State Your Objective at Start of Sales Call by Charles Brennan Jr.  At the beginning of a sales call, it’s important to state your objective and determine the customer’s goal for the conversation. By stating what you want to accomplish at the start of the call, you enable yourself to understand your customer’s willingness to move to the next step and qualify what they want out of the interaction from the very beginning.  Telling the customer your objectives allows you to measure the customer’s willingness to proceed and interpret their reaction to your request. Stating your objective enables you to gauge their interest level and provides you with information and clues to structure your conversation. An example of stating your objectives may go something like this: “Mrs. Customer, throughout our conversation today, I would like to spend some time asking you questions to get a better understanding of what you are looking to accomplish. In addition, I would like to share with you possible solutions that involve our product. At the end of our meeting, if all goes well, I would like to arrange a time to meet with others involved in the process and schedule a time for you to visit a facility that is currently using our systems.”  Stating what you are looking to accomplish lets you to see if the customer is on the same page and what is needed to achieve your objectives.  © 2007 Charles Brennan, Jr.