As a business owner, it’s a no-brainer that your clients and suppliers are the lifelines of your business. A steady stream of new clients and suppliers allows you to expand your business with regard to sales and fulfill your company vision.
There are several reasons why it’s crucial to maintain a good relationship with your customers and providers. One of the most crucial reasons is that it makes day-to-day activities enjoyable for everybody. In addition, it can help strengthen goodwill and help with collaboration.
However, clients and suppliers are different, and setting up meetings with them whereby you can establish strong relationships with them can be tricky. In this article, we will look at how to set up meetings with them.
The essence of such meetings with either your buyers or distributors is to choose stands companies in different cities and inform them about your brand as well as how your business functions on a day-to-day basis.
Analyze your current system
It’s always handy to have a bit of empirical information, especially when you’re overhauling a crucial part of your sales. However, before you start changing your initial customer and supplier meetings, analyze your current system and see what works and what doesn’t.
If possible, record a couple of meetings with other clients and note some questions asked and the solutions given, as well as anything else that contributed to the success or failure of the meeting. Some things you might find that affect your client and supplier meetings:
- Choice of venue.
- Meeting duration.
- Presentation styles.
Research your clients and suppliers beforehand
Enter meetings armed with info about the customers or suppliers. Research them by:
- Check their records on the business register.
- Check their social media pages and websites.
- Read any recent news about them.
This info will help you to
- Allocate the best salespeople to them
- Calm your nerves and commence the meeting feeling ready.
- Identify the kind of services your customers are interested in.
Create an on-boarding package
Come up with a simple brochure containing a couple of pages about your business, its services, reviews, general procedures, and a checklist for the meeting. You can send this document to the customers or suppliers prior to the meeting, so they have adequate time to read it.
This boarding package has two key purposes
- It demonstrates the value you place on transparency and clear communication.
- It ensures you cover all aspects in the initial meeting.
Offer something valuable for free
This exceptional approach works wonders; it’s recommended that during the initial meeting, you offer your clients and suppliers something small they can do themselves to help improve their businesses and themselves.
You can offer simple advice as you check their materials or a written document you email them prior to or after the meeting. This is a smart way to build rapport and trust while showing your expertise as well as your confidence.
Listen more than you speak
Rather than starting the meeting with a pitch about whom you are and what you do, try getting your clients or suppliers about their businesses.
Gather as much info as you can about what makes them stand out, their market position, their objectives, their issues or pain points, and why they are sitting across you.
During this period, you can take notes and ask questions to understand their world better. Basically, what you’re doing is getting vital information from the customers and providers to help you come up with the best solution for them. In addition, you’re showing them that you are a social person and one who pays attention to other people’s opinions and views.
Address their specific concerns
Now that you know what keeps your clients up at night, you can figure out how your company can help address those challenges. This is a very crucial stage, particularly if you can show how you have solved a similar issue for another customer.
Feel free to have a case study and use facts, graphs, images, statistics, and videos where possible. Clients love seeing the actual results of your work.
Anticipate common questions
If you analyzed the data from previous meetings, you probably have a list of the most common queries clients and suppliers have during introductory meetings. One way to be proactive is to address those questions hastily that provides solution and value to the concerns or questions.
Final thought
Congrats, you’ve now made it through an entire customer or supplier meeting, and it went well. However, don’t celebrate just yet because your work isn’t finished; you still need to make a follow-up with your customers and suppliers.
Consider all the points mentioned above in order to organize a meeting with the people who are part of your business in the right way and without forgetting anything.
