How many meetings with clients have you been to that were aimless, unstructured and poorly planned?
For most professionals, the answer is "far too many".
And the problem is exacerbated when it comes to sales meetings. A mistake so early on in the relationship can kill it off before it's started. After all, what client is going to want to work with a professional when their meetings with them don't seem to add any value of make any progress?
Yet so many professionals try to "wing it" with little preparation and only vague objectives for the meeting such as "get to know each other" or "find out their issues".
If you try to "wing it" like this, you'll find that again and again, opportunities slip through your fingers. Senior clients won't invest their valuable time in meetings which don't seem to go anywhere and where they don't get value from the interaction.
A Structured Approach to Client Meetings
If you want to get more clients and win more business from your sales meetings, you need to add structure to them.
UK copywriter Andy Maslen has a neat acronym to help writers approach sales copy. And the approach can be extended very effectively to client meetings too.
The acronym is KFC:
K - Know
F - Feel
C - Commit
Start at the end with Commit. At the end of the meeting (or after reading the sales copy in the case of a copywriter) what is it we want the client to commit to - to do differently? It could be to agree to a joint meeting to agree a proposal, or an introduction to the finance director who must approve the budget, for example. Then, you think through what the potential client must Know and Feel for them to be comfortable making that commitment.
Start with a Clear and Realistic Objective
Every meeting with a client or prospect needs a clear objective for what you want to achieve from the meeting. In particular, you must clarify what you want them (not just you) to do as a result of the meeting. After all, if they don't do anything differently, what was the point of the meeting?
Even if your goal is primarily to progress the relationship in some way - that progression needs to manifest itself in meaningful action. It may be something simple like providing more information, or making an introduction, or agreeing to a joint follow-up - but it needs to be something or the relationship really hasn't progressed.
The objective must be appropriate to the phase of your relationship too. Although your final goal may be to sell them your services, that's not likely to happen in the first meeting. Selling professional services takes time to build up the trust and credibility needed for the client to be comfortable hiring you.
A more appropriate first meeting objective is to identify the areas when you and the client could potentially work together, and to agree a follow-up to discuss them in more detail - with both of you doing "homework" to prepare for that meeting.
Drill to the Know and Feel
Having a clear meeting objective is important (and it's surprising how many professionals don't actually do it) - but on it's own it's not enough.
You also need to identify what it will take to achieve that objective in the meeting itself. This is where the "Know" and "Feel" elements come in to play.
If, for example, your objective is to get a follow-up meeting to prepare a proposal together, you'll need to think through what the client will need to believe to be comfortable agreeing to this.
The Know side is about the facts. They'll probably need to know that you have done work in this area before and the type of clients you work for. They may want to understand anything you've published in the field. Essentially you are establishing your credibility with these facts.
The Feel side is more about emotions - whether they feel comfortable working with you. Do you really listen to them? Do you have good rapport with them? Do you really understand their problems and unique situation? Getting this across is more a matter of how you interact with them than what you say.
How do you get your client to Know what they need to know and Feel what they need to feel? That's the art of business development.
Using Smart Questions
Firstly, recognise that you certainly won't effectively get across the right knowledge and particularly feelings through a long presentation about you and your company. That might get across some of the right knowledge - but it will create entirely the wrong feelings. Your client will feel that you're more interested in yourself than them - that you don't listen - and that meetings with you are going to be deathly dull.
One way to get across your knowledge and experience that doesn't come across as dull and self-promotional is to use short stories and anecdotes of similar client situations.
Most often, the route to both establishing the things the client needs to know, and in getting them to feel the right way about you is to ask smart questions. Being able to ask the right questions that really home in on tough issues and the underlying causes will establish your expertise far more than any claims you might make about it, qualifications you might have or awards you might have won. And by empathising with the responses and occasionally mentioning similar situations you've been in, you'll establish the right feeling of "he understands me" and "he's been in this situation before - he'll know what to do to help".
Most of your preparation for the meeting should focus on this element. You need to identify the smart questions to ask in the right sequence to to establish your credibility and build trust.
Close with your Commitment Question
And finally, of course, you must close by asking for that follow-up meeting, or the introduction you were looking for, or at the end of a series of meetings - actually asking for the business.
Sounds obvious: but so many professionals fail to do it. Fear of rejection kicks in and they close weakly without making a clear request for the action they're looking for. And so it doesn't happen.
But by planning and preparing correctly, you've set yourself up for success. You've asked the right questions to allow the client to Know and Feel what they need to to be comfortable making the commitment you're looking for. - 31979
For most professionals, the answer is "far too many".
And the problem is exacerbated when it comes to sales meetings. A mistake so early on in the relationship can kill it off before it's started. After all, what client is going to want to work with a professional when their meetings with them don't seem to add any value of make any progress?
Yet so many professionals try to "wing it" with little preparation and only vague objectives for the meeting such as "get to know each other" or "find out their issues".
If you try to "wing it" like this, you'll find that again and again, opportunities slip through your fingers. Senior clients won't invest their valuable time in meetings which don't seem to go anywhere and where they don't get value from the interaction.
A Structured Approach to Client Meetings
If you want to get more clients and win more business from your sales meetings, you need to add structure to them.
UK copywriter Andy Maslen has a neat acronym to help writers approach sales copy. And the approach can be extended very effectively to client meetings too.
The acronym is KFC:
K - Know
F - Feel
C - Commit
Start at the end with Commit. At the end of the meeting (or after reading the sales copy in the case of a copywriter) what is it we want the client to commit to - to do differently? It could be to agree to a joint meeting to agree a proposal, or an introduction to the finance director who must approve the budget, for example. Then, you think through what the potential client must Know and Feel for them to be comfortable making that commitment.
Start with a Clear and Realistic Objective
Every meeting with a client or prospect needs a clear objective for what you want to achieve from the meeting. In particular, you must clarify what you want them (not just you) to do as a result of the meeting. After all, if they don't do anything differently, what was the point of the meeting?
Even if your goal is primarily to progress the relationship in some way - that progression needs to manifest itself in meaningful action. It may be something simple like providing more information, or making an introduction, or agreeing to a joint follow-up - but it needs to be something or the relationship really hasn't progressed.
The objective must be appropriate to the phase of your relationship too. Although your final goal may be to sell them your services, that's not likely to happen in the first meeting. Selling professional services takes time to build up the trust and credibility needed for the client to be comfortable hiring you.
A more appropriate first meeting objective is to identify the areas when you and the client could potentially work together, and to agree a follow-up to discuss them in more detail - with both of you doing "homework" to prepare for that meeting.
Drill to the Know and Feel
Having a clear meeting objective is important (and it's surprising how many professionals don't actually do it) - but on it's own it's not enough.
You also need to identify what it will take to achieve that objective in the meeting itself. This is where the "Know" and "Feel" elements come in to play.
If, for example, your objective is to get a follow-up meeting to prepare a proposal together, you'll need to think through what the client will need to believe to be comfortable agreeing to this.
The Know side is about the facts. They'll probably need to know that you have done work in this area before and the type of clients you work for. They may want to understand anything you've published in the field. Essentially you are establishing your credibility with these facts.
The Feel side is more about emotions - whether they feel comfortable working with you. Do you really listen to them? Do you have good rapport with them? Do you really understand their problems and unique situation? Getting this across is more a matter of how you interact with them than what you say.
How do you get your client to Know what they need to know and Feel what they need to feel? That's the art of business development.
Using Smart Questions
Firstly, recognise that you certainly won't effectively get across the right knowledge and particularly feelings through a long presentation about you and your company. That might get across some of the right knowledge - but it will create entirely the wrong feelings. Your client will feel that you're more interested in yourself than them - that you don't listen - and that meetings with you are going to be deathly dull.
One way to get across your knowledge and experience that doesn't come across as dull and self-promotional is to use short stories and anecdotes of similar client situations.
Most often, the route to both establishing the things the client needs to know, and in getting them to feel the right way about you is to ask smart questions. Being able to ask the right questions that really home in on tough issues and the underlying causes will establish your expertise far more than any claims you might make about it, qualifications you might have or awards you might have won. And by empathising with the responses and occasionally mentioning similar situations you've been in, you'll establish the right feeling of "he understands me" and "he's been in this situation before - he'll know what to do to help".
Most of your preparation for the meeting should focus on this element. You need to identify the smart questions to ask in the right sequence to to establish your credibility and build trust.
Close with your Commitment Question
And finally, of course, you must close by asking for that follow-up meeting, or the introduction you were looking for, or at the end of a series of meetings - actually asking for the business.
Sounds obvious: but so many professionals fail to do it. Fear of rejection kicks in and they close weakly without making a clear request for the action they're looking for. And so it doesn't happen.
But by planning and preparing correctly, you've set yourself up for success. You've asked the right questions to allow the client to Know and Feel what they need to to be comfortable making the commitment you're looking for. - 31979
About the Author:
Learn more about how to Find Clients and win new business. Stop by Ian Brodie's site where you can get a copy of the free ebook Get More Referrals and start growing your business.
