and 4 questions to ask yourself afterward.
by martin bissett
business development on a budget
you’ve done all the marketing to bring new opportunities; you and your partners are confident in the value you need to offer; your pipeline is filled out and you have done your a.c.c.o.u.n.t.s. so what’s next?
more on business development: the five fastest ways to kill a new opportunity [video] | use this spreadsheet to evaluate prospects | before the sales meeting | lowballing is undervaluing yourself | do you have a pipeline or just a list? | overcome recurring fee apathy | 5 ways to make selling easier to swallow
now you need to go and meet with the prospect for the first time. this is a huge step forward, but many professionals also find the first meeting a challenge. that challenge can be overcome by having a system in place and following it.
here are your steps to success in the first meeting.
as soon as you have booked the meeting, confirm it in writing with the prospect. reassure the person that it is simply an informal discussion at this point, so that he or she feels no urge to change their mind and cancel the meeting.
on the day of the meeting, or perhaps the day before, confirm. do not, however, just ask if the meeting is still on, because that opens the possibility of cancellation. instead, call to say you are on your way, or ask for directions to the parking lot, treating the meeting as a fait accompli.
be punctual. allow plenty of time to get to the meeting venue, or perhaps even arrive early. take time to observe the state of the business premises, the kind of cars in the parking lot. this will give you some idea of what you might find inside.
once inside, make your inside observations. did people know you were coming? were you greeted in a friendly manner? were you offered tea or coffee? do the people there have smiles on their faces? are they rushing from place to place? are there many empty desks? these are all indications of the state of the business, and a precursor to the possible outcome of the meeting.
open the conversation in a way that puts the client at ease. you might have noticed something on your way through the offices you can mention – perhaps family photographs, or indications of a particular hobby or pastime. make sure you have a few possible starter questions at your mental disposal to use as appropriate.
guide the conversation to draw out the information you need in order to gauge how helpful you can be to this business. now you can move toward ending the first meeting by scheduling a second meeting in the diary. don’t be intimidated by this step, as it should follow as a natural progression of the conversation. you might, for example, say something like, “based on what we’ve discussed today, i can see it might be worthwhile for us to explore further in another conversation. i’d like to go away and think about how we might best assist you, and then i can put together a proposal document for you and any other appropriate colleagues. in preparation for that, could we book a time now for us all to get together to discuss the document? it should take me a week or so to prepare the document, so beyond that point when would be a good time for us to meet again?”
this is a natural lead-in to the next appointment, and if all goes well the date will be scheduled. if there is pushback, however, that might be the first sign that they may not be willing to go further at this stage and that the conversation was purely exploratory on their side. if they put up barriers, such as an upcoming holiday or business event they need to prepare for, don’t let that faze you. simply press for a date after that time. this gives you the date you were looking for, and also gives them the psychological comfort that they had some control over what is happening. it’s a win-win.
essentially, that’s all that needs to happen in the first meeting. if you put all these steps in place, you will be in the top 5 percent of accounting firms in the world as far as business development efforts are concerned – and that’s a good place to be.
business development tasks
schedule specific, non-interruptible time in your diary to debrief yourself after the first meeting by answering the following questions:
- do i believe there is any need for my firm to assist this potential client?
- what have i seen in my career or dealt with on behalf of my clients that is relevant here?
- what do i think will be the top priorities for this business?
- did i go in with the right frame of mind, prepared, in good time and upbeat?
- debrief all relevant stakeholders in your firm at a short, prescheduled meeting.
- dictate a thank you letter as soon as you get back to your office, or even in the car at the prospect’s premises.
- make sure the letter contains something to look forward to as well as the agreed actions.
one response to “how to prepare for the first meeting with a new prospect”
franklin sapiro
the first meeting with potential clients, business partners and customers are the key events that must be used and prepared as well as possible, because this event will be the first company in achieving business transaction or partnership agreement, to boost growth and business development.
so, we have to prepare all the documents supporting the needs of enterprise infrastructure that includes the company’s business plan, capital structure, business partnership document (when we become distributor of products renowned foreign companies), information power of product quality and comparable data on a competitor’s product, quality of service, and other matters related to the meeting.
so we have to to be proactive to support the success of meeting was to “lead” in a business deal, like find out about the product information has been used by the candidates, the constraints they face during this time, so that when the meeting took place, was able to answer the needs of their business and there is agreement business.
so this meeting into a meeting that produce for the company and not into a meeting in vain.