So you think you know your prospects. I don't just mean you know who they are. You think you know what they need, how they do business, where they are, how to reach them and why they would want to do business with you.

My guess is that you know some of your prospects and even more of your customers this well but you don’t know enough of them at this more intimate level to make a significant difference in your sales results.

This should be your goal when first meeting a prospect:

Learn as much as possible about them and their business, what motivates them, the problems they would most urgently like to solve, their decision making process, their timetable and the reasons there might be a good fit for your solution.

You don’t have to do all of that in the first meeting. After all, you’re not conducting an interrogation. But take the time to get to know your prospects and customers by asking probing, strategic level questions.

Don’t assume you know the answers. Let your prospects and customers tell you the answers.