Mastering Business Meetings: 10 Tips to Take Meetings from Good to Great

Mastering Business Meetings: 10 Tips to Take Meetings from Good to Great

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 149 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, I'm going to give you 10 tips to take your meetings from good to great. It lies in the preparation. Stick with us guys. This is an episode you are not going to want to miss.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get. Expert business development advice, tips, and experiences.

And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, and business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business. Brought to you by Capital Business Development. CapitalBD.ca Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast. And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 149 of the Business Development Podcast.

Wow, 149 episodes quickly approaching 150 episodes, guys, of the Business Development Podcast. I still cannot even believe that we have come this far, you know, our 17 month anniversary of the show was last Saturday. So literally just coming off that weekend and my gosh, it's crazy, you know, I was doing the math and we put out on average nine episodes a month since the launch of this show.

And we have not missed a single episode, guys. We have not missed one day. Since we started this show back February 6th of 2023. And you know, a lot of you have been on this journey with me. A lot of you have been with me since, you know, episode 4 or 5. Whether you're a new listener or whether you've been with us since episode 4 or 5.

My gosh, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for tuning in week over week, month over month, year over year. We could not have kept going without your support and your encouragement. And the rockstar community that is the business development podcast, man, you guys are awesome. You guys are awesome. And you know, you're committed to what we're doing here.

You believe in authenticity and in making business better and in sharing great insights with the world. And you guys are all going to build a better business future than we ever had before. And, you know, I just, I'm appreciative of all of you. I'm thankful for the kind words for each and every one of you.

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I love it, but it's hard. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of preparation, making sure that we have amazing guests coming on. And we're constantly improving the show, but you know, when we get that feedback that what we're doing is actually helping people, the whole goal of this show was to improve the business community, was to help the business development people of tomorrow.

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And so we appreciate each and every one of our sponsors and everyone else who has contributed to what has become the Business Development Podcast. I could not do it without you. Show update. We are at 179, 756 downloads. We are quickly approaching 180, 000 downloads, guys. It's unreal. You can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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It doesn't cost a dime and it helps us immensely. The remainder of 2024 guys is looking really bright. As always, we have some rock stars coming on this show. And I just want to say once again, before we get into today's show, thank you for all you've done. This is the last kind of chance I'll have to talk with you guys ahead of episode 150.

But thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for sharing the show. Thank you for joining us and tuning in. And I look forward to many, many more with you. If you guys have questions regarding business development, you guys know, I'm an open book, shoot me a, shoot me a question, podcast@capitalbd.ca, or feel free, like I said, to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

If you reach out to me on LinkedIn, you know, if I can help you, I do. So feel free to shoot me a question. If I can help, I will. Okay, let's just get into it guys. So episode 149, I wanted to talk about 10 things to take meetings from good to great, everything we do in business development is designed to get us to the meeting, right?

And I get so many questions because I know the meetings start to become the real challenging point when we're being really successful in business development, we're probably booking a lot of meetings, but meetings can be one of these places where We struggle with and you know, I struggled with them for a long time, more so because I was struggling with meeting anxiety.

I guess it would be called performance anxiety or stage fright. Yeah, like I used to struggle with meetings. And so we're going to chat about that today. Really, what you want to do in a meeting, you know, to just keep it cut and dry is we need to ask the right questions to better understand our customers.

Everything we do in business development is to get to that meeting. So remember guys, everything we do in business development is to get to the meeting. However, if we do not prepare and handle meetings effectively, all that work can be for nothing. So today let's discuss how to take your meetings from good to great.

Before we get started, congratulations, you booked the meeting. Pat yourself on the back, right? Business development is about meetings. What do we measure? What do we care about? We care about opportunity. Opportunity Comes from meeting. So if you're at this stage, this is the stage you're struggling with, you're already killing it.

And so pat yourself on the back. If you can get to meetings on a consistent basis, your business development game is awesome. If you can just improve that meeting game, just an itty bitty bit. It's just going to skyrocket your level of success, right? Meetings can be challenging more so because when we're doing prospecting, a lot of it is a one way communication.

We're sending quite a bit information. We might be asking a quick question, but we're typically then asking, Hey, Let's get into a meeting where we can further discuss this. So meetings do tend to be the more challenging place for a lot of business development people. And if you can just follow a certain set of steps, if you can think about it and pre plan your meetings, you are going to have so much more success because if you know why you're going to the meeting and the outcome you want, and as much as you can find out about your customer, it's going to put you in such a better place to be able to carry that conversation and hopefully lead the questions.

to an outcome that you desire, okay? But our first step, as we go down this path, is to send a calendar invite, guys. So, you know, I can't tell you, I had a while ago, I had somebody want to book a meeting with me. And they didn't send me a calendar invite, and then they reached out to me on the day and said, Kelly, hey, I know we're supposed to have a meeting today, and I'm like, We're supposed to have a meeting today.

We've talked about this on the show so many times, right? I live by my calendar. First thing I do in the morning when I get up, check my calendar. What do I got going on today? It is so critical. And I live by my calendar. And if I do not get a meeting invite, I will not be attending your meeting. And really that should be you too.

And any of your customers, if they don't get a meeting invite, okay. It's absolutely critical that we are living by our calendars, that we are living Always sending our meeting invites the moment we schedule the meeting. Okay. So the moment you get off the phone, customers agreed, heck do it on the phone.

Customers agreed. Send them a meeting invite for the exact date and time and location that you guys discussed and just get it scheduled. Get it in the calendar. Follow up with that customer. If they haven't accepted the invite in a day or two. Make sure that you are keeping on it and that you are getting accepted invites, guys.

An unaccepted invite is not a meeting. If you send the invite, client doesn't accept it, it is not scheduled. It is not confirmed. We need confirmed meetings, okay? So, very first step when we're booking our meetings, send a calendar invite. Have all the details in there. Make sure the client accepts the meeting and it is confirmed.

The moment it is confirmed, you are good to go. But you need that confirmation. You need the confirmation. Without the confirmation, the meeting is not scheduled. Your job is not done. Okay? So I've seen a lot of people make this mistake. They book the meeting and they wait to send the calendar invite. Do not wait to send the calendar invite.

Get it done first thing. Okay? Two, make sure that anybody else who should be at this meeting is also getting a calendar invite. Like, you know, I always recommend guys, we're in business development. Business development is typically not the product and service experts, right? We're not the ones performing the work when the work is ordered or purchased.

I always recommend that in whatever meetings you guys attend as business development specialists, Bring a product and service expert with you, right? There's somebody at the operation, there's an operations manager, there's a project manager, there's somebody, there's a president, there's somebody at the organization who knows way more than you about how you are going to actually execute the work if you get it, okay?

Remember, you never have a guarantee of a second meeting. So if you have a meeting scheduled in the books, there's never a guarantee that you're going to be able to just. Get a follow up meeting. And so it's absolutely, absolutely critical that we are bringing anybody who should be at that meeting, anybody who could feel the hard questions, who could answer the hard questions on the spot.

In that meeting, you want to get as much ammo on your side as possible. So make sure when we're sending the initial calendar invite, we are also including any project management, any product or service experts at our company who need to be at that meeting or who would provide value at that meeting.

should be there. I know this is a bit of a, this is maybe a little different than what other people have told you, but understand that there's no guarantee of a second meeting. And since there is no guarantee of a second meeting, we have to make sure that the right people are always at that first meeting.

So send the invite, make sure that they accept as well. Okay. Number three, I want you to consider the location. The location for the meeting is important. You know, thank God we now live in a time where we have a neutral location called our homes , right? Most of us are working from a remote location. It does work as a neutral location.

Nobody really has a power advantage. In our homes through a zoom call, a team's call, a Google meets, whatever you're using. However, it's also not as personal. Okay. And so obviously we live in a time where those things are great. And I say, use them where you can, or where it makes sense. Although. If you are doing business locally and the opportunity is available for you to have an in person meeting, I do recommend those whenever and wherever possible.

It's hard, right? Like, you know, I get it. I get it. Stepping away from your desk for a lunch or whatever can be a challenging thing. But let me tell you, if your goal here is to close business and build relationships, you are not going to be able to do it better than in person. Even with the clients that I originally meet with on Teams, on, you know, on Google Meets or whatever.

Once we've kind of established a connection, if they're local, I do try to meet up with them. I do try to get in front of them and have a lunch meeting and really put a face to the name and have that person to person interaction to build an authentic relationship with them, right? The goal of everything we do should be to build authentic relationship that leads to repeat business over time.

It's hard to do it. through a screen. It's much easier to do it in person. However, the location does matter. There is a power imbalance when you have a meeting at a client's office. Okay. At a client's office. They are in charge, they have a power advantage, and whether they realize it or not, it's subconscious, it gets used, okay?

And so, and this is actually, this is just as equal for you at your office if a client comes to visit you. There's a power imbalance, the imbalance is in the salesperson or the business development specialist's favor. So, wherever possible, when you are looking to make those initial introductions, and exploratory discussions, have them at a neutral location, have them at a coffee shop, have them at lunch, have them at a golf course, whatever you do you, but at a neutral location where nobody has a power advantage and you can connect together as two equal humans, okay?

This is the best way to do an in person meeting wherever you can do it. Obviously, Once you've had a few of these meetings, let's say they become a client, them stopping in at your office or you stopping in at their office, not a big deal. But in the beginning, we want to alleviate any power advantage.

Okay, so let's do that in a neutral location. And number four, if you guys are going to lunch, or you're going to a golf course or whatever you're doing, Make reservations where possible. Make the reservation early and make sure that it's easy for your client to get to. Okay. So if you are on one side of a city, your clients is on the other side of the city, and you're going to go for lunch.

You know, figure out your client office location, find a restaurant that's close to them guys. We want to make this as easy as humanly possible for our clients, wherever possible. And so a nice courteous thing for you to do when you are booking a lunch meeting is to book it close to your client's office so that they can get finished with your meeting and they can get back to work.

It is the right way to do it guys. I highly, highly recommend that you don't. Make them come to you. Try to show that you're courteous and that you really want to make this as easy as possible for them. It is the right thing to do. And also guys, one little bonus tip here. If you ask somebody for lunch, you pay.

That's the rules, okay? Don't make them pay for lunch if you ask them to go to it. It's just a good rule to live by. It makes it very simple. I just think it's the right way to do it. Alright, number five. Consider travel time and plan accordingly to be up to 30 minutes early. I do recommend guys being 30 minutes early to your lunch meetings or to any of your outer meetings.

Why? That 30 minutes is really, really nice. One, who knows? Maybe you're traveling from a long distance. Like, you know, I live in Canada. I live in Edmonton. There's a huge distance. It's three and a half hour drive to the nearest large city. Okay. So if I'm going for meetings in that city, I have, you know, three to three and a half hours to get to the location.

And then I still like to give myself a little bit of time, just in case something happens, I hit traffic. I want to be prepared. I want to be there ahead of my client, okay? And so, getting to the location 30 minutes early is a great goal to always aim for. If you do, by some chance, actually get to show up 30 minutes early, it's great prep time.

You can sit down, you can review your notes, you can review the information on your customer, you can review the talking points that you might want to touch on, you can bring out your notepad and start making notes. Man that 30 minutes preparation, it goes a long way if you use it. And so one of the things that I always recommend is get to your location early wherever possible and give yourself enough time to get set up.

Do that last little bit of review. Think about any any questions or probing questions you might want to ask this customer. Do any more corporate research or any more customer research based on the person you're meeting. And be extra prepared. There's nothing wrong with being too prepared. There's no such thing as being too prepared, okay?

All right, number six. Know the goals of the meeting ahead of time. A meeting with a desired outcome is always more effective. Also, always have a secondary desired outcome, okay? It's always good to have a goal, right? We always want to have a goal. If you have a goal when you're going into a meeting, there's a pretty good chance you're going to achieve that goal.

However, if things go awry, it's a conversation, it's a two way street, and things do not always go as planned, the opportunity does not always present as planned, that's fine. Have a secondary option. Maybe the secondary option is, if this meeting doesn't go well, I just want to make sure that we can lock down another meeting in two weeks.

Work to lock down that meeting in another two weeks at the end of this meeting, but figure out what your best alternative option is and always go into a meeting with obviously your main goal or your main objective, which for most of us is probably to close a new client. But if that does not go to plan that day, what's the next best thing that can happen?

And go for that. But if we go into it without a goal or without a plan, we usually leave with nothing. We usually leave without an outcome, without anything. And so if you go into it with a goal, you are always going to have a better outcome than if you don't go into it without some type of goal. Okay, so know your goal, know a secondary goal if the first one doesn't work out, and very likely you're going to get one of them.

Number seven, get your marketing materials prepared ahead. Remember bare minimum is your business cards, but you guys know, I talk about this on the show all the time. Brochures are not dead, especially not physical brochures. Make sure that you bring with you brochures, wherever possible. Make sure that they meet the client.

They either speak to the client, their specific industry. You know, with some of the companies that I've worked with, we have a general brochure, which is the main overview of the main company and all the services they provide. And then we create something that we like to call cut sheets. And what they are is they're industry specific brochures.

They're one page, maybe two pages they insert into our main big brochure package. And what they do is they speak to the individual industry. So what I'm saying here is if you are, for instance, going to an energy company meeting, you want to have an insert that speaks to what your company can do for an energy company.

What do you do to serve oil and gas? What do you do to serve, you know, hydroelectric or whatever it is you guys are dealing with. If it's the other way around and you're marketing to a mining company and your services apply there. Have a cut sheet on how your services apply to the mining company, but you always want to speak to the customer.

You want to speak to the customer in a way that they can relate. And so the more targeted that we can create the marketing material, the more that we can gear it exactly towards the type of customer we're after, the more effective you're going to be. So if you can bring marketing material like this to your meeting, I recommend it each and every time.

Have your business cards, have your marketing material, always have something to give your customer. You can't ask for something unless you give something first. So a brochure and a business card is pretty much mandatory. We make sure that if I have them available, I always have them with me at every single meeting.

And it just gives you something to give them. Usually they'll review it during the conversation and it also can open up discussion. Based on your products and services and how they apply to that customer. So it's just a nice thing to have, guys. If you're not bringing brochures with you, I get it. We live in a digital time.

There is still a place, though, for physical brochures and in person meetings is definitely, definitely that place. Number eight, guys. Remember, arrive early. Do some research ahead of the meeting. Know as much about the person that you are meeting as you can find. OK, we live in the information age. If you are meeting with somebody in business, There is like a 99.

999 percent chance. You are going to be able to find them on LinkedIn, on a Google search, on the internet, their company. All that information is available for you to search. Don't be that person who didn't even look up the company. Don't be that person who didn't check out the LinkedIn profile of the person that you're meeting with.

Know as much as you can ahead of the meeting. There's zero disadvantage to this, guys. There's nothing but upside to knowing as much as you can possibly find about your potential customer, your potential prospect, their company, their needs, what challenges they might be facing based on the type of company they are.

These are all things that are readily available to you with a quick Google search or a quick LinkedIn search. Please, please, please, please, please do your background work ahead of the meeting. Check out the customer. Check out the company. Do all these things before you end up in that room. And it'll give you stuff to talk about.

It'll give you a better understanding about who is the customer. What do they really do? What are the services and products that you have that might actually meet that need? What challenges might they be facing based on the type of industry they are? These are all conclusions that you can find ahead of your meeting.

And so do it guys. Do your background research. Do your target research ahead of the meeting. Do not be that person who didn't even bother to look. That is a rookie mistake. And in 2024 and beyond, it's just mandatory. Look them up. Learn as much as you can. If you can't find anything, fine. But the odds of that are slim to none.

Nine, guys. This might be one of the more important ones of this entire chat. We want to be genuinely curious, and we want to ask questions about our customer, as well as build an authentic connection, okay? We are people first. Focus on that. We are people first. Guys, you know, anybody who goes to a lunch meeting, whether a CEO, a purchasing manager, a business development specialist, we are people first.

We are people first. We are our job second. I know sometimes it can get incredibly blended. I get it. But the reality is we have likes, we have fears, we have personal things we love. We have families, we have vacations, we have motorcycles or other activities we love to chat about. Don't be afraid to ask people about who they really are.

Don't be afraid to go deep. Don't be afraid to really try to get to know your customer because Anytime you do that and they accept, it just builds more authentic connection between you two, which will lead to a much better business discussion later. Okay. It's very hard to talk to people about real business challenges if they will not open up to you.

And so building authenticity, building trust, showing your vulnerabilities, having them show some of theirs is a recipe for success. It's a recipe for success for you. The customer and whatever business you guys do in the future. And so do whatever you can to open those people up. So they talk about their personal lives.

They talk about the things they love, the last vacation they had. The business will always come. Focus on them. Focus on getting to know them as a person. Do they like their job? How did they end up in this position? Most of the people you're meeting with, that's their career. They've been there a long time.

They've been doing that position for many years, maybe decades. Ask them about it. Ask them about their time, their career. How did they end up in that space? People love to tell their story. Let them tell their story. Ask questions that allow people to tell their story and watch your world change. Okay. Ask lots of questions and listen very, very carefully.

Remember, I've talked about this many times on the show, guys. I didn't get good at business development until I learned to stop talking. And I know that sounds really bad a little bit. I still talk a lot, obviously on this podcast, but. The reality is when you were in conversation with somebody, the goal for you should be to learn as much as you can about that person while saying the least you possibly can.

Because the more that you can let them talk, the more trust it builds with you. The more they enjoy the conversation with you. Give people the opportunity to tell their story without interruption. If you have questions, wait. Wait, don't be afraid to write them down even as you go, guys. I talk about this all the time.

It's, it's literally the bonus tip. Have your notepads, right? Make sure that you're writing notes along the way, but don't be afraid to write down a question you have while they're talking. But do not interrupt them. Do not interject yourself. Let them finish their train of thought. Let them finish. And while they do that, listen intently and be able to, be able to truly understand what they are trying to say to you.

Because this is a superpower. And I didn't even realize it until I was, honestly, I'm almost embarrassed to like admit, but it took me many years before I realized how important it was. to just listen to people and let them talk and you would be surprised how many times the people have reached out and said, Kelly, you're really great at conversation.

You're, you're really amazing at conversation and business development. And the ironic thing to it is I probably said about 10 to 20 percent of the words during the entire conversation. Most of what I was doing was asking probing questions and listening. Do this. It will change your world. It'll make your customers like you more.

It'll make you a better business development specialist because you're actually understanding their needs. Most people will tell you exactly what their challenges are and exactly what they're looking for. You just have to give them the opportunity to do so. Okay. Number 10. Always end a meeting by asking these five magic words.

What. are the next steps. Guys, I want you to save these words until they are drilled into your brain. I want them to become so automatic that in you go home at night and your wife or your husband are having a conversation with you and it ends and you say, okay, what are the next steps? It needs to be that automatic.

Really guys at the end of every single meeting, whether it be an internal meeting, whether it be an external meeting, a client meeting, A coaching session, whatever it is you're doing, ask, what are the next steps? It will change your life. It leads into what is next. It leads into the customer literally telling you, okay, I'm going to go back to the office and I'm going to get you an RFP, or I'm going to get you on the vendor list and we'll go from there.

Or we're going to set up another meeting here in two weeks. But if you do not ask that, you will not get that outcome. You have to ask what's next. You have to lead it into the next opportunity. That is your job. That is your job as a business development specialist, as a business owner, as a CEO, as anybody attached to a business meeting.

It is your job to lead it to the next step. To take it to the close. You have to ask for what's next. You have to ask for what you want. You have to be brave. But if you are brave, you will succeed and you will get more success than you could have ever, ever imagined. And for our bonus tip, I would like you guys to always have a padfolio or a notepad with you at all times, at all meetings.

Guys, I get it. It's 2024. We want to use our laptops. We want to use our phones. We want to use digital notes. Transcribed There is no replacement. There's no replacement for a physical notepad. It does not exist. And so if you are not utilizing a physical notepad on a daily basis, please start doing it.

Start bringing them with you to your meetings and take notes during the meetings. Nobody is going to say, I don't want you to take notes. They may say, I don't want you to record this conversation. They're not going to say, I don't want you to take notes during this conversation. There is nothing wrong with bringing a notepad.

If anything, what it does is it shows that you genuinely care about detail, that you genuinely care about solving this person's challenge. And it gives you detailed notes that when you get back to the office and you haven't recorded this, so you're not going to auto summary it, you're not going to be able to easily transcribe it.

It's going to give you some detailed notes that you can ultimately work backwards from, put into your CRM and have that data for later, or upload it in and create digital notes. But the reality is you need to be able to write down. information about the meeting. You need to be able to show that you are in detail, noting the customer challenges and what they might need and how you might be able to solve that.

Trust me, start bringing notepads, padfolios, something that you can write in to all of your meetings. I highly recommend padfolios. And the reason that I highly recommend padfolios. You can have your business cards, your brochures, and your notepad in one itty bitty, easy to use package that you can literally leave in your car.

You can leave it in your car, leave it in your truck, and you have it available to you at any time. Padfolios are amazing. I've been using them for over a decade and I do not plan to stop using them anytime soon. So please do get yourself a padfolio. Get yourself a notepad and make sure that during meetings, all critical meetings, and heck, all the time, have them with you.

Notepads will change your life. I live by one on a daily basis. Everywhere I go, I have a notepad. And so I would highly recommend that you utilize one as well. Remember, the difference between a good meeting and a great one lies in your preparation. Plan ahead and watch your success rates soar. That takes us to the end of episode 149.

Once again, thank you so much for sticking with us. I love doing this show. I love that you're here listening. I love that you join us here on a weekly basis. And like I said, if you have any questions regarding this episode, don't hesitate to reach out to me podcast at capital BD dot C A or. Get in touch with me on LinkedIn.

Follow the business development podcast, follow my page, and I look forward to connecting there. Shout outs this week, Liz Ryan, Marcus Chan, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Zacharias Lloyd, Nate Simpson, Adam Kimmel, Lasse Joergensen, Susan Poseika, Gary N, Govind Khosa, and Bryan Hayes. Until next time, this has been the business development podcast, and we will catch you on the flip side.