Welcome Professionals…
…today I had a great client meeting with a surprising outcome. I met the CEO of an outsourcing provider that offered me in the end to promote my service to his clients. On my way back to the office, I was thinking why it went so well. From my point of view the main driver was that I let the client lead the talk.
I must confess that the temptation was very high to lead the conversation by myself. We met for the first time, until then we had only emailed and talked on the phone. I had initiated the meeting in order to sell my services to this company. I was pretty sure that I had a very compelling story, I had prepared thoroughly and I had great references to boast with.
When we started the conversation, he asked me: “So you are an engineer?” – “Yes, indeed”, I replied, then he already jumped in “Me too. You know, we have that in common!” And on he went. For the next 45 minutes I was only able to throw in a few words which were picked up by him as key words for his following elaborations.
It was fun listening, I learned a lot about him, the company, the strategy, his competitors, and so on. I think I managed to demonstrate by my body language and my few drop-ins on his topics that I was listening closely. Maybe he even heard about one of my references that I was squeezing in. Maybe not.
In the end, he thanked me for taking the time to come around. He concluded that it was a great and interesting conversation. Then he said: “You know, I get asked frequently by my clients if I can recommend somebody for these specific projects. I will refer to you next time now that I know that you have the expertise!” I was stunned.
This meeting served as a good reminder for me: Let the client lead the talk!
Wishing you fruitful conversations
Malte
Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!