Professionalism Part 6 – The 7 Things You Need to Know about Meetings
The other night, over a glass of red wine, my man and I started chatting about the do’s and don’ts of “meetings”. Sad but true. I just love business though and I could talk about it all night, especially if you throw a glass of red wine in the mix! So we brainstormed a few points, each one seeming better and more important than the last. They are in no particular order…just in the order that I remember them…so I guess that is an order then?…moving on…
- Unless you are going into labour, there is no excuse for being late. Rather be a little early. You don’t have to burn the rubber off your tyres to get there on time, you just need to leave your office timeously and make sure you know where North and South are.
- Don’t ask for precise directions either. Just get the address and then use your own initiative to find the place. You might think that’s a bit of an arb point but the real point is that you don’t want to take up someone’s time by asking for directions when you could easily go onto Braby’s and get them yourself. Initiative people, initiative!
- Dress the dress. If you’re a plumber you may be forgiven for donning your sexiest overalls and work boots but if you’re a financial advisor, you’ll be expected to look like a Versace intern.
- Research the company you’re meeting with. Really. Do it. It’s impressive.
- Turn your cell-phone off. You wouldn’t want to be cut off by your latest cutesy wutesy ringtone. Not cool.
- Know the name of the person you are meeting with and then don’t forget it. You should also avoid terms of endearment such as shortening the person’s name or calling them “my love” or “cuzzi“.
- Know your stuff if you want to sell your stuff and earn a great commission. I went to buy face cream at Edgars this week and the salesperson couldn’t tell me the difference between the day cream and the night cream:
Me: “Why do I need a night cream and a day cream?”
Salesperson-who-knows-jack-shyt: “Well, the one cream you put on in the day and the other cream you put on in the evening.”
Really hay? I would never have guessed!
Me: “Yes, but what exactly makes them different?”
Salesperson-who-knows-jack-shyt: Well, the creams target the different needs of your skin in the day and in the night.
Help me someone! Anyone..
These are a few simple little things that you can do to impress a client and win some of their business. Conversely, you could disappoint in several key areas and sell a whole bunch of fresh nothing! My advice – use points 1 through 7.
Read all the posts in the the Professionalism Series:
Part 1: Don’t Call Your Clients Cuzzi!
Part 2: Don’t Make Your Client’s Beg You for a Quote
Part 3: Think About Answering that Cell Phone
Part 4: Pay your Clients on Time
Part 5: Email Etiquette
Your,”salesperson who knows sod all about the products they are selling”
Chuckle chuckle, perhaps the firm concerned spends thousands on marketing and advertising and consider thats enough and thats why they employ bimbos at as low a wage as they can get away with and save money on staff training sessions, BIG MISTAKE.
Years ago l worked in the marketing dept. of a company selling high value goods, we used to send out mystery shoppers to pretend that they had an interest in the products and some of the results were astonishing, in some cases sales staff made up BS when talking about the product to customers and clearly knew nothing. When we approached the firm we received answers like,”we have two sales staff trained, unfortuately they were off that day” to, “we have used up our training budget and they will be trained next year. needless to say my company withdrew the products from some firms.
Hi Colin, thanks for your comment! It’s incredible isn’t it, some companies just cannot see the wood for the trees. The salespeople can look young and pretty but at the end of the day, they need to be able to sell and that means knowing the product. Yes, it might cost a company a fair amount to train staff but it will cost them even more in the long run ie. when they can’t sell their products to anyone!
Really interesting list, the only one which I don’t really know about is “Don’t ask for precise directions either” – That’s a bit strange if you ask me. Yes, there are services online to provide directions and all, but it normally only takes a person a minute or two to draft or copy-paste directions. Knowing the precise directions means you will arrive their on time and not waste their time by calling them when you’re lost, thus resulting in being late..
I definitely hear where you’re coming from and I did say that this might be a bit of an arb point. I guess for me, it’s about the subtle sign of someone using their initiative – It also only takes about a minute to get the directions off Braby’s. If a person makes the effort to read a map or get directions off the net, find the place and still manage to be on time – it’s says quite a bit about them.