How to Plan & Run a Client Meeting Successfully

What are the best practices for running a client meeting? From preparation to follow-up, here’s what you need to know about getting your meetings off on the right foot.

One of the most critical things a salesman can master is how to conduct a good customer encounter. Understanding the aim of your meeting, establishing rapport, and participating in fruitful talks might be the difference between a good meeting and a waste of time. These guidelines will assist you in preparing for and planning your next client encounter.

1. Know why you’re having a meeting.

Client meetings come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with each encounter serving a distinct function. A clear understanding of why you’re inviting a customer to meet with you goes a long way toward ensuring your success and is an important part of sales management. In fact, you shouldn’t waste anyone’s time by holding a meeting if you can’t establish a clear reason for it. That implies having a goal that you can both specify and quickly assess whether or not it has been achieved.

The following are some examples of client meeting objectives:

• An initial meeting is one of the most crucial meetings since it serves as the basis for a solid relationship, whether it’s with a new customer or merely a hand-off between account managers. The goal of the first meeting should be to establish a connection and establish a solid relationship, which will make subsequent meetings more fruitful.
• A consultation is a sales meeting in which a salesperson attempts to understand the requirements of a customer or potential client via a discussion and a series of questions. Your goal as a salesman should be to understand rather than to sell. When you leave a consultation with the knowledge you can use to build a solution that meets your customer’s demands, you’ve had a successful consultation.
• Proposal: Presenting a proposal might seem like a high-stakes meeting. It’s vital to remember, however, that you’ve come this far for a cause. The main goal of this sort of meeting is to show the customer how your solution addresses the particular demands they’ve expressed and why it’s superior to the competitors.
• Regular follow-up and check-in meetings, particularly with your large clients, may help you find new sales prospects for upselling as well as resolve any existing problems. Meeting with your customers on a frequent basis provides you the opportunity to strengthen the customer connection, develop rapport, enhance customer loyalty, and expand your company.

At a check-in meeting, be prepared for anything. The consumer may be completely happy, or you may be inundated with worries and inquiries. It’s OK if you don’t have all the answers. Make a list of action items for the next meeting and arrange another meeting to resolve any difficulties.

2. Get to Know Your Target Market

Pre-call research is the next stage in preparing for a customer encounter. Pre-call research entails gaining a thorough grasp of the people you’ll be meeting. Meetings function far more easily when you have a comprehensive perspective of the account than if you come there unprepared.

If you’re meeting with a customer rather than a prospect, your preparation will be different, but you should always conduct your homework. This will provide you with the necessary knowledge to steer the dialogue. Take time to research the account, both in terms of their entire business and their history with your organization, if your appointment is a consultation with an existing customer.

If you’re having a first meeting with a potential customer, on the other hand, you’ll want to spend more time investigating the individual contact you’ll meet with, as well as their company. This will assist you in compiling a list of questions to ask and gathering the information you’ll need to address any needs or concerns they may have.

Do the following to prepare for a sales call with a prospect:

• Examine the data in your CRM: Other workers may have attempted to conduct business with the prospect before. Customer relationship management (CRM) software notes may be used to record conversations with prospects. This knowledge will help you make a better sales pitch. Always review your CRM history to see if there are any facts or information about the prospect.
• Do a Google search on your contact and their firm to learn more about them. Examine the company’s LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, website, and news releases. Sites like Crunchbase are a great place to start if you want to learn more about their firm.
• Make a strategy for the call: After you’ve done your homework on the firm, you should have a few discussion topics. Connect your understanding of their industry to the advantages of your solution. It doesn’t have to be a formal plan, but establish a list of topics you’ll talk about. This gives the call structure and offers you confidence.

The following items should be included in your preparation for a client account review:

• Establish an agenda: State the agenda at the start of the call—or, better yet, email it to them the day before. Your customers will be better prepared with a strategy since they will be able to develop their own talking points. The purpose of the call should be clearly stated in the agenda. You won’t get distracted and waste the client’s time if you have a goal.
• Examine your account: Know who will be on the phone. Make a list of stakeholders and get to know their connections. Examine all interaction notes to ensure you’re up to speed on the account. Make a SWOT analysis of your situation (SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). It will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to conduct the call.
• Obtain feedback from the customer: Ascertain that the customer feels heard. Inquire about what you might do better. To avoid churn, it’s critical to get tough criticism. Allow the customer to voice their issues, even if there have been severe difficulties in the account. After the customer has given their input, summarize it so they know you’ve paid attention. Then, based on that input, explain the actions you’re planning to take.

Keeping track of client meetings and their results is critical to your sales process, and a CRM like Salesforce may assist you in properly managing your customer interactions. You can handle leads and contacts and store all of your customer conversations in one place with the Essentials package, which begins at $25 per user, per month.

3. Be ready to answer questions when you arrive.

After you’ve done your research on the customer, it’s time to concentrate on what you need to get the most out of your time with them. What resources, for example, will you need to produce or bring to this meeting? Prepare the items or resources you’ll need ahead of time so they’ll be ready when you need them.

Here are some common client meeting strategies used by outstanding sales leaders:

• Pitch decks: The marketing team normally creates pitch deck templates to show the customer in a visual, informative manner how you can help them enhance their company. Make a pitch deck with your prospect’s logo on it. Personalization demonstrates that you did your homework and went above and above for the meeting.
• Other departments’ reports: This may vary depending on the data you need in your meeting and how your sales operations are set up. For example, you may discover that a report or a payment record would assist you with upsells and renewals, but owing to user restrictions, you may not be able to extract the relevant data from your CRM yourself.
• Specific marketing materials: If the aim is to cross-sell the consumer, bring a variety of marketing materials. When marketing materials are used to help explain more items, it seems more natural. Brochures and videos may assist customers in better understanding and making quicker purchasing choices.
• Other subject matter experts or vendors: Invite other subject matter experts or vendors to participate in your call. They’ll be able to provide more advice on how to resolve client problems. These might be coworkers from other departments or suppliers with whom you work. Demonstrating that you have enough backing aids in the development of credibility. Turn your coworkers become customer resources.

4. Maintain Control Over Your Environment

It’s important where you meet with clients. Varied sorts of meetings, in fact, benefit from different settings. If you’re doing a new client introduction call, for example, meeting with the clients at their office or place of business may help you better understand their company and create a more comfortable atmosphere. If you’re meeting to check-in, though, it could be more beneficial to meet for coffee or lunch at their favorite restaurant.

A lunch meeting off-site might also boost the likelihood that your contact will accept your meeting invitation. If you sign a new client agreement or upsell an existing customer, giving your prospect or customer the opportunity to have a complimentary lunch while chatting with you might be well worth the expense.

The idea is to choose a setting that will benefit your client meeting the greatest. This entails reducing distractions like noise and disruptions. It also entails deciding on the place that best suits your needs. This will put your customer at ease and enable you to have the kinds of talks that lead to positive results.

5. Establish a Positive Relationship

It’s critical to establish rapport with consumers in order to connect with them and encourage them to relax. Most salesmen, on the other hand, make the mistake of following a script for how to create rapport—you want to avoid asking the same cookie-cutter questions. Inject some personality into the conversation instead of talking about the weather or other generic icebreakers. Because the discussion will be mostly business-oriented, set aside at least two minutes to discuss something more personal.

Here are some pointers on how to create customer rapport:

• Be true to yourself: It may seem trite, but if you have no experience with sports and your customer is a major sports enthusiast, don’t attempt to connect to them on that basis. Inauthenticity is detectable, and it makes people uncomfortable. The more at ease you are, the more at ease the customer will be in your presence. Know what you’re passionate about and claim it, even if it’s not the same as the client.
• People will warm up to you if they believe you are sincerely attempting to assist them. It’s unsettling to be driven by your own desires. People purchase from people they like and have faith in. The sale will follow if they believe you have their best interests at heart.
• Tell it like it is: Being open and honest, even if it makes you uncomfortable, creates trust. Customers are wary of salesmen who tell them exactly what they want to hear. Being a straight shooter distinguishes you. Tell it like it is if your product lacks a feature that your competition has. If a customer requests something impossible, be honest about what your organization can and cannot do—don’t make promises you can’t keep.
• Most people assume they’re listening when, in fact, they’re simply waiting for an opportunity to comment. You won’t completely hear what they’re trying to say if you start formulating your answer in your thoughts while you’re listening. This is a crucial tactic for effective consultative selling, and it may include pausing and allowing what they say to sink in before responding. True listening is being able to repeat what the customer has stated. Develop your ability to listen intently.

6. Be Clear & Focused

It’s critical to keep the discussion focused on the measures that will get you closer to your goal. Don’t leave the customer in the dark, and don’t put off this stage until later. You want to lead the prospect through the buying process. Before you leave the meeting, make another follow-up appointment or phone them if necessary. If they don’t agree, let them know you’ll be following up to secure the next available time period.

Everything that occurs following the meeting is influenced by how you conclude it. Rather than leaving it up to chance, plan to end your session on time. Your wrap-up, like establishing the agenda, returns you to command. Next actions should be dictated so that the consumer knows when to anticipate further communication. This is particularly true during the first few sales calls. After the first contact, it might be difficult to get prospects back on the phone to seal the deal.

7. Keep in touch

What you do after a client meeting is just as essential as what you do during the meeting. Make a list of any follow-up chores so you don’t forget them. This is particularly critical if a customer has requested further information or has specific requirements that you intend to meet. Nothing undermines a good customer connection faster than failing to follow through on promises made during the meeting.

Consider utilizing an agenda template to standardize how you capture meeting notes. Include a section that lists the next steps, who is responsible for which tasks, and when each task is due. We’ve made a printable template to help you get started, so you can make your meeting as fruitful as possible.

It’s also a good idea to write a thank-you message after a meeting to show that you appreciate the client’s time and connection. The following day or the next day should be used for follow-up. When it comes to follow-up, time is of the essence. The following items should be included in your follow-up:

1. I’d want to express my gratitude for taking the time to meet with you.
2. Reiterating your enthusiasm for the possibility of doing business with them and moving on to the next phase.
3. A summary of the key topics covered in the discussion. Tell them when you’ll have the deliverables mentioned in the meeting if you can’t offer them right now.

Pro tip: It’s OK to send a follow-up email straight after your meeting, but a handwritten thank-you card is also a good option. Many salesmen ignore this in today’s digital world, so sending one helps you stand out. I once had a face-to-face meeting with a client who had a folder containing all of our printed communications—including my handwritten thank-you message.

5 Ways to Make Your Client Meetings More Productive

In addition to the processes outlined above, there are other best practices that may be used to improve the effectiveness of any meeting. Your time is precious, and your customers’ time is valued as well. Respect their time by remembering these pointers the next time you meet with a customer.

1. Determine the amount of research that is beneficial.

Your industry, product, and sales cycle will determine how much research you should do. Your research will be a little lighter for more transactional sales. Be mindful of your time management. When you’ve spent enough time investigating, you should be able to tell.

2. Be punctual at all times

Making an outstanding first impression is as simple as being on time for the meeting. Being late is a certain way to get things off to a shaky start. Timeliness demonstrates that you are dependable and value their time. Your prospects will be late for meetings, but that does not mean you should tolerate it. Never be late for a meeting that you have booked.

3. Keep a journal

Taking notes during the meeting allows for effective follow-up. The fact that you recalled the specifics will amaze your customer. Using notes instead of voice enables more active listening. You won’t be under any strain to recall anything that was said. Maintain steady eye contact while taking notes, whether the meeting is in person or through video conference. Plus, if you tell them you’re taking notes while talking, they’ll know you’re still paying attention even if you’re not looking at them.

4. Research Your Competitors

Experts in their field are required of salespeople. Being aware of your competition is a big part of that. Knowing your competition allows you to see how your solutions vary from theirs. You develop into an industry specialist who can actually lead a client to the best option. Knowing who your competitors are is an important aspect of being prepared. During your discussions, your consumers will almost certainly bring them up.

5. Concentrate on your worth.

Instead of criticizing your competitors, concentrate on your own distinct offering. You seem untrustworthy when you trash your competition. Negative feedback, whether the consumer realizes it or not, only reflects poorly on you. If a consumer tells you about a bad experience with a competitor, stay objective and concentrate on how you can assist them to solve their problems.

Conclusion

Face-to-face meetings are how salespeople spend the bulk of their time cultivating customer connections. Knowing how to get the most out of such meetings might be the difference between hitting your sales targets and losing out on opportunities to expand your company. This article will assist you in planning and preparing for your next client encounter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to plan?

The best way to plan is to have a schedule and stick as close to it as you can.