Yesterday I was in a meeting with a client, and one of my team members was hosting the working session.
There were a handful of people on our team and another handful on the client side. Some were technical people, others not so much.
The topic was data migration. We need to map the tables and fields from the legacy system into Salesforce objects and fields.
At the start of the meeting, the host pulled up a detailed Excel sheet and immediately started asking the client questions about field X in table A. It was met with a long silence.
Dear reader, what did the host forget to do?
That’s right. They didn’t start the meeting by providing context. They just assumed the client was on the same page and ready to begin, and jumped into the details.
A better approach would have been to start by telling everyone what the purpose of the meeting is. Yes, this information may be in the meeting topic, but it’s always a good idea to warm people up to the meeting by starting softly.
Once everyone is clear about the goal, then you tell them what you’re going to do, and what information you need from them.
Then, and only then, can you start.
The takeaway
When starting any client meeting, tell them why they are there, what you need from them, and how the meeting will proceed. Once they are aligned, then proceed.