Episode #265: Our Pre-Approach in Sales

Why is a pre-approach regimen essential before meeting a buyer?

A pre-approach regimen is the discipline of preparing before you step into a sales meeting, so your time goes to prospects who are most qualified and most likely to buy. In modern business, time is finite; professionals don’t “wing it.” They show up informed, relevant, and ready to connect the buyer’s priorities to a clear solution.

This preparation also protects you from two painful surprises:

1. discovering you’re selling far less than the buyer’s true potential, and

2. realizing they’re buying your kind of solution from a competitor.

Mini-summary: Pre-approach preparation helps you focus on high-value prospects and prevents competitors from winning because they did their homework first.

Start by qualifying whether the prospect can buy and has reasons to buy now. Your best meetings are with:

• New clients who match your ideal buyer profile.

• Existing clients with unused capacity or growing needs.

If a current buyer is purchasing only a small amount from you—or has shifted part of their spending to a rival—that’s a signal to investigate and re-engage strategically.

Mini-summary: Spend time where buying potential and urgency are highest—either with new ideal prospects or under-developed existing accounts.

Research tells you whether the company is healthy, growing, or changing direction—clues that shape what they need and how they buy. Look for:

• Expansion plans, new markets, or hiring surges.

• Financial performance and momentum.

• Mergers, acquisitions, or ownership changes.

• Strategic direction stated by top leadership.

Annual reports are especially valuable because they reveal both future direction and financial realities. For unlisted firms, you may need to rely more on press releases, public interviews, and industry analysis.

Mini-summary: Company research reveals business direction and buying capacity, letting you tailor your approach to real priorities.

Champions help you navigate the organization and validate what matters inside. Practical ways to find them:

• Look for people you already know who recently joined the company.

• Review press releases and industry media about their initiatives.

• Use professional social platforms to understand decision makers’ backgrounds.

• Identify shared connections, education, or experiences that create rapport.

Even a few minutes of smart digital research can uncover strong relevance hooks.

Mini-summary: Internal champions and public signals give you trustworthy insight into who influences buying and what they care about.

Every buyer walks into a meeting with an internal conversation already running. Your job is to anticipate it. Ask yourself:

• What challenges are common in their industry right now?

• What problems have similar companies told us they face?

• What outcomes are they likely pressured to deliver?

• Which of our services or programs address those challenges directly?

Then prepare “interest hooks”: clear, compelling angles that earn attention fast by aligning to their world.

Mini-summary: Anticipate the buyer’s mental agenda by mapping industry challenges to your strongest, most relevant solutions.

Your current clients are one of the richest sources of positioning insight. Ask them:

• Why did you choose us?

• What do you value most in our solution?

• How have you used it, and what results followed?

• What return on investment (ROI) can you point to?

• If we did more together, what would that look like?

These answers give you real-world proof points, language, and credibility for similar prospects.

Mini-summary: Existing clients provide the stories, outcomes, and ROI evidence that strengthen your relevance to new buyers.

How should you adapt your message to different buyer roles?

Different buyers care about different things. Identify who you’re meeting and shape your value accordingly:

• CEO / President: focused on strategy, future direction, and growth. Speak to outcomes and alignment with business vision.

• CFO: focused on risk, cash flow, and profitability. Show financial impact, payback, and stability.

• Technical Buyer: focused on specifications and fit. Prove your solution matches or exceeds required standards.

• User Buyer: focused on usability, support, service, and reliability. Reassure them they won’t be left alone after purchase—excellent after-sales support matters.

If the meeting involves a buying group, you must cover each role’s priorities with clarity and respect.

Mini-summary: Tailor your message to the buyer’s role—strategy for CEOs, ROI for CFOs, fit for technical buyers, and support for users.

Turning up unprepared is a direct path to losing business. While you improvise, a competitor may arrive with deep insight into the company, the people, and their priorities. In modern markets—especially in competitive environments like Tokyo (東京 / Tokyo)—professional preparation is not optional. It’s the baseline.

Mini-summary: Lack of preparation lets informed competitors win; professionalism means showing up ready.

• Pre-approach discipline protects your time and directs energy to the most qualified buyers.

• Smart research reveals business direction, buying triggers, and internal influencers.

• Anticipating buyer challenges lets you lead with relevance and strong interest hooks.

• Adapting your message to each role increases trust and decision momentum.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.