Follow Claire Blyth director of Red Setter‘s five tips to ensure your first business meeting is a success
Everyone who runs a B2B marketing agency knows just how important the first meeting with a potential new client can be. It is essential for agencies to have the skills to succeed in this complex sales area.
Here are five tips to ensure you perform well in these meetings and get that all-important second meeting:
1. Show respect
Meetings with decision makers are not easy to arrange, so when you have one in the diary make it a priority. Respect that these are busy people who have made time for your agency: don’t rearrange, cancel or rebook. Running a high pressured marketing agency, existing clients must always come first, but postpone or cancel enough new business meetings and you will be throwing away time, money and opportunities.
Once you have arrived, avoid the temptation to transform into a salesperson, you should avoid giving the impression that you are there to sell. No one likes to be sold to, but we all enjoy an expert listening to our needs and providing a good solution.
So, keep the presentation in your bag or on your laptop. Delivering it will make you look like a salesperson, almost certainly putting their defences up. At the very least a presentation will pigeonhole you. It is far better to leave your options open than to immediately give the prospect something to say no to.
See this introductory meeting as a fact-finding mission. Treat it as a chance to learn about the buyer’s needs and you will already stand out from the majority of your competitors. Demonstrating a genuine interest in their business shows respect for the client’s needs. This alone can begin to develop a cold prospect into a warm one.
2. Don’t make assumptions
To find out what this company needs prepare thoroughly. Invest time in online research, looking into previous and current marketing practices. Come into the meeting armed with a clear understanding of the challenges facing this company and some initial ideas for how your company could solve them.
Bear in mind that the processes and outcomes you are critiquing and offering to improve are probably the result of the hard work done by this senior executive. To begin a relationship criticising their work is rarely a good idea. What is more, it invites a simple rejection.
A more effective approach is to ask questions. Ask directly what challenges they face, what could be improved, what targets will they struggle to meet unless action is taken. Not all will open up immediately so you need to keep probing, trying to find the opportunity.
There will be an opportunity. These busy people are unlikely to agree to meet you unless there is something they think your agency can help with. They may not reveal it initially, but your job is to find out what it is.
3. Actively listen
In these meetings you should be doing very little of the talking. However, that does not mean you are passive during these meetings. You need to actively listen.
This involves thinking about what is said and using it to direct the conversation in the right way. Asking for clarification or amplification of a point does not make you look stupid or nosey, it makes you look interested and engaged.
Progressive questions help narrow the conversation down to areas of mutual interest, and just as importantly they build a rapport. They show that you are listening to, and understanding the answers, and that you genuinely want to know more about certain parts.
4. Be upfront and honest
How do you react when a buyer asks a direct question about your company? It might be accreditations, project management or the dreaded question about costs.
Do you see these questions as evidence that they doubt your ability to deliver or that you will be too expensive? Do you try to avoid answering, giving vague, non-committal answers?
If so, you are missing a major opportunity. Far from lack of interest, these questions are almost always loud and clear buying signals. They suggest that the buyer is comfortable, is impressed by what you have to offer, and is looking to overcome the final obstacles to deliver a brief.
Don’t blow this promising conversation with evasive answers. Be upfront about ball park figures on costs and what you can and cannot do. Evade them and you are simply alienating someone who has money to spend.
5. Keep moving forwards
These meetings should move forwards. You should begin by setting the scene and agreeing a shared objective. You should end with clear next steps and allocated actions.
Whilst many agency directors feel this is pushy, and will alienate the buyer, in fact it is simply giving the buyer what they want. They want a company to help tackle an issue – they wouldn’t have given you the time otherwise. So, take control of the agenda. Outline at the outset where you want to get to and then steer the meeting gently, but clearly, in that direction.
Above all else, ensure you leave with agreement on next steps – ideally a second meeting at which you will present your solutions. And after you have followed these five steps, they should.
