Client Kickoff Meetings Worth Millions: How to Manage Them Like a Pro (Templates & Audio Samples Included) (#6)
Lessons I learned on running crazy, effective meetings from a former Senior Vice President at LinkedIn.
You ever watch Grey’s Anatomy? It’s a medical TV shows that started in 2005 and it’s still going….
To put that in perspective -
In 2005, Google's most popular search terms were Janet Jackson, Hurricane Katrina, tsunami, Xbox 360, Brad Pitt, Michael Jackson, American Idol, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, and Harry Potter.
But wait, lol -
Grey's Anatomy uses real doctors as medical advisors to make sure the writers are getting everything right when they show medical scenes. But until the doctors fill in the medical buzzwords, the writers just put "medical medical" in the script as a placeholder.
Point being:
And it got me wondering -
Actors and athletes do a lot of work to get ready for their big, million-dollar moment.
So why do most CSMs who are pretty sure of themselves and who manage a book of business worth millions of dollars kind of just make up their meetings on the spot?
Here’s what I got today:
A framework I use to hold fun, productive client meetings that leave customers eager about the next steps (I'm releasing the exact scripts, as well as audio excerpts of what this sounds like, so you can dominate your client meetings starting tomorrow).
Here’s the flowwwww:
What I’m learning:
Most of the advice floating around the internet on running an effective meeting goes something like this…
Uhhh….
Instead, you and I will get incredibly tactical —
1) Research (Tips included)
Aside from visiting the company's website and LinkedIn, —
For startups (SMB + Mid-market): I go on YouTube, type in the founder's name, and watch a couple videos at double speed to learn about their firm. I’m looking for video podcasts that they’ve been on as guests.
It’s there that I'll discover great tidbits such as who their ideal consumers are and what they're focused on as a company.
For larger companies (Enterprise): I search on Google - [the company name + investor relations]. Ex: “monday.com + investor relations” I'm looking for their most recent earnings report. I am not a financial expert. Instead, I seek for fragments that show where their management team is focusing their efforts.
I’ll use this information to build out my discovery questions in Step 6.
2) Productive Small Talk
Instead of opening up the call with — “Hey, can you hear me?” “How’s your day etc?”
As soon as they join, I’ll ask “Hey, how’s it going?” “Are you joining from Seattle? I saw the location on your LinkedIn, but I’m not sure if you’re somewhere else at the moment”
**I’ll smile with a positive inflection as I say this**
Now, I’ll follow up their response with, “that sounds wonderful. And, by the way, I just wanted to add that your company's recent event in Texas looked fantastic! Were you a part of it or able to attend?"
I replace that bit with anything else I find relevant from their LinkedIn page, website, or YouTube.
It's really seamless, and it makes transitioning from one job topic to the next much easy.
3) Open it up with the right intro
I'm attempting to sketch out how the meeting will proceed so that clients are prepared for what comes next.
”That sounds like a fun thing. Now, do you mind if I share my screen, and just outline this conversation for today?
Great. So today's call is the first time we're meeting, and with all our successful customers, the goal is to tackle 3 specific tasks where we’ll walk away with 2 specific outcomes by the end:
Now that you have a CSM... I want to spend a few minutes explaining what that means since every company does it differently, and how you can utilize me to get the most out of this experience
Dive deeper into your goals and priorities as your inside consultant because it's my job to make sure our solution fits into that initiative.
We’ll review some things I’ve prepared. I think if I explain my job and accomplish the first two pieces of the agenda, this step will be easy where we'll finalize some action items and next steps.
And by the end of this call, we'll end with 2 results:
You'll know who I am, how I'll serve your business, and the things we’re going to be doing
We'll schedule a monthly sync where we’ll meet to review our solution and business goals at a deeper level
I’ve set 30 minutes for this conversation. Do you have a hard stop?
Sounds good. Let’s get started.
And by the way, besides the things I’ve mentioned, is there anything else you’d like to add the agenda?”
4) Sell them on you + your time together
Unlike a sales call, the customer has already bought the product. So I spend 2-3 minutes stating my expectations, and what they’ll get from this experience.
(I’ve found this to be so effective. Bc I’d rather set the expectation from the beginning).
Take a listen. And feel free to 2x.
Here’s my analysis, and the “why” behind how I say the things I do:
Feel free to model this audio sample/script for your own process.
5) Build Your Contact List
Most CSMs only have one point of contact, which puts the account at risk if that person leaves the organization. What if they don't care? What happens if they get fired?
We want to enable the customer tell us who we need to pull for what by mapping out the account and the customer organization.
Here’s how:
Here’s my take on this:
6) Ask the right questions to get your customers to their ideal future state
Most CSMs concentrate on persuading prospects that utilizing your product is the path to a better future.
Instead, we want to know what they're doing now, where they want to go tomorrow, and how you can position your solution to fill that gap.
So that they are the ones who ask - “what’s next?!?” “what do I need to do solve my problems??”
Pt.1:
Pt. 2:
Pt.3:
7) Build a plan of action together
By finding out what the problems are and what they mean, I can "pitch" my suggestion.
If I did my job correctly, I can easily share with the customer that my solutions are EXACTLY what they need to solve their problems.
I start by recapping what I heard, and then we dive into the solutions together.
8) End with booking the next meeting + subtle positive wrap up
Leave them wanting more….
Here’s what I mean:
So here’s what I had for ya today:
A step by step framework I use to run fun, and effective client meetings that end with client excited about the next steps (I provided the exact scripts, and audio snippets of what this sounds like so you can crush your clients meeting starting tomorrow)
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That’s it for this week though - lmk - how’d I do? I really enjoyed breaking down this topic
Ya boi / friend @ NLCS