How to Wash a Chicken by Tim Calkins

Author:Tim Calkins [Calkins, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989025031
Publisher: Page Two Books
Published: 2018-09-24T23:00:00+00:00

SHOW RESPECT

Taking the time to meet with someone before a big meeting is a way to show respect. The move sends a clear message: “You are important and I care about your opinions.” This is an excellent way to secure support.

The Approach

When preselling a presentation, you should schedule a series of small meetings. You might set up a meeting with the head of sales, for example, and then a meeting with the head of market research. In each meeting you begin in a similar fashion, saying, “We have a meeting coming up on Project Hamster, and I want to take you through our latest draft to get your ideas and input.”

It is important to walk through a draft, not the final document. Ideally, you’ll print on the cover page in large letters “DRAFT” or “WORKING DRAFT” or “INITIAL DRAFT.” If you show up with the final document, it looks like you aren’t really asking for their input; you are simply showing them the document, following some protocol. This is better than nothing but it misses the key point. You really do want their input and suggestions.

The presell meetings should be several days or even a week before the actual presentation. Very often people will have suggestions; they might recommend a particular analysis, or suggest that you meet with a particular person. You need some time to follow up on the ideas; if someone asks for a particular analysis, you want to have time to actually do it.

Meeting with someone just before a critical meeting is a bad idea. When they ask for changes, you won’t be able to make them. If they have concerns, you will be in a difficult spot. You can press on with the meeting, but now you’ll be uncertain and nervous. You will have to dance around their concerns. Alternatively, you can cancel the meeting and try to reschedule it, but this is also a bad option; scheduling meetings is not easy, and a last-minute delay suggests to everyone that there was some problem. When you finally do get around to the presentation, your audience might view things with a heightened level of skepticism.

For this reason, it is usually better to skip the presell meeting than try to fit it in just before a presentation.

When taking someone through the draft, watch closely. Do they nod their head? Do they smile? Do they furrow their brow? On a more basic level, are they interested or not? All of this information is helpful.

At this point you desperately want input. What other information would they like to see? Where are the gaps? What are the issues?

You then want to follow up. Some people take a while to think through things; you should take this into account. A simple email two days later can do the trick. Simply write, “Susan, it was great to see you on Tuesday. I wanted to follow up to see if you had any other questions about the recommendation. I would be happy to stop by to discuss it if that would be easier.

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