Rules for conducting a business meeting with clients that will lead to success

The main essence of conducting business talks is to create constructive discussions between two or more persons. In order to achieve positive results, the person who is going to the meeting needs to be properly prepared for the conversation: to gather as much information about the clients( habits, achievements, recent successes, etc.), set out the specific goals for which he aspires, andalso determine the style of clothing and behavior.

Next we will consider:

• Gathering information
  
• Image
  
• Making a positive impression for 5 minutes
  
• How to build a conversation?
  
• Correct presentation of your products
  
• Conclusions
  

Collecting information

In order to better know your customers - it is necessary to conduct a small study. It consists in collecting all kinds of information about this person or a group of people from different sources, which will be discussed in this article.

Customer site. The most priceless and priority source of information about a person is his own website. Usually, on such resources, people try to post as much information about themselves and their company. First of all, it is necessary to thoroughly study the title page of the site. After all, at first glance, it seems that only general information is provided there. On this page you can find out the role of this company or enterprise on the market, the terms of existence, the regions, where the services or products are presented, as well as the geography of the company.

Very interesting is the section "News".Some publish on this page world news, so as at least fill something with a void. In fact, information about the life of the organization should be published here: a few words about strategic policy in the future, information about new partners, reports on successful participation in various exhibitions and, of course, events that have occurred recently.


This section of the site, like "Partners", will allow you to get acquainted with the list of customers who cooperate with this enterprise. If among them you find at least a couple of companies cooperating with you, this can greatly help you in pressure on customers, during the negotiations. Thus, it does not hurt to receive recommendations or letters of appreciation from them. It is likely that the site will include information about the company's employees. In this case, you will have an opportunity to get acquainted with the information about the company's management, to study the field of their professional activity. Perhaps you can find common interests or points of contact that can be discussed at a meeting: fans of one sport, there are children, studied in some educational institutions and so on.

Social Networking. To date, the Internet gives us a number of new features that you( the sales specialist) do not need to be ignored. For example, a large number of people have got their own blog. The company's website may contain a link to a corporate blog, which opens access to new information. The head of the company can also have a blog. In the event that you managed to get Twitter rights, a meeting with which you have to - be sure to study all the information available there. Having found the person you need in different social networks( "Professionals.ru", "Facebook", "Classmates",( "In contact" and so on) - be sure to get acquainted with the activities of the groups and communities in which it is composed, as well as with the circlehis friends

Mass media The media stores a very large amount of information and information that can be used for their own purposes. If the company is concerned about its image, it always responds to attacks and accusations of competitors in time and, as a result, works closely with mass media(placing their interviews and videos on radio and TV, articles in newspapers and magazines) means that the management of the company values ​​public opinion and this fact should also be used in preparation for a business meeting.Pay attention to promotional materials. After all, having thoroughly studied the advertising tools used by the company, you will be able to find out about the goals pursued by management, as well as their welfare. Remember that the person with whom you are about to meet seriously will also use all these opportunities in preparation. In person, you can use information about motivating companies and promotions. All this will help to form a positive opinion of you as a person well versed in the business of your client, unlike many other managers trying to "shove" their goods as soon as possible. Against the backdrop of such people, you will look like a competent specialist, which promotes the formation of personal sympathy and trust between the head of the company and you.

Search engines. Do not forget that "search engines" can find a lot of useful information about the company's CEO and business in general. Simply enter the name of the company or company in the entry line and continue to page one by one, and you will be able to find important information about which you did not even suspect( company turnover, forthcoming lawsuits, etc.).

Image

Business style is generally accepted in a business environment. It is impermissible to wear lighthouses, shorts, open shoes, short skirts, jeans or sneakers for important meetings. But, as everybody knows, there are exceptions to each rule. For example, that negotiations would be successful( with good prospects) and give positive results( benefits in a relatively short time) - you need to dress a little worse than your interlocutor. Business style is the standard, but there is no need to be very zealous.


Remember that, for example, an expensive watch, dressed for a meeting with a stranger, will not give an impression of a good taste( as it should be), but of intentions to draw money from your client as quickly as possible, which will negatively affect the open and constructivecommunication. In practice, there are a large number of cases when people came to important meetings with the heads of large companies in sweaters with stretched sleeves, shorts or jeans. For one minute, imagine that you were in an expensive suit and met with the director of a large and successful company. Who will you appear in his eyes? Most likely, as a "disguised" duck! At such meetings you will have few chances to construct a constructive and productive conversation.

The way it is desirable to look when meeting with a specific client will help you find out the previous stage of preparation for a business meeting. Only by collecting and analyzing all the information about the client and his company - you can make the right choice. For example, if you concluded that your potential client, a very serious person, is fond of cars of elite class, actively engaged in charity, is in public organizations and political parties, attends various conferences and seminars, has held the position of CEO for 10 years -classic business suit( clean shoes, jacket, dark pants, light shirt).For a girl the black dress without any shiny accessories is quite suitable. Do not try to overload your appearance with extra "trinkets", everything should be "in moderation"!

If you have a business meeting with the head of a young developing company that delivers a wide range of clothes for young people to the market, and you have found out that your client prefers free style and is relatively young - it is recommended to dress more freely. Especially it will look like an addition to the conversation: You will emphasize your positive attitude towards the direction of development of its commercial activities.

If you learned from your sources that you are going to meet with a creative and extraordinary personality( this you will learn after studying the details of your personal life and various photos) - try to dress wonderingly. For example, stylish accessories, incongruous colors, a bright tie and everything else that will help you to appear before the interlocutor as the same unordinary personality in which he( she) can see his ally.

Make a positive impression for 5 minutes

Going to a business meeting - remember that you will only have a few seconds to make a good impression. If you do not have enough time, you will usually have five more minutes to fix it. Try to imagine the situation: there is a knock at your office, a person enters with a large bag and with a shout "Attention!" Tries to direct your attention( and other employees) to some book in his hand. What did you think about this person at that moment? Do you want your client to think the same about you? Hardly! Therefore, you need to think in advance of all your actions: how you will enter the door, what will you tell your business partners and so on.

As the speech in this article is about business conversations, we bring to your attention the following option. When you open the door, say hello to your client, calling him by his name and surname( or first name and patronymic), to see if this is the person you were going to meet. After that, you must introduce yourself, mentioning your name, position in the company, as well as the points that you have to discuss, and also inform your client that you agreed to meet with him at that time. Try in this period to establish visual contact with your interlocutor. If you see that the client is busy with securities - ask if he can now talk with you or he needs a little time to finish his current business. If a person is ready for communication - you can start.

How to build a conversation?

In order for your interlocutor to understand that he is dealing with a business man and a serious person, start by announcing the rules of the meeting. For example, you can say this: "The main goal of our meeting with you is to determine your current business tasks and to determine exactly how our company can help you achieve them. I propose to build a conversation in two stages. At the first stage I will ask you a small number of questions to understand the main priorities of your company, at the second stage - I will tell you which of them our company can help to sort out. I think that this kind of negotiations will be as productive as possible. Do you agree with me? ".After receiving the consent of the interlocutor - you can proceed to the negotiations themselves. If the client does not like your plan - specify what alternative he has to offer.

In order to correctly identify the needs of the business client, a good negotiator must perfectly master the methodology of correctly constructing the questions. This list can be pre-printed on paper and enter the answers of your client there or "keep" all the questions in memory and outline all the information obtained. Remember that the conversation should develop logically, thus, it is necessary to think very carefully about the order of all the issues. To prepare a list of questions, you can use the following template:

1. How long is your company on the market?
   
2. Who is in the target audience of your customers?
   
3. Which markets do you target( regions, region, city)?
   
4. What are the advantages over competitors to attract customers to your company?
   
5. How is your company different from its competitors?
   
6. What service providers do you cooperate with today?
   
7. Why did you choose this particular supplier?
   
8. Try to evaluate the performance of your supplier on a ten-point scale. What is your assessment?
   
9. What exactly does not suit you in the work of the current supplier?
   
10. In your opinion, what advantages should our company have, so that we could build long-term cooperation with you?
    

Remember that at the business meeting the most important is the stage of gathering information. Thanks to correctly selected questions, you can talk with your interlocutor and learn about all the problems and inconveniences that he has to endure. Thus, you will be able to understand whether you can help solve them and if you are confident in your products, you will have a pretty good chance of profitable conclusion of the transaction.

Correct presentation of your products

At the first stage, basically your client spoke, but only asked questions. Now you will have to speak. You can build further communication in such a way that the client would ask a lot of questions to clarify the points of interest and dispel their doubts, or so that he would remain silent all the time, as everything will be clear and he will agree with your words. Successful holding of the stage of presentation of your company's services is how you will be able to translate all the information that the customer just shared in his favor, focusing on the quality of services provided by your company.


For example, if your interlocutor complained about the quality of delivery of the current service provider( frequent order delay, resulting in "undermining" the client company's work) - it is necessary to emphasize that, in cooperation with your company, there will be no such situations, since the customer serviceworks smoothly and under the constant supervision of the control service, which( most likely) the current service provider does not. After all, if it were, then there were no such delays. In addition, you can note that the contract of your company indicates that in the event of delivery failures, the supplier will pay a penalty or provide bonuses as compensation. In other words, you legally guarantee your client compliance with all the terms of the contract, which will help to protect the client from risk.

Conclusions

To conduct a successful business conversation with potential clients, you need to go through several stages. The preparatory stage involves the collection and analysis of all kinds of information about a person's identity( with whom the meeting is to be held) and the company that he represents. With this information from the media, advertising sources and search engines can help, it will also be useful to visit the company's website.

When choosing clothes, you should adhere to the classical style, but if you have reliable information about the identity of the client with whom the meeting is to be held - the manner and style may be similar to it.

To create a positive impression in five minutes - read out the rules of the meeting, as well as ask as many situational issues as possible at the stage of gathering information from the interlocutor.

The final stage is the presentation, during which you set up the interlocutor that he will get more benefits when working with your company.