How Do You Make Customer Meetings More Commercial?
Old Boss: “How did yesterday’s meeting go with the big account?”
Young Me: “Great, we get on like a house on fire.”
Old Boss: “So what’s the plan?”
Young Me: “Phase 1 complete – they can’t wait to see me again.”
Old Boss: “So what’s phase 2?”
Young Me: “Seeing them again.”
There was a post this week that got a lot of attention regarding what makes a visit to an account an effective sales call.
Because – obviously – not every customer call has the same purpose.
But there are a large number of account managers and business development teams out there spending their weeks moving from meeting to meeting…
without necessarily being crystal clear about what that time, effort and petrol money is actually going to achieve.
And you can hear it in the explanation:
“It’s just a regular call.”
“It was time, they needed seeing.”
“I thought I’d pop in for a catch-up.”
“I don’t want to risk the relationship too early with sales talk.”
And listen – I genuinely get it. A couple of decades ago, I definitely said all four on a regular basis.
But if we’re honest…
those aren’t outcome-based objectives, are they?
They’re anecdotes. They’re side notes. They’re stories about the activity you do in between the real work.
Because if any part of your role involves growing accounts, creating opportunities or protecting business…
you need to have a history of customer conversations that began with a purpose.
Not a script. Not a pitch. A purpose.
And in most B2B commercial roles, that purpose usually falls into one of three categories:
1. Prospective
You’re trying to establish whether there’s a genuine opportunity to work together.
Not to sell too early. To diagnose properly.
To understand whether you should become a supplier.
2. Improvement
You’re already working together.
But the goal now is growth.
- Better position.
- More share.
- More strategic involvement.
Not maintenance. Progress.
3. Remedial
Something needs fixing.
- A service issue.
- A complaint.
- A breakdown in confidence.
And your role is to put it right.
All three of those are legitimate reasons to call.
All three matter.
But they do not share the same purpose. And none of them are “just calling in for a catch up”.
And the danger comes when we start pretending that “a customer call” is a single category in itself, because…
A remedial call is something akin to customer service.
And a social visit isn’t a commercial appointment.
And if you don’t know which one you’re walking into…
how are you going to measure how successful it was (or not)?
Maybe it’s worth starting by asking yourself a question.
If the meeting goes well, what should happen?
If it’s a prospective meeting:
Something new has begun. Someone who needs your help has been discovered.
You should leave knowing what happens next – and what happens next should be down to you. There should also be something the prospect agreed was a good idea to see through to the next stage of events.
If it’s an improvement meeting:
You should leave with an opportunity to improve your current position.
And again – you should know what happens next – and there should be something the customer agreed was worth progressing further.
If it’s a remedial meeting:
You should leave with confidence rebuilt. Trust repaired.
The relationship stabilised.
And as important as it is when required – that’s a really important word to come back to.
If every call is designed simply to “stabilise” your relationship – growth will always be an offshoot of luck and good timing rather than a product of professional focus.
So, before your next customer visit, ask yourself:
What would make this a genuinely commercial meeting?
Not enjoyable. Not easy. Not comfortable.
Commercial.
Because every time you walk through the front door of a business, you’re usually there for one of three reasons:
- To discover something.
- To improve something.
- Or to repair something.
And if it’s none of those…
there’s a fair chance you’re just getting in the way of your customer getting on with something useful.
That’s one of the core disciplines we build into the 2-Day Business Development Masterclasses.
Helping specialist sales teams become more commercially effective in every conversation.
Not more salesy. Just moving forward with clearer intentions.
Because busy diaries don’t create growth. But people setting off with a definitive purpose do.
The next workshops are coming up in:
📍 London
If your team could benefit from stronger customer conversations, better questioning and more purposeful account development, drop me a message or take a look at the workshop details above.
To your success,
Chris Murray
Click Here For More Details About The Business Development Masterclass