You know the story. You’ve had a meeting with a prospect, perhaps one that went really well. And at the end of the meeting your prospect says something like ‘This looks interesting, let me take it back to the team / think about it / could you send me a copy of the deck – and I’ll get back to you.’
They may even promise to get back to you the same week.
Which, of course, they don’t.
So you wait a few days, and then you send a ‘Checking in’ email to see if they’ve had time to take it back to the team / think about it / review the deck you sent over.
And, of course, you still hear nothing.
And this dance goes on. You call, you email, you message them on LI. And several weeks, if not several months, pass without hearing from them again.
Which means, I’m afraid, that you’ve found yourself in the Sales Valley of Death.
Why Prospects Go Silent
And it’s not at all uncommon. Prospects are really busy people. Prospects sound interested when they’re too polite to say they’re not, Prospects do market research that sounds like it’s buying interest when it’s not.
And even for prospects who are interested, there’s a huge difference between being interested and actually having the time, resources and money needed to do something meaningful about it.
But even though it’s not uncommon, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. A really big problem. Because these sorts of delays and lack of engagement with your prospects are killing your sales cycles, which in turn is killing your runway.
Fortunately, there’s a solution to this problem and it’s one of the simplest and highest-impact changes you can make to create momentum with a prospect and help prevent you from falling into the Sales Valley of Death.
BAMFAM!
BAMFAM stands for Book A Meeting From A Meeting and it’s my favourite, biggest bang-for-buck acronym of all time.
The purpose of BAMFAM is at every stage of the sales cycle, with every single prospect, to always have the next touchpoint booked and confirmed in the calendar before you get off a call or meeting with them.
So whenever you have a meeting or call with a prospect, you never leave that meeting or call without doing the following three things:
- Establish a clear next step – what is the next step you and your prospect are going to take after this call?
- Agree the day and time you’re going to speak next with your prospect.
- Send an invite right there and then to get it booked in the calendar, and ask your prospect to check they’ve received it.
This can be a really simple change in your behaviour, but if applied to every prospect at every stage of the sales cycle it will have a big impact on the momentum of your deals.
Your New Sales Mantra
Give yourself this mantra:
I will never leave a meeting with a prospect without getting the next meeting BAMFAMed in the calendar.
Let’s look at a practical example – how to use BAMFAM in your first meeting with a prospect.
When you have a first meeting, always save 5 minutes at the end of the meeting to say the following (and those 5 minutes are critical – if you run the clock down to the end of the meeting, your prospect will jump off before you get through this):
‘From what you’ve told me, it sounds like there’s a good fit between what you’re looking for and the solution we provide for our customers.’
(Obviously if there’s no fit, this would be the point to qualify them out. There is no point putting prospects in your pipeline that are obviously not right for your business, no matter how thin your pipeline)
‘What we’d normally do at this stage is to book in another call so I can understand more about your ideal solution and show a deeper dive demo of our product.’
(The ‘What we’d normally do..’ is very important – it implicitly tells your prospect that you’ve done this before and gives them the comfort that you know what you’re doing.)
‘I can also share some case studies of how we’ve solved similar problems for our customers if that would be of interest.’
(Here you’re offering additional value. You don’t need actual written case studies if you don’t have them, you can also share anecdotes.)
‘Would XXXday or YYYday work for you?’
For example, if today was Monday you could say ‘Would Wednesday or Thursday work for you?’
If you get the day agreed, suggest morning or afternoon, then propose a specific time. If those don’t work suggest a couple of other days, and then if those don’t work, simply ask when they’re free. And when you suggest a date, don’t default to the following week – suggest a couple of days’ time and see if that works.
Of course, your prospect may still say ‘No’ to getting the next call booked in. My personal preference is to address this directly:
‘I often find when people are reluctant to book in the next meeting, it means they’re not really interested in what I’ve shown them. Is that the case here?’
Why BAMFAM Is Worth the Effort
If you feel awkward saying any of the above, just remember three things:
- This is actually a very honest conversation. You’re simply clarifying if there’s real interest
- Time is your enemy. Your runway is slowly running out every single day. You do not have time to waste.
- This actually saves your prospect time. Booking the next meeting now is much quicker than back and forth over email.
And remember, BAMFAM isn’t just for your first meeting. Whenever you have any meeting with a prospect, you should follow some version of the above to get the next step booked and confirmed in the calendar before you leave the meeting.
Don’t forget your new mantra:
I will never leave a meeting with a prospect without getting the next meeting BAMFAMed in the calendar.
Does BAMFAM work every time? Of course not. There are no silver bullets in B2B sales.
But if you use it consistently, with every prospect in every meeting at every stage of the sales cycle, you will significantly increase the momentum of your deals.
Best of luck with BAMFAM!
If you have any questions on how to use BAMFAM, just DM me on LinkedIn or drop me an email at ben@crane.vc.
