I run a lot of client meetings. I reckon that people find these more valuable than the content or marketing I create, because it keeps them accountable and shows what I’m working on. If there’s one thing that can seriously separate you from your competitiors, it’s your willingness to communicate regularly with your customers.
How often we client meetings
For most of our larger marketing and WordPress funnel customers, we meet once a week for an hour. Typically this is over Zoom (the call and video software we use) and we’ll run through a pretty standard agenda.
Why we run them
Meetings and catch up calls can become a waste of time very quickly. I’ve found that the best way for meetings to really add value is making sure the below 3 points are covered.
- Everyone on the call knows exactly what their role is in relation to everyone else. For example, most of my work involves growing leads and customer sales through content.
- We DO WORK on the call. If something needs to be done, we do it. If it takes longer than a couple of minutes, assign someone to it
- Treat meetings as accountability calls. Ask people what they did last week.
We run the calls because people like communication. They like to be talked to and know what’s going on. You’re showing them what you’re doing and you’re also keeping them accountable for what they’re doing.
Who attends
I try to keep the meeting with the decision maker. Most of the time, I’ll have a couple of other people inside the organisation that I work with, but the main accountability call is with the decision maker. I have had the project lead or director try to pass the meetings over to their designers or developers, but I make it very clear that we’re providing coaching and consultation. We’ll tell you what to do but it’s up to you to get your team to do it. We’re not a project management agency.
What do we do before the meeting
2 things. 1. We send over last week’s minutes and 2. we send a quick 5 bullet point agenda for this meeting.
We try to keep each meeting the same time on the same day. Because like a good sex life, meetings should be scheduled lengths of time at specific unmovable dates and with a specific person.
During the meeting
First, I’ll try to ask about something that I’ve seen them or their business do and ask a little about it. But I try to make sure that it isn’t an activity that I was involved in. For example, one of my customers has just sent out a massive card and leaflet campaign. I happened to receive one so I asked how it was going. It shows that I’m looking at their business through a wider scope than just our projects.
Next, we’ll cover off results. All my customers have a handful of results and metrics that they want to know each week. Leads, email list growth, sales etc. It’s different for each customer, but we’ll go over those numbers and make sure we all can see if they’ve grown or shrunk. Whatever the result, we’ll try to look at why those numbers are they way they are.
We then go over last weeks notes and l ask what’s been completed. We don’t point fingers, I just ask what have they done on the list and if there’s anything that is still outstanding.
After that, we’ll cover off the points on the agenda that I sent over. It’s usually only 5 or so points and most of the time, they’re already covered off in the previous minutes that we go over.
Finally, I book the time and date for the next meeting. Even if we’ve had it every week for the last year I confirm the date and time.
After the meeting
I’ll write up the notes made and create the agenda for next week. I’ll tag and assign people tasks in our project management app and make sure I nudge people a few days later on what we asked them to do.
Then I’ll share the note with the key decision makers and ask them to confirm they’ve read it.
Summary
Not too complicated right? My favourite part of the whole process is keeping the DM accountable. They’ve got tasks and I ask them to keep on top of that. I know some people reading this don’t like the idea of running meetings. Like your customers are checking up on you. But what you can do is turn it around and start keeping tabs on them. For whatever reason, people love that.
