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Written by Justyn
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Tuesday, 01 July 2008 00:00 |
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I had a conversation with a colleague today that I thought might be helpful to some of you.
My colleague had several short (25 minute) meetings arranged with C-Level executives at an upcoming conference. He wanted advice on how to make the most of those meetings and how to structure the time. He shared that he was considering 5 Minutes for Rapport Building, 15 minutes for Q&A and 5 minutes for "About Us".
My advice was as follows;
- Skip rapport building. Not entirely, exchange the pleasantries etc. but you are going to build rapport with smart questions. They have several of these meetings scheduled and the rapport building will get annoying and transparent. If you want to be their friend, help them solve their problems.
- Your have two objectives: Build credibility (through smart questions) and agree on a follow-up meeting.
- Skip any "about us" information or elevator pitch as well. Smart questions and enlightened conversation will tell them what they need to know about you. Offer up front to send them the traditional marketing material prior to your next meeting (How presumptuous of you!).
- At the beginning of every meeting, pull out a folder with their name on it. In each folder will be 2-3 questions which highlight your understanding of their business, challenges and needs as well as making them think about something that they may not have considered before. You will likely be the only person they have met with who will take the time to do this. Pull out the folder while they are sitting in front of you.
- Time is short. Don't discuss any of your products/services until they have expressed a need for it. Otherwise it's just biting into your time. In fact, outside of closing the meeting with "After our brief conversation, I am excited about some of the ways we may be able to help you. I look forward to mutually exploring those ideas with you", I wouldn't even mention your products or services. You risk opening the sales info flood gate and that's not the purpose of this meeting.
- When appropriate, make one of your questions "What's keeping you from doing this internally?". These are Fortune 100's, they have the resources. The answer they give will be a roadmap of how you can add value and win that business. And ignore your instinct that tells you not to recommend any solution but your own. If they say "you're right, we should do it internally" they would have figured it our eventually anyway. This also creates significant credibility.
There's no agenda behind smart questions. It's simply a way to add value to C-Levels day. If you make them think about something that they haven't considered before that applies to their need, you will no longer be salesperson in their eyes.
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