How To Prepare For A Client Meeting

Clients are the life and blood of any organization. They drive in the revenue and help any business grow. Remember a business cannot function without the clients. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to have the perfect pitch for your clients at every client meeting. Going unprepared for a client meeting does not only reflect badly on you but on the company as well. For this purpose, here’s a quick checklist on how to prepare for client meetings.

Have all the facts and the numbers
Before going to meet with a client, make sure you have all the information necessary for the meeting. This includes the results of the past month, the target for the current month, quarterly analysis and a proper pitch if you are planning to present a new idea. If you have all the required information on your fingertips, you will be able to answer questions better, clarify doubts and convincingly pitch the new idea. It would also show that you are prepared for the meeting in all the ways possible.

Understand the product
This is a must for every meeting. Know your product inside out to clarify all the doubts. If you do not know a certain feature regarding the product, the clients would not be open to accepting it as well. Be brief while speaking about the product, however, never miss mentioning all the features. Highlight the key unique selling point about the product in the meeting but cover all bases from price to production value.

Have an agenda
Prepare an agenda for the meeting in advance. Compose a list of topics that need to be covered in the meeting to help keep the meeting on track. Include the topics the client would like to discuss and add the topics about which you need to speak with the client. Agendas will help cover all the important bases of the meeting and will help later while drafting minutes of the meeting as well.

Avoid small talk
Small talk is a nice means to start a conversation. But make it a point to keep the small talk to a minimum. Steer the conversation towards important and key issues especially when time sensitive issues are on the agenda. If the small talk is kept to a bare minimum, you can try to cover all the items on the agenda leisurely and make the best use of the time scheduled for the meeting.

The end goal
Make a note of the end goal of the meeting. What exactly are you trying to accomplish through the meeting and could be covered by calls and emails? Having an end goal will help you prepare accordingly and cover all the necessary areas. Clients also tend to have busy schedules, so give them a valid reason to make time and attend the meeting. The end goal also includes what the client would receive from the meeting and what the company aims to achieve through the meeting as well.