“Meeting of the Minds or Not!”

by Scott Weiss

President & CEO of Speakeasy Communications and Author of the Best Selling book “DARE!”

 You know the drill…executive gets ready for a big client meeting 30 minutes before he steps into the conference room.  He attends the meeting with two colleagues and afterwards, they throw one accolade after another at him like he just gave the “Kings Speech!”  But in fact what really happened, is a disorganized rant that left the client less convinced than more convinced, and the relationship in jeopardy.  It’s the best kept secret in corporate America!  Millions of executives giving presentations every day under the distorted perception they are significantly better than they really are, and billions in deals falling through the cracks as a result!

There’s a better way.

Executives who work hard to get into the mindset of their client, will have significantly more successful meetings and results with the added benefit of building trust in the process.  So how do you have a “meeting of the minds” with your clients?  It’s all in the “forensic preparation” conducted in advance of the meeting with this critical question driving the direction of the investigative work: “What’s really in the way of the client saying yes?”  Is it market conditions?  Is it budget constraints? Is it lack of understanding of the product or service?  Is it Trust? Or could it possibly just be me?

Investing the time and energy to find the answers to these questions is not that complicated or that difficult.  Someone close to the client knows the answers, and it’s your job to get them?  The reward is the holy grail for meeting preparation.  The ability to develop a message strategy that resonates deeply with the mindset of the client in such a way, that you get their business.  Anything else that you communicate, is just interference, and annoyance,  incredibly time consuming,  which no one has a tolerance for.

If there is one capability of high value in driving revenue for any organization, it’s teaching your team members how to prep for a meeting.  Executing the forensics where the discovery occurs, that allows you to create a compelling message strategy to have a “meeting of the minds” and get the client to say “yes!”