How To Meet New Clients Effectively Through Zoom

When you’re working independently, if you just sit around and wait for a client to pop up, you're going to be waiting for a very long time. Independent businesses have to really put in the work for people to take notice, and for this reason you need a special set of skills (like Liam Neeson’s, but less deadly) in order to create at thriving business. Once you get the self-marketing train going, you will have an influx of interested prospects. When you’ve been in this rodeo for a while, you’ll notice that some prospects are just “testing the waters” without any real desire to purchase. There are some, though, that may have taken the plunge and become loyal clients if it wasn’t for that “one thing” you did that rubbed them the wrong way. These situations often leave you confused regardless of how long you’ve been at this. Using Zoom, you’re already taking one step towards ensuring you have a constant stream of clients from all corners of the world. But that’s only half the fight. You need to leverage both our software and your talent to win new business. Here are a few ways you can hone your skills and present yourself in a way that will “wow” anyone.

Let’s say that some big executive at John Doe & Co. saw your services and felt like you’d be great for their company. Nothing will turn them away from you more quickly than a failure to demonstrate knowledge about their company. The period between first contact and the “face-to-face” Zoom meeting is a powerful opportunity to research the company. Let’s extend the scenario a bit and say that you’re an independent business consultant. Look into their finances. Are they publicly traded? Then you should be able to answer a lot of your questions with simple Internet searches. What’s their YoY operating margin? Their EBITDA margin? If they’re not publicly traded, expect to ask some questions to gain more insight into their financial situation. Find out what kind of enterprise resource planning software they are using (if any). What about business intelligence or other “Big Data” applications? All of the above questions are relevant for someone who’s about to take an advisory role with the company. The service you provide determines what you must find out about them. Even if you find out very little before hand, you will still impress them by asking the right questions during the meeting. To sum up, researching your client prior to meeting them is crucial to establishing a strong relationship.

Before you open Zoom and have your first meeting, do everything you can to feel like a total fighter. Eat a breakfast of champions, listen to some AC/DC or whatever gets your motor going, and energize yourself to the point that you feel like nothing can possibly stop you from having the best day of your life. This is the precise mood you need to be in to emit the confidence necessary that will land you that client. Nothing makes people more certain about you than you being certain about yourself.

The first rule of meeting with a new client is, “Don’t count on ever meeting again.” Yes, that sounds a little weird given our previous point on being hyper-confident, but if you want follow-up meetings and an eventual conversion (i.e. purchasing of your services), you will need to put everything you have into that first meeting, as if though it’s the only meeting you have. Don’t hold anything back and be as concise as possible. Treat the prospect as your top priority and keep the meeting going for as long as they need. This is the only chance you get to make a sterling first impression.

If you start up a video meeting on buggy software, and it keeps dropping your new prospect, good luck closing that deal! You need something reliable and easy for a first-time user to join and understand. You need (surprise!) Zoom to make sure it all goes through without any hitches. And, when you're having a Zoom meeting, be sure you're using all the tools at your disposal. For example, don't just tell the prospect something, when you can also show it to them though screen sharing. Have them co-annotate the plan you're screen sharing so they feel like you're really collaborating. Record the meeting (with their permission) to make sure you don't miss anything they said. Zoom with your iPad to whiteboard their ideas. The possibilities are endless. Sounds like Zoom could make a big difference in your prospect engagement, so sign up for a free account today!