Meetings in a VUCA World
“A meeting with your client on a quarterly basis where you discuss their business and how you can support them.”
Solarwinds msp (n.d.)
As such, the traditional face-to-face meetings, one-on-one (101) contacts are less frequent, challenging our interaction with customers. It requires us that engage with them thru webcams with digital tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, among others. Independently of the software that they and we use, more than ever, the Annual Business Review (ABR), or a business review, assumes critical importance in keeping our customers engaged, satisfied and happy to do and continue doing business with us.
But what is a business review after all? To all of us, salespeople, that attended sales training, an ABR is a meeting held with key decision-makers, primary contacts, supporters, and “rivals” from purchasing to technical to general managers, that we need to:
- Demonstrate our added value creating a gap between us and the competition
- Define and prioritize current and future business conditions
- Mutually agree on future projects, e.g., new technology, changes in the process, expansions
- Document and quantify return-on-investment (ROI)
- And finally, to encourage partnership and relationship building
Sales and industry best practices recommend performing a business review twice a year. However, during these new times where engagement is virtual, I recommend you use quarterly reviews of 60 minutes with your customers to “keep them on their toes” engaged with us.
Bringing It All Together.
In this VUCA World, business reviews are critical for engagement with customers, understanding their needs and wants, and how the industry trends are changing their priorities and focus. They will see you as a partner differentiating you from your competition by doing this proactively.
DISCLAIMER. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and they are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organisation, company, individual or anyone or anything.