Inside the Huddle
Pre-Client Sales Meetings that Work
by Allan Colman
"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand."
—Sun Tzu, The Art of War
What precedes closing a pitch, proposal or sales meeting—the pre-meeting huddle – is essential to ultimately closing the sale. Here, you and your fellow attorneys sweat in the war room preparing for a Red Zone victory. At this point, the team (with the support of the marketing department) has ascertained three essential criterions:
You know how your buyer thinks. Based on thorough research from both internal (warm contacts) and external (word-of-mouth, media clippings) sources, you have knowledge regarding the thought processes and decision-making hierarchy of your target.
You know what your target’s business is about. You have gleaned who your target’s competitors are and what position they hold in the market. Better still, you know what their competitors are saying about them.
You know what the company needs. You’ve put the bravado aside and have gotten to the heart of the matter: your potential client’s needs. Remember this doesn’t just address what the issue is at the moment, rather, the long-term goals and worries that keep your target up at night.
Now is the time for action. This is where business development becomes business generation – the Red Zone. You must anticipate questions before they are asked. You need to know who makes the final decision. You must address the client’s concerns and reservations with an appropriate response that leads to the close.
In other words, plan for everything and leave nothing to chance.
