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Why Most First Sales Meetings Fail (And How to Fix Them) | Lee Salz – Sales Management Strategist and Best-Selling Author

Most sales opportunities aren’t lost at the end; they’re lost in the very first meeting.

In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Chris sits down with sales strategist and bestselling author Lee Salz, creator of The First Meeting Differentiator, to unpack why traditional “discovery calls” are broken and what top-performing sales professionals do instead.

Lee explains why salespeople rely too heavily on logic, features, and self-focused questions… while buyers leave meetings feeling like they got no value. The result? Ghosting, stalled deals, poor qualification, and wasted pipeline time.

You’ll learn how to turn your first meeting into a consultative, value-driven conversation that builds emotional engagement, qualifies opportunities early, and creates clear next steps.

If you’re in B2B sales, sales leadership, or building a structured sales process, this episode is a masterclass in modern selling, qualification, and sales psychology.

🔍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  1. Why “discovery meetings” actually hurt your sales
  2. How to provide meaningful value in the first conversation
  3. The emotional side of selling (and why logic doesn’t close deals)
  4. How to qualify opportunities early and stop wasting time
  5. The difference between an Ideal Client Profile and a Target Client Profile
  6. How to eliminate ghosting with one simple process change
  7. Why most sales problems start at the first meeting, not the close

🎧 About Lee Salz

Lee Salz is a sales strategist, consultant, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of The First Meeting Differentiator. He helps sales organizations improve first conversations, onboarding, qualification, and buyer engagement.

🔹 Lee Salz on LinkedIn
🌐 Book Website

Sales Lead Dog & Resources
🔗 Sales Lead Dog & Resources
🎙️ All Sales Lead Dog Episodes: https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/
CRM Shouldn’t Suck: https://www.crmshouldntsuck.com
Empellor CRM: https://www.Empellorcrm.com

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💬 Comment below: What’s the biggest mistake you see in first sales meetings?

First Meetings
“The first meeting isn’t about gathering information, it’s about proving you’re worth a second conversation.”

 Buyer Experience
“Buyers don’t remember your questions, they remember how helpful the conversation felt.”

On Value in Sales Conversations
“If the prospect leaves the first meeting without learning something useful, you’ve already fallen behind.”

On Sales Mindset
“Great salespeople don’t run meetings to collect data, they run meetings to create insight.”

Emotional Engagement
“Logic explains, but emotion decides whether the deal moves forward.”

Qualification
“Early qualification isn’t about disqualifying people, it’s about respecting everyone’s time.”

Modern Selling
“The best first meetings feel less like an interrogation and more like a consultation.”