By Suditi Jindal
Influencing our clients, customers or anyone for that matter, is an important skill, rather an art. It is a competency that serves us well in every domain of life, be it professional or personal. And what if we could influence these very important people in our life within the first two minutes of a meeting? It will be jackpot, isn’t it?!
I am reproducing the foolproof technique that has worked for me and also for the numerous sales executives, business owners and other individuals from diverse backgrounds, over the years.
There are only three things that we need to do as preparation before the meeting with a client or a customer.
First is to contact the person who referred us to the client. We must extract as much information as possible, about this client and his/her requirement from our contact. If the customer is someone we have known earlier, our endeavour should be to secure information pertaining to the present need of the client. In case the customer reaches out to us on his/her own, we should interact on the phone with utmost attention trying to gauge the requirement of the client and the reason behind it. Words and nonverbal cues are of extreme importance during such an interaction.
Secondly, we should research about the client’s organisation by visiting the website and other social media presence of the outfit. Special attention needs to be given to the vision, mission, purpose and objectives of the enterprise. Gathering information about the latest projects that the customer’s company has undertaken, and understanding how our product or service can be of consequence to the client, is extremely important.
Thirdly, if we are connected with an eminent client who himself/herself or through his/her organisation, appears in news and other independent media coverage then we should sift through this information for learning about the client.
All our preparation before the meeting should be to ascertain the common ground on which we can interact with the customer. Turning up well informed to the meeting, enhances our confidence exponentially, and also augments our influence on the other person.
There are only a few simple yet very effective techniques that need to be applied during the meeting, especially in the first two minutes to influence the client.
Firstly, we must be dressed in our best, befitting the occasion. It is also advisable to include in our attire the colours of the brand of our client, and not ours, to come across as familiar to him/her.
Secondly, Carrying a polite smile and positive body language, as soon as we enter the meeting area, are requisites of a fruitful interaction. As we come within the gaze of our client, the expression of our gratitude for the meeting, both verbally and nonverbally, should become apparent. A suitable and warm greeting should be offered and pleasantries should be exchanged to initiate the conversation.
Thirdly, we should let our client speak as much as we can. If he/she is quiet and not offering much information, we must comment positively about them, their personality, the artifacts that are on display in their office, the latest news about them in the media, anything to get them speaking about themselves.
During this time, mirroring through words and body language is very helpful in creating an influence over our customer. We can pick up two to three words or phrases that our customer has used in his/her talk and incorporate them in our reply. We should repeat two to three positive gestures made by our client, as we address him/her.
Lastly, whenever we speak during the meeting, it should be to offer a solution, and how our product or service can be a part of such a solution.
These steps and practices are sure to garner a desired outcome to a meeting. They pave the way for better relations for the future as well.
