Moving from Presentation to Conversation in Client Meetings

When you meet with clients (either in person or virtually) do you present to them? Or do you have a conversation?  

It can be tempting to fall into presenting – you’ve done the work, created some beautiful slides and know what you want to get out of the meeting. It feels safe. But by failing to have a conversation with your client, you are missing out not just on building rapport – but on allowing the meeting to go somewhere completely different, where you might get something even better out of it, having truly discovered who your client is and what they need.   

This week HR consultant, Liz Nottingham and Dramatic Resources Director, Geoff Church have been talking about the gifts a real conversation can offer, but how challenging it can be to get there in a client meeting… 

Geoff: I was pulled up short this week by one of our team members at Dramatic Resources who made this brilliant observation. She said – "I think, as we strive to show our clients how agile we are, pivoting into this brave new world of the virtual - we are in danger of focusing too much on showing our clients What we can do - rather than asking the question What do they need?"  

Liz: That’s such a good point. It’s so easy to put all your energy in preparing for a client meeting into what solution you are going to offer - when you haven’t even taken the time to discover what the problem is! 

Geoff: It seems to me what we are talking about is a completely different attitude to client meetings. 

Liz: Exactly. We need to prepare in a different way. Rather than thinking about what you are going to say, what you are going to present - think about what you need to learn.  

Geoff: And then it is about having the courage to be curious with your clients, but it can be hard to turn a meeting into a conversation if it’s not what you are used to.  

Liz: On a recent workshop I was asked, “When I’m in a meeting with my clients, what do I do with silence?” This is such a great question. 

Geoff: Isn’t it? It’s hard enough for people to take pauses in a normal meeting - but online it’s even tougher. 

Liz: But we need silence. Both we and our clients need moments to reflect, to pause, to take a breath before the next wave of information.  

Geoff: So how do we make that happen? How do we create permission for it? 

Liz: I think you have to be brave and allow the silence to happen. Then more interesting and unexpected comments or questions will arise. 

Geoff: We’ve also been discovering that the chat function is a great tool to allow space for reflection and discovery in virtual meetings. If you embrace it and invite your clients to use it, thoughts can be expressed there that would not surface in a face-to-face meeting. 

Liz: Yes – and it’s good to have someone from your team assigned to focus on the chat function – to bring out and highlight points that might be missed by the main lead or chair of the meeting.   

The key thing overall is to put yourself on your client’s shoes and start to look at the meeting as a journey of discovery.  

Ways to experiment with more conversation and less presentation 

Here are some ideas to help to let go of the security of presenting, and move towards a conversation in your next client meeting:  

• Prepare 2 or 3 key great questions to ask 
• Remove 25% of your slides  
• Broadcast less and listen more 
• Signal and sit with silence  
• Invite clients to actively use the chat stream 
• Allocate a co-host to mine the chat function  
• Ask your clients for feedback after the meeting