Jacob Top Møller

Free tool

Pre-call plan template

A pre-call plan sets out what the account executive and Sales Engineer need to establish in their first customer meeting. Fill it in together before the meeting, and again after it.

Agree what the meeting needs to establish before deciding what to show.

Nothing you write here is sent or saved. Print the page to keep it.

The meeting

A first meeting should leave you with the problem in the customer's words, a possible champion to investigate and an agreed next step. Put those outcomes at the top of the plan.

Three rows: what you know, assume and ask

Give each row a lead, including the rows both sellers share. The Sales Engineer leads the technical row and shares the other two with the account executive.

Keep evidence and assumptions separate. Give each assumption a question that could confirm or change it, and name who will ask.

Technical

Ask: Does the product fit this customer's needs and environment, and where does it differ from the alternatives?

Business value

Ask: What is the change worth to their business, and which outcomes would the economic buyer commit to?

Also: The Sales Engineer asks what the technical problem costs the customer today, or what it holds up.

Qualification

Ask: Who decides, how and by when, and who inside the customer carries the deal?

What to show, and when

Prepare one short example, then decide whether it is relevant after hearing the customer's problem. If the conversation takes a different direction, keep asking questions.

Review before the meeting

Check the plan by its assumptions. Tick each item once you have checked it.

A lead for each row

Ask: Does each row have a lead?

A question and an asker for each assumption

Ask: Does each assumption have a question and someone responsible for asking it?

Check: An assumption with no question, or a question with no owner, is a gap.

Sources for what you know

Ask: Does each row say what you know and where it comes from?

Check: A row without a source does not show how you know.

The cost question

Ask: Will the Sales Engineer ask what the technical problem costs the customer today, or what it holds up?

Check: Without that question, the meeting can collect requirements and leave the business consequence vague.

The meeting outcomes

Ask: Does the plan aim for the problem, a possible champion and a next step?

Check: A demo booking alone does not tell you which business problem matters or who would help pursue a change.

The condition for showing an example

Ask: Is the condition for showing the example written down?

After the meeting

Write what the customer said beside each assumption: confirmed, changed or still open. The plan for the next meeting starts from what is still open.

Sources

The rows, questions and checks come from the article on pre-call planning for a first enterprise software meeting.

In Sales Engineering foundations, participants learn to prepare a customer meeting with the account executive.

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