Most client meetings are lost before they ever start due to an unsuitable atmosphere, reactive positioning, and too much focus on the client’s insecurities rather than a focused strategy. Good client meetings are not about making yourself look good – they’re about creating a positive experience for the client during their time with you and when they leave.
Make sure to start with questions, not slides
The worst thing you could ever show in your first five minutes is a history of your company, an overview of your offerings, etc. They are not there to hear a general overview of your business. Your job for those first thirty minutes is to make the client feel that their problem is the main focus and that you understand how to help solve it.
That is also your discovery period. Ask smart, pointed questions that help them identify what the real problem is. Explore the pressure that led to whatever surface-level issue is cascading down, the number of people in the shop who are feeling it, and what will happen if it goes unresolved before the third quarter. One: you get information. Two: you subtly remind the client that you are a consultant, not a vendor, by putting them in the mindset of defining their issue rather than talking about your capabilities. When you finally show a slide, they’re already subconsciously agreeing with most of it because they helped shape the thought process
Listening to the client in this stage is also valuable. Do not type while they speak. Make eye contact. Wait to respond until after they’ve finished their point. This communicates that you’ve just comprehended something, not that you’re simply waiting to say something yourself.
Control the room before the meeting even starts
Where you hold the meeting matters far more than most people give it credit for. First impressions bias the entire conversation – clients will size you up within the first few moments based on how comfortable and competent you appear, and a disheveled coffee shop or home office with barking dogs is hard to overcome with good slides, no matter how much budget went into them. Local professionals and remote teams looking into cowork office mn options can secure a conference room at a coworking space rather than at either of their offices, and that is always the best option: a clean, neutral, professional room with all the presentation tools needed will project a level of legitimacy before you’ve even said anything.
The neutrality is also valuable. The stress is taken off of hosting the meeting on someone else’s turf, and that is a massive advantage. They don’t feel the pressure to impress or to put their best foot forward when they’re not in your house, especially if their boss and/or colleagues are there for the meeting. If you are in their house, they might feel the need to balance their thoughts between “how good am I doing here as a professional?” and “what else needs my attention while the meeting is ongoing?”
You and the client are now on the same level. This is how you want to start.
Build the agenda to eliminate objections before they come up
About 40% of meetings that are held in person lead to a close, compared to only about 20% for digital meetings, according to Hubspot. The value of being able to meet someone in person is massive… but it’s wasted in most cases, simply because most teams do not take advantage of the opportunity to control the conversation’s flow. Letting the client take control simply because they feel more comfortable in their own space is not wise, especially if you want to maximize your odds of closing.
Instead, send your client an agenda for the meeting in advance and be clear about what your expectations are. Not only does it show you respect their time, but it also gives everyone a baseline to work off of. Second, most objections that come up (including those raised during 95% of our cold outreach conversations) follow a pattern. Every discovery meeting has some issues that come up in it nearly every time, even if you don’t realize it. Whatever these issues are, you should address them before the client brings them up to you.
If price is one of them, it’s probably because scope and value are underlying reasons for the objection. Address those and the price concern will largely resolve itself. If onboarding timelines are consistently derailing the deal, talk through your onboarding process while you’re in the discovery meeting rather than waiting until it’s too late.
By actively addressing these issues, you reduce the chance that they will become sticking points and also reinforce the fact that you’re experienced enough to know what they’re thinking. It can serve as a form of social proof without even having to quote case studies or testimonials.
Use case studies and testimonials in the same vein, but think of them less as a trophy case and more as a direct response to the issues the client may be experiencing.
Say, “We’ve worked with many companies in a similar situation to yours, and here’s what got in their way and here’s how we got past it,” and you could have a much stronger meeting than someone who showed an entire PowerPoint slideshow of their clients.
Lock in a commitment before you ever leave
Saying,”We’ll follow up with you,” leaves too many doors open and is ultimately just an empty gesture. People sign up for whatever sounds good to them in the moment and forget about it later, and no one’s calendar gets unnecessarily crowded by vague commitments. Commitments that matter are scheduled on calendars and acknowledged in writing, so make sure to get one of those in place before the meeting concludes.
A follow-up call with a specific time, a deadline for proposal feedback, and an introduction to a decision-maker for the following week are all commitments that give the client a clear next step. Not only are they more likely to honor these than an abstract follow-up, but they’re also much more likely to agree to them in the first place. Even if you’re not ready to commit to a specific time, getting on their calendar is a must. The more clearly you agree on small next steps together, the easier it is to build momentum toward a final decision.
Send a recap with specific next steps within 24 hours
Your follow-up is not just a nice thing to do. It is absolutely essential. Sending a recap and schedule of next steps after your meeting is necessary to set the tone for your future conversations. Keep it brief and to the point – the key decisions made in the meeting and next steps to be taken should be outlined in a simple note to the client.
It shows them your professionalism and makes them aware of how things are moving forward, which is crucial to keeping the conversation alive and well. The meeting has to happen first, of course, but the follow-up call is what makes everything else possible.