The Anatomy of an Excellent Client Meeting

Meetings are big part of our day as project managers. They happen impromptu in hallways with just a few people who need to chat, or are full-on planned, weekly status update and project reviews.

Every now and then you are going to have a BIG meeting that makes a BIG difference for your company and career. The following suggestions are to help you make these more important meetings a huge success.

I’ve been in bad client meetings; I mean real bad client meetings. The first one that comes to mind was a number of years ago, at the time a new VP took over the business unit that engaged our company for project work.

It all started innocently enough, with a few questions here and there about the projects we were working on.

The innocuous questions gradually led to more lengthy interrogations. Those interrogations then shifted to accusations. Those accusations resulted in a near tragic meltdown between the two companies.

It came to a head at a 7:30 AM meeting in the client’s conference room with the VP and his team. The founder of our company, along with the CEO and the rest of our team, were also present.

It was reminiscent of a gunfight at the O.K. Corral, with one faction lined up on one side of the conference room table opposite the other faction.

After a (very) few pleasantries, the meeting started with, “You’ll never do business here again!”

“Fine, but we’ll still get paid,” our side countered.

“Not one more dollar will leave this company,” protested the client.

“We have a bona fide legal agreement in place, and you are contractually obligated for the next 12 months!” shot back our attorney. (By the way, you immediately know it’s not going to be a good meeting when your attorney must be present.)

It went back and forth like this for hours. By mid-morning, everyone was exhausted. A voice of reason finally spoke up and asked what the real problem was. After two more hours of peeling back the layers, it came down to nothing more than a colossal misunderstanding between the two companies.

The path was set straight and everyone was able to get back to working together (although the relationship was somewhat strained) for the duration of the agreement.

You’ll sit in on meetings like that in your project management career every now and then. They’re not fun, sometimes they are necessary, and the outcome is always uncertain.

On the other hand, you will probably participate in some very good meetings in your project management career. Hopefully, the cumulative occurrence of okay, good, very good, and excellent meetings far outweighs the number of times you’ll wind up in a horrible meeting.

8 Steps for a Successful Client Meeting

The principles apply to any meeting, but for this discussion we’ll use the example of a quarterly steering committee meeting with your client and their team.

1. Start Preparing Well in Advance — Excellence starts with preparation. For a successful meeting, begin planning well in advance. How far in advance? Right after everyone is done giving each other high fives from the last meeting. That’s right. The conversation you should have as soon as your last meeting ends is, “What should we be discussing at our next meeting?”

Why so soon? Because there is much to work on over the next couple of months. Decisions were made and initiatives adopted at the meeting you just had. The next time you get together, you will need to discuss how far along each initiative has progressed.

Some projects need to be completed by then, some should be nearing completion, and others will just be starting. If everyone is focused on getting these things done over the next couple of months, the next meeting can be just as good as the last one.

1. Pull the Agenda Together 4–6 Weeks in Advance — Based upon what future discussions are agreed upon, you can pull a rough agenda together as far out as 4–6 weeks in advance. The agenda won’t be set in stone, but it everyone will now be able to start thinking about what else will need to be covered, and what input they will provide. Gather input from both your team and the client’s team. The agenda puts the big building blocks of the meeting in place, and serves as a strong foundation.
2. Collaborate on the Presentation — Now that the agenda is in place, you can collaborate on a straw man presentation. This is a presentation that doesn’t have all the details, but lays out the flow of the meeting at a high level. I like owning this part of meeting preparation as a project manager. Include placeholder slides that show what will be included on each slide. Also, show who will be responsible (your company or the client) for providing that information and presenting that slide during the meeting. It’s important for the meeting to come across as a joint collaboration between the two companies, and is a great way to get a point across.
3. Ask What’s on the Executive’s Mind — It may be hard to know what’s on the executive’s mind if you are not onsite at the client’s. You aren’t running into them in the hallway or getting a cup of coffee together. However, it is critically important to understand their thoughts about the project and the relationship with your company prior to the meeting. Ask your primary contact at the company for this type of input. Find out what’s important to them, what they like about the relationship with your company, what they don’t like, and what can be done to help them reach their business objectives. You can then incorporate comments, answers, slides, and other information that will address the client’s points of concern even before they bring them up.
4. Bring Your Team Up To Speed — You will go into these meetings making certain commitments on behalf of your company. It is a HUGE MISTAKE if you do not vet these out with your team first. Show them the presentation. Let them know what you are committing to complete. Make sure they feel comfortable about supporting your commitments. They’ll also be able to provide additional feedback on what you may need from the client to help keep their projects successful.
5. Go In a Day Early — If you’re meeting is on Wednesday, arrive on Tuesday. Spend the day at the client site with your counterpart. Work face to face putting finishing touches on the presentation, and do a dry run. Make sure everyone knows their speaking part, can handle any questions that come up, and knows what to ask for to keep the projects moving forward. Make sure the audio/video is set up and working properly. Don’t take any of this for granted. It takes careful preparation and orchestration to ensure the logistics of your meeting go without a hitch.
6. Take the Client out to Lunch / Dinner Before the Meeting — You’ve spent a lot of time with your colleagues up to this point. Expand yourself / your reach by taking any of the executives that can attend out to lunch or dinner before the meeting. This will allow you to build relationships, provide a preview of the meeting, and set the tone of things to come. You’ll discover they have other ideas and directions they want to go beyond where you are now. “Great, this can serve as a foundation for discussion topics at the next meeting.”
7. Have an Excellent Meeting — You’ve been preparing for this meeting for months. You and the client have done a tremendous amount of legwork and preparation to make it a success. You know every detail about the project but can present it at a level an executive will appreciate. What’s next? Sit back and enjoy the conversation. You’ve done all you can up to this point and what’s next can only unfold through the dialogue you are about to have with your client.

Very few meetings start with, “You’ll never do business here again,” but, there are also very few meetings that you could truly consider excellent. You’ll find that most meetings fall into the category of Okay, Good, or Very Good. Implement the suggestions above to raise the bar and start producing meetings that everyone agrees are Excellent!