Meeting new clients is both exciting and daunting. It’s important to nail as many of those meetings as possible because if you can’t impress people and make them want to work with your company, how will you ever make your business as successful as you want it to be? Making clients sit up and listen isn’t as hard as you might think. Your nervousness and lack of confidence will only hamper you and hold you back, so it’s time to start learning more about how to get this right.
To help you out, we’re going to talk about the things that matter more than anything else when you’re missing with potential clients for the first time. There’s nothing particularly complicated about the things you’re going to learn about, so don’t be daunted by any of this stuff. The sooner you pick up the right knowledge, the sooner you’ll be able to start clinch clients far easier. So read on and make the most of each point that we make when you’re meeting your future clients.
Their First Impressions of Your Business
What those potential clients see when they first walk through those doors will have a big impact on whether they will end up working with your business or not. First impressions are notoriously difficult to change, so you don’t want to let them slip away as soon as they enter your offices. They should walk into a vibrant workplace where people are working and being creative, and they should see impressive tech and all the kinds of things expected of a modern business.
The Reception They Get at the Front Desk
It’s important to make sure that the people who arrive at your business to meet with you are greeted in the right away as soon as they get there. Your receptionist should be aware of who you’re expected so that they don’t treat them like nobody in particular. They should be treated as if their arrival is greatly anticipated and very important to your business because it should be. And it will show them that you do really want to work with them.
Your Competence
How you start the meeting, how you work with people and how you show off your own talents and competences will all have an impact on whether those potential clients want to work with you. If you don’t show people that you’re a smoother operator and someone who can get things done in the right manner, why would anyone want to work with you? That’s something you definitely need to think about ahead of any future meetings with these kinds of people.
The Positivity You Radiate
A bit of positivity really can go a long way when you’re meeting with potential clients and trying to sell your business to them. They will respond to you much more readily if you’re willing to show your enthusiasm and speak in positive terms. If you seem down and gloomy, that definitely isn’t going to make people want to do business with you, is it?
Internal Security
This is something that is so often forgotten about or ignored but it’s important than you act carefully and think about security. When you’re letting people in and out of your business premises, it’s essential to have a record of who is going in and coming out of the business and at what time. You should also create visitor badges or cards that can be picked up on entry and handed back upon departure from your premises.
How You Listen to Them and Their Needs
You need to be a good listener because who would want to work with someone who doesn’t listen to their needs. It’s vital to be attentive to the specific needs and desires of the people you want to work with. It’s important to look carefully at the individual’s client situation because no two situations are the same. If you take a generic, off the shelf kind of approach to things, it will show your potential clients that you don’t really care that much about them.
The Small Details
The little things often matter more than most people realise when you’re meeting clients. People remember the small things, like whether you gave them a drink or made them comfortable when they first arrived in the meeting room. You should also give them a branded item to take away. You can learn more about doing things like that by browsing ideas online. A branded product will give them something for you to remember you by in the weeks and months that lie ahead.
Delivering a Pitch Without Being Too Full On
You’re going to have to pitch your business to the people meeting you because if you want to have them work with you in the future, they’re going to have to be convinced by what you’re offering. However, this is a fine balancing act and it’s not always easy to get right. You don’t want to be too full on because it is possible to overwhelm the client and make them walk away feeling a little weirded out by the whole experience. That’s obviously not what you want.
How You Part
When that meeting comes to an end, you want to have a good idea of the client’s feelings and where they stand with this relationship going forward. But at the same time, you don’t want to put them on the spot and make them feel like they’re under pressure to offer you an answer right away. Don’t just let them walk away while you’re still completely in the dark regarding what happens next because that’s not a good idea.
Meeting new clients is something that will help to make or break your business. If you don’t make the right breakthroughs during client meetings, you will struggle to help your business progress to the next level and beyond. Clearly, that’s not what you want to happen, so make the most of the ideas mentioned here.
