How To Make It Out Of A Client Meeting Alive

Client meetings might send your stress levels soaring. Perhaps the mere mention of these events is enough to raise your heart rate and give you sweaty palms. Don’t panic though, help is at hand. The following five tips should help ensure you make it out of these meetings alive - and hopefully with a better outlook for your business.   1) Make sure your office sends the right signals   If these meetings are taking place in your office, you’ll need to make sure this space looks the part. At the most basic level, this means kitting your workplace out with comfortable and stylish furniture. For example, you’ll need to ensure your reception area is dressed to impress, and your boardroom should be fitted with an attractive meeting table and plenty of seating. Also, before your visitors arrive, take a little time to ensure that your premises are clean and tidy.   2) Do plenty of prep   Make sure you’re fully prepared before your guests set foot through your doors too. For new clients, this means doing in-depth research to ensure you know exactly who they are and how they function. Ask yourself what they may want from you and what you have to offer them. For existing clients, you’ll need to recap on their accounts and make sure you’re aware of any issues they might raise.   3) Be ready with time to spare   Being late for a client meeting is a sure-fire way to get off to a bad start. Even if you have a perfectly legitimate reason for failing to turn up on time, this won’t cast you in a good light. So that you’re not caught out by delays on the roads or by previous meetings that run over, schedule some spare time before these gatherings. This will also give you a chance to go over your notes and get prepared.   4) Follow an agenda   You should do your best to make your clients feel relaxed and at ease during these sessions, but don’t devote too much time to small talk. If you’re not careful, you can end up spending hours in discussions without actually reaping any business benefits. For this reason, it’s a good idea to stick to an agenda, and ideally you should email this to people before the meeting takes place.   5) Take notes   At the start of the meeting, ask your client if it’s OK if you take notes. This will show that you’re paying attention to what they’re saying and it could give them greater confidence in your ability to deliver. Don’t bury your head in a computer though; it’s important to engage with your client and to be attentive when they speak. If you have more than one representative from your firm in the meeting, designate someone as the note taker. This will free up others to engage more fully with your client.   There’s no getting around the fact that these meetings can be tricky, especially if you’re dealing with individuals who have very high expectations. However, as long as you plan the events carefully, you should be able to make the most of them.