Are you about to have a business meeting or any other kind of professional interaction that you want to succeed at? Are you nervous? Are you worried about screwing it up? Do you want to do a good job, or do you want a few extra pointers in case you're already confident and ready to go? Here are five simple things you can do to have a better business meeting, and this can be applied to job interviews and even first dates. Let's start with number five.
Number Five: Come Prepared
Come prepared with Google search and all the other tools available on the web. You should know exactly who you're talking with, at least the basics. If you're going to meet with a company, you should know things like when they were founded, how many employees they have, and what their Facebook or LinkedIn information says about them. You should know the basics of who you're going to talk with. What you don't want to do is spend five or ten minutes of the meeting just going on and asking them questions about things you should already know. You want to have time to ask the questions that are really important to you. So come in prepared — and this includes grooming yourself and being on time.
Number Four: Remember Their Name and What They Do
Right at the beginning of the meeting, whether it's in person or even if it's completely online, you need to get down their name and what they do. Whether they are a senior CEO or a manager, or a line employee, an engineer, or just an intern at the company, you need to know exactly who you're talking to, what they're capable of, and their name. They are a person. You are doing business with a person — you are meeting a person, not a representative of the company. That person is who you should be concerned with making a good impression on and having a successful meeting with.
When you remember their name and you use their name again, they will automatically like you. Why? Because the favorite thing all of us love to hear is our own name. My name is Jerry Banfield. I like it when people say "Jerry" or "Mr. Banfield" — that means they were at least paying enough attention to remember what my name is. So number four: remember their name and what they do when you introduce yourself.
Are you not good at remembering names? No one is good at remembering names by default. It's a skill you build one small step at a time. When you hear the name, repeat it in your head, and say it again shortly after you start talking with them. For example, you meet a guy named Bill. Maybe a second, ten seconds, twenty seconds later: "Hi Bill, nice to meet you, Bill. So Bill, what are we here to talk about today?" You say their name again so you remember it.
Number Three: Your Objective Is to Learn About Them
Your first job when you walk in is to leave a good impression about yourself, and then after you've said your name, the next thing is to find out about them. A lot of people go in trying to show off how they're the best thing you could ever ask for — instead, turn it around and ask about them. If you've prepared already, you should know the basics and can cut right to what you want to know about. If you're looking to enter business with a company, you need to find out more about what they do, how long they've been in business, and some results of what they've done before. If you already know the answers to some of these questions, then you should go straight to asking deeper questions about them. For example: "In your fifteen years, has this happened with that system?" or "With this previous client you had, did this or that happen?" In other words, go in expecting to ask about them, and whatever you want out of the meeting should come naturally. If they give themselves and what they do to you, they should want to know about what you do in return. So number three: your objective is to find out about them, not to do something for yourself.
Number Two: Get Them to Talk About Themselves
Number two ties in closely with number three: your objective is to talk about them, not talk about you. I saw a business meeting recently that was a perfect example of this. The guys go in, they meet each other, and one guy begins going on about himself, his company, what they do. They literally had to ask him to say it all over again, because the other people weren't listening — they hadn't had a chance to engage themselves. He just started with "blah, this is what I do." No. Your objective is to get them to talk about themselves. This goes right back to number three: getting them to talk gets them to tell you everything you need to know. You want to learn about them, therefore, number two, try to talk about them.
The Recap Before Number One
Number one, for any meeting or any professional setting you go into — are you ready for it? No, I don't think you're ready for it yet. So let's go over what we just talked about. Number two: get them to talk about themselves. Number three: your objective is to learn about them, not spew out what you want to do. Number four: you need to remember their name when they introduce themselves, and remember what they do. Number five: you need to come prepared — that means looking their company up, looking them up, remembering that, and asking questions about it later in the meeting. Now are you ready?
Number One: Tell Them What You Can Do for Them
The number one thing you need to do in a meeting is tell them what you can do for them. One more time: tell them what you can do for them. They don't care about what you want out of them until you tell them what you can do for them.
Perfect example — a business meeting locally. A guy goes on for at least ten minutes about himself. In an hour, he said three times, three sentences, of things that he could do for them, ways that he could make their business more successful. The other side literally blitzed him with things they could do for him. Naturally, he was a bit overwhelmed. They had so many things they could do for him, and he only threw out three things that he could do for them. Your number one — the main thing you need to communicate — is what can you do for them?
Why? You've got to speak in a language people understand. What am I here to do today? I'm here to help you have a more successful business meeting and help you do better in a job interview. This could even help you do better on a first date — if you want more of my thinking on that side of things, take a look at my Dating playlist. All of these questions and all of the ways you go about them are just the same. Number one: what can you do for the other person? What do they want that you are going to fulfill for them? How can you help them get what's important to them? That's number one. That's the language we're speaking. What's important to me? I want to have a successful company. What's important to you? You have to tell me.
Putting All Five Together
Thus, the second step is to ask and get them to talk about themselves. The way you can tell someone how you can help them is to know, first, what they want, what they're interested in, what they like, and where they're trying to go. How can you sell yourself to someone without knowing what they want to buy? Number two: get them to talk about themselves. Number three: you want to learn about them as your primary objective — learn about them, not talk about yourself. This ties closely with number two, getting them to talk about themselves, but it also ties with four and five. Four: you want to remember their name. Say it again. Say it a third time. Write it down. Remember their name. Number five: come prepared. Why are you going if you're not prepared? If you don't have time, why are you doing this thing that's supposedly so important at all? If you are going to do something, do it. Do it right. Come prepared.
One last time. Number one: show how you can help whoever you are meeting with. Number two: learn by getting them to talk about themselves. Number three: have an objective in mind that says, "I want to learn about who I'm meeting with." Number four: all you have to do is remember their name and what they do. Number five: come prepared. I hope this has helped you do better at your business meeting.