Most people don't like to talk about power, because they consider it evil and associate it with abuse and the use of force. But power is a fact of life, especially in sales meetings. If you don’t understand it, you can lose a sale without ever knowing why.

Will Marshall is a self-employed management consultant and an executive and sales trainer at the International Institute for Humanization. In our conversation, he shares many anecdotes from his long career as a B2B sales rep and manager at corporations including Xerox. 

Along the way, Will provides tips and strategies to ask better questions, gather valuable information about prospects from receptionists and use and interpret power in meetings. We also spent a lot of time talking about the mindset sales people need to deal with rejection, sell with confidence and walk away from multi-million-pound deals.

Here are some of the episode’s highlights with timestamps:

• 4:25 – Authorizers and influencers: using decision making units (DMUs) to determine where the power lies in organizations

• 18:33 – How to stay calm while dealing with dominant hostile personalities

• 33:30 –Why negotiators need to get into the other person’s head

• 44:29 – Always look for the positive: Del Boy, the salesman with natural ability

• 53:48 – The power I used when I convinced Will to join the podcast

• 1:02:00 – What external consultants should do when a client keeps hijacking project meetings

For more detailed information about this episode and relevant links to people and resources, visit the show notes on www.meetingstrategist.org/will-marshall

About this podcast

Welcome to Meeting Strategist. On this podcast, Marcel van de Hoef interviews professionals and thinkers from the worlds of investment, business and arts about their approach to business conversations. You'll hear inspiring stories about impactful meetings, while also learning about the strategies, tactics and mindsets these guests rely on to make meetings more productive and meaningful.

Marcel is an Amsterdam-based communication advisor and trainer and the curator of the Meeting Strategist blog. His mission is to help senior professionals think more strategically about meetings, ask better questions, improve their listening skills and have more meaningful conversations in business and life. Learn more and stay up to date at meetingstrategist.org