How to SCORE and Win Big in a Critical Meeting

There are times when we as consultants or developers find ourselves in a critical meeting which has a material impact on either the prospects of your company or your own career.  In a design session or a pre-sales meeting, the aim is to have a meaningful conversation, but we don’t necessarily always get to the real conversation.

While there may be many different situations or reasons as to why this happens, we need to understand how to get past it.

So there are three clear facts:

1. If you are unable solve the problem, you will not win the conversation.
2. Therefore you need to understand what the real problem is.
3. Therefore the prospect needs be comfortable enough to tell you what the problem is.

In order to achieve points 2 and 3, let’s discuss why you don’t get to understanding the problem?

1. Taking the happy path: It could be a simple issue of being afraid to get to the point, being afraid to offend, or just being too shy to get to the point in order to make or break the relationship.
2. Can’t ask hard and difficult questions – There also is the case that since the prospect doesn’t know you and you don’t know the prospect, it makes both parties uncomfortable to share their issues in detail. The prospect could have a challenging situation with their tools and/or infrastructure, but the prospect needs to be comfortable and be able to trust you to talk about something as large as that in the first conversation.
3. It’s hard to peel the onion: Every company has some problem – not enough features, not delivering on time or processes that need to be revamped. If you only scratch the surface, then you don’t understand what the real problem is, and any solution you propose is going to be a surface level solution. This makes it impossible to build a relationship.

So, it boils down to how you can become a trusted partner. How do you build a deeper relationship with a customer? Here’s my SCORE framework that I find very successful.

1. Stepping ahead: You need to ensure that as soon as a meeting ends, the ball is in your court. Remember to continually assess the opportunity and decide on what the next natural step is. Ask for a commitment to that next step.
2. Credibility: Why should someone believe in what you are saying? At times, credibility comes from your rank within an organization, the standing of your organization, seniority, past successes etc. In today’s world, leaders build ethos most effectively by demonstrating technical expertise in a specific area (which helps convince people that you know what you’re talking about), and by displaying strong levels of integrity and character.
3. Be outcome driven: Do not take his or her time for granted. Make it clear that you value their time and keep the conversation focused.
4. Research, research, research: If you haven’t researched the company beforehand – about it’s services, customers, the industry, competitors, etc – you shouldn’t be at the meeting. Be as prepared as you can be. You will have a more productive conversation.
5. Empathize: There is great power and importance in making emotional bonds. It is critical to give the prospect your undivided attention and being enthusiastic about the organization’s needs, growth, progress, etc. At the end of the day, empathy fosters trust which will make communication easier.

Which of these do you think is the most important? Is there something that I missed? Let me know in the comments below.