I recently traveled to see a new contact within one of my customers and to get a tour of the Fulfillment Center he oversees. You can’t always predict how introduction meetings are going to turn out and this is one of the things that make outside sales jobs exciting. Personally, I really enjoy networking and building relationships with both my external and internal customers. Often an introductory meeting can feel a little bit like a chess match or a dance. Outside of the “business talk” (which is the real reason you are there), you work to find commonalities or topics where you can find personal connections. Obviously, this can be more challenging depending on the personality of the person or whether you just don’t seem to click together. This meeting got off to a slow start but as the meeting progressed, there were little windows of opportunity to expand the conversation and begin what I had hoped were opportunities to plant little seeds of trust to help build the relationship going forward.
The plan was to take this person to dinner later that day and fortunately, the customer was both able and willing to go after our initial meeting. As you can imagine sometimes it can be very difficult to get a person to spend a couple of hours of their own time with someone who they haven’t or just met. I guess this could be one of many reasons why Sales may not be for everyone. We planned on meeting at a very nice Steakhouse and this dinner did not disappoint on all sides. The meal was amazing and what transpired was even better. As the uneasiness of the initial moments after we sat down at our table together started to dissipate, the conversation seem to gain momentum and lead into a very comfortable conversation that included talk of families, hobbies, etc. This no doubt is just a very small part of what I hope becomes a good working relationship down the road. However, what I know from not only this experience but my years of entertaining customers, this little bit of time spend outside the office not only changed the conversation but quickly help dissipate the uneasiness of our initial meeting and helped plant a small seed of trust.
If you are in the position of being able to entertain clients in some capacity my challenge to you is this; are you taking the advantage of this great opportunity? Are you working hard to get your clients “Away From the Office?”