often ask you for updates. Having an established relationship makes it difficult for an average sales rep to steal your contacts, which prevents you from being displaced.

How to Build an Effective Executive Briefing for Sales Meetings

We suggest you focus on four or five key trends, forces, and factors. It would be rare to have more than that, even when the business landscape is complex. Focus on identifying the latest industry trends that will create a strong case for change and are likely to have the biggest impact on your clients. Including too many trends will confuse and overwhelm your clients, so choose the ones most relevant to them.

It’s also important to provide credible market data from reputable sources. Without strong data and references, you risk losing the credibility you’ve worked hard to build. You may also want to leave the briefing behind as a resource for your contact. This makes it more likely that they will share the briefing with others, helping you build your relationship.

In Summary

Benefits of Executive Briefings in Sales

• Open meetings with market insights to create value and fuel conversations.
• Differentiate yourself from other sales reps and increase your sales status.
• Establish urgency for change early in the sales process.
• Attract key stakeholders and secure follow-up meetings more easily.

Key Components of an Effective Executive Briefing

• Include 4-5 key trends, forces, and factors that are relevant to the client.
• Provide credible market data from reliable sources.
• Consider leaving the briefing as a resource for the contact.