5 Steps to Running An Efficient Client Meeting
A big part of building this relationship with clients is in meetings— whether it's the kick-off call, a bi-weekly catch-up meeting, or a monthly strategy call.
The biggest part of our role is to be the friendly face of the agency and be a cheerleader to the client. At the end of the day, clients want to feel heard, and they want to feel that they're your only client. If you, the agency owner, are still in that client-facing role, cool! Or if someone on your team is the person facilitating these meetings, even better.
In this blog, we're going to drop some of our key tips to leading an excellent client-facing meeting.
Opening up the meeting with small talk: And we're not talking about the weather (—boring!). To avoid any of the initial awkwardness of joining meetings, be the first mover and start the conversation around something light and engaging. Maybe it's asking your client how their kids are doing, how their pets are doing, or what's happening in their corner of the world. Maybe it's asking where their piece of background art came from. Whatever it is, make it easy and use the first couple minutes of the call to get the energy flowing around building trust with your client.
Taking control: A huge thing is making sure the small talk doesn't go on foreverrr. We're all about efficiency, and it is so important to make sure you're taking control of the conversation and keeping things on track. We all have clients who may like to ramble here and there, which is where you have to be assertive and confident in making sure everyone knows you're the expert and will lead the meeting in a timely manner. If the client starts to jump in and ask questions, let them know you've got an agenda and will be touching on their concerns as the call goes on. It's your job as the expert CAM to steer the conversation, and empower yourself to lead with confidence.
Agenda: We see meeting agendas evolving in one of two ways.
Clients that don't need an agenda— If your meeting is centered around a long-standing client to who you're providing weekly status updates, you know they already have the numbers in front of them. They may not need an itemized meeting agenda every time you chat, and that's okay too! You can do a pulse check on what your client prefers, and use your CAM judgement on whether or not the agenda is a want or need.
Detailed agendas, every time— If you or your client seek structure, it's important to lead your calls with an agenda that goes over what you're going to talk about. This shows your client just how organized you are, and lets them know you understand their accounts inside and out, helping them further build trust in you. Our general agendas outline:
What happened (with XYZ campaigns, funnels, etc)
What's happening currently
What's going to happen next
4. Wrap-up: This may sound intuitive, but after celebrating your wins and talking through your agenda points, always remember to circle back and quickly run through everything you talked about. This is your conclusion time to action next steps, ensure everyone is on the same page with what those steps look like, and helps you all leave the meeting with confidence in what's to come. Hint: Don't forget to build this buffer time into your agenda! We're allll about time efficiency.
5. Follow-up: One of the most important steps! It's your role as a Client Account Manager (or if you're the agency owner still managing clients) to be sending follow-up emails/messages ideally within half an hour of the call. Something quick and easy:
Hey Team! Amazing meeting today and it was great to see you all. As we discussed, here are the action items and respective due dates for next week [and add anything else of importance you may have talked about]. To confirm, everyone is good with our next meeting time set for XX/YY/ZZ? Thanks! -Betty
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As a recap: Running an efficient client meeting, that's focused on relationship building, is essential to client retention.
If you want to get our onboarding checklist, which you can include your very own meeting agenda straight into, drop by our website: www.dotandcompany.co/checklist — grab it and go! It's an amazing resource you can implement directly into your agency and will help you capture those efficiencies.
Cheers to happy clients,
Taylor