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By the time you’re knotting your tie for a sales appointment, the cards should be stacked in your favor. The best indicator, of course, is that the prospect agreed to the meeting, so he must perceive some value. And, you’ve been able to review all the information that came out of the lead qualification process. You know the pain points, at least at a high level, and you have a sense of the status quo within your prospect’s datacenter. You have a willing audience and all the information you need to make a sale.

So, why do so many appointments go nowhere? It’s a fair question. If everything leading up to a sales call is so clearly beneficial, it should always go well … right?

Often, the problem isn’t with the prospect – it’s with you. You aren’t asking yourself the right questions before you sit across from your client. Below, you’ll find three questions to ask yourself before your next sales appointment. Answer them, and you’ll find your efforts to be much more fruitful.

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Are you getting the most out of your marketing budget? The only way to know for sure is to take a close look at how your marketing and sales teams are performing. Dig into the data in your CRM system, and you’ll find a wealth of information. Even if you’re satisfied with the fruits of your labor, you may learn that you’re actually leaving ROI on the table. Here are five ways to find out if your organization has more ROI just waiting to happen:

1. Low closure rate
If you are swamped in highly qualified leads but aren’t putting many of them in the “win” column, you’re probably not getting the return you should be on your marketing efforts. This is a red flag and should be followed with a hard look at why so many leads aren’t turning into sales. This can require some tough conversations, but the outcome will be worth it for all involved. Your sales team will enjoy better numbers, and company revenue as a whole will increase.

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If the sales cycle were kept to less than 90 days, everything would be so much simpler. Sales professionals would be able to manage their pipelines to their quarterly revenue objectives and make the decisions necessary to maximize the company’s results and their own. But, those days are long gone. This has led to a myopic perspective, in which leads that aren’t expected to close quickly are cast aside.

The result is an unfortunate dynamic, in which sales professionals are left scrambling for “hot leads” constantly. If they were to allocate some of their time for investment in lead cultivation, they would soon have a robust ongoing pipeline, allowing them to nurture every account and maximize the value of every opportunity.

The opportunity that many sales professionals miss — even purposefully skip — is substantial. Imagine how many leads are cast aside in favor of the needle-in-a-haystack that is ready to make a purchase almost immediately. These are next quarter’s hot leads — or they’ll get hot the quarter after that. In disregarding these leads now, the sales professional could be giving the opportunity to a competitor when the prospect is ready to buy.

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