Pre-Planning

A successful sales call, made either by telephone or in the field, requires careful pre-planning and preparation. There are two elements to pre-planning a sales call: the pre-approach and the approach. In the pre-approach stage, a salesperson needs to learn as much as possible about the prospect in order to be able to establish a rapport during the sales call and to have the foundation on which to build the sales presentation itself. The approach then follows and involves all the activities that lead to the sales presentation. These include arranging the appointments with prospects, establishing rapport and confidence at the start of a sales call, and checking preliminary details prior to the sales presentation.

Sales representatives have three principal objectives in their approaches: to build rapport with the prospect, to capture a person’s full attention, and to generate interest in the product.

Translated to the film industry, this means:

1) do your research on the company but particularly on productions in development that might be a good fit for your jurisdiction

2) getting in the door to see the head of an ad agency, production company or studio executive may take a variety of skills including having sent appropriate information by email, at a trade show, or other venue; and 3) these meeting are short and concise….get to the selling points quickly and effectively.