Initial meetings with potential clients or with new people at existing clients are critical opportunities. This applies to every industry whether it be engineering, law, property or commercial. A first meeting can be the difference between years of work and no work at all.

So how can you ensure your all-important meeting goes swimmingly (or some other kind of wow statement? How do you maximise the effectiveness you have when face to face with a client? Like many things it is 70% in the preparation and 30% in the execution/delivery on the day. Follow our proven steps to success, and you’ll find yourself having more impact when it comes to the crunch.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Knowledge is power, and never more so than when you’re walking into a room full of strangers. That means research is vital.

• What do you know about the client organisation and the person or people you are going to meet? Do some background research using their website, LinkedIn, and search engines. What can you learn about the individuals you’re trying to connect with?
• Ensure you are up to speed with news in their world. Find out what the hot topics and key issues are in their industry at the moment. This applies to all industries including engineering, law and all professional services. What are the lastest technological innovations in the engineering industries? Are you up to date on the latest legal developments? What’s current in the commercial property sector? Keeping your knowledge current will be key in portraying yourself as an industry expert they’ll want to do business with.

PREPARE A POSITIONING STATEMENT

It’s now time to plan a short and snappy positioning statement for your meeting . This should be an extended introduction to you and your organisation – not a ‘pitch’, but more to ensure the client really understands what your business does. Ensure your Positioning Statement has the 3 following elements:

An overview of your business – where you operate, numbers of people, industry sectors
Your Department – Specific details about your area of the business, for example, the types of clients and projects your department has worked on

Your Areas of Interest – what have YOU been involved in? How have YOU helped clients?

MAKE CONTACT PRE MEETING

It’s always a good idea to send a short note in advance of the meeting to cover off things like:

• Where and when the meeting is taking place
• Ask who will be there from their side ( ideally find out their job roles/remit and why) – this is useful to ensure you match up the attendees from your side..
• Outline the areas for discussion
• Ask them if there are any specific areas they would like to cover – and make sure you include those in your meeting plan
• Send relevant content in advance (ie slide deck, research paper) and explain why you think it might be useful. This demonstrates to the client that you are tuned in to their business and the potential challenges they may be facing.

Think about attendees

It’s important to give some thought to who will be going to the meeting so you are prepared in how to engage with them and create that all important great first impression. Here are some tips:

• Broadly match numbers. For example, if you are meeting two people, send two or three people, not five.
• Meetings are much easier with a colleague. It is difficult to conduct a business development meeting on your own, given that you will need to ask questions, actively listen and also take notes.
• Consider the type of people you are meeting, and try to reflect the dynamic when it comes to age, seniority and gender.

Questas – Business development training

Running effective meetings is just one strategy to help develop a business. Questas provide business development training for industries such as engineering, law and property to help professionals from a technical mindset create significant results and sales performance.

Read more about our business development training.

We are a business development consultancy which is passionate about helping our clients develop processes, skills and behaviours that will result in increased sales and improved margins.

Having worked with different professional services clients over the years, I’ve seen many try to transform their approach to sales (or business development, if you prefer), says Annabel Miller. Some of these organisations have put together a formal transformation programme, whilst others have simply sought to make a positive shift in their sales efforts.

Whether you are considering a major change or a few tweaks to your approach, I’ve come up with the following key points that you should consider as part of your plans.

1. First, answer the question “Why are we doing this?” There must be a compelling reason for change, with a clearly articulated “what will happen if we do not make these changes” and why the current status is unacceptable.

2. Design your programme. Have a clear vision about what the newly transformed organisation will look like. For example, “In 3 years time we will be working in these sectors, we will have these key clients, we will be known for….”

The vision needs to be supported by 12 month objectives, Here’s an example of key objectives.  Our objectives over the next 12 months are: 

• To have made our first sale in the Oil & Gas sector
• To have doubled the number of business development meetings we are having as a business,
• To have developed a Key Client programme for our top 10 accounts.

It’s then important to clear the KPI’s for those involved, so they can focus on these new objectives.

3. Put together the right team to drive the programme. Your team make up will be somewhat dependent on the size of the programme, but to make it work you will need senior sponsorship. One of the firms I worked with had the CEO, CFO, Head of BD/Marketing, Head of HR and the four business unit leaders on the team.

4. Develop skills, process and behaviours. You will need to include training into your programme. Don’t make the mistake that many make and think that a one-off training course will develop sustained behavioural change. It doesn’t! Training works if: a) people know why they are doing it, b) how it will help them do their job better, c) they are given support following the event, and d) there are follow ups and refreshers.

5. Give your best and potential performers access to coaching. This demonstrates a real commitment to improving people through strong, challenging and empathetic coaching. It complements training and allows the recipients to really embed new habits. Coaching should be given to both individuals and teams. High-performing teams, whether they are leadership, key client, market/sector teams, can take the business to new places and turbo-boost business development.

6. Make sure you measure and monitor progress: Track the KPI’s, celebrate successes and make sure to involve, not dictate.

7. Lastly, be very clear about the behaviour you now expect and do not tolerate poor behaviour, regardless of seniority or past performance!

If you would like to know more about how I could help with your sales training and coaching, please get in touch.  This article borrows from research (McKinsey, Hinge Marketing) as well as my own experiences.