Customer Meetings

Each year Oracle invites 50,000 customers to San Francisco to learn about our products, share experiences and of course make a few jabs at competitors.  I have the amazing opportunity to meet one-on-one with executives of our top customers around the world.  It is a truly inspiring experience.  This week I will have 48 such meetings some of were translated in real time into Japanese, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

I continue to be disappointed in how some people engage and interact with our customers.  Keep in mind, some have flown half way around the world and brought translators to meet with us.  

When you have face to face customer meetings, there are a few rules of the road.

1.  Turn your phone off!  You are their to understand their challenges, build a relationship and offer solutions.  If you need to text someone for reasonable logistics, excuse yourself and text or call outside the meeting space.  Don't be the person who has a weird ringtone go off when you are meeting a really important customer.  

2.  Do not do email or surf the Internet.  This sounds obvious, right? Today I was in a meeting with the CFO of the largest utility company in Italy.  Our sales rep was on his computer.  I asked him to leave.  That is disrespectful and inappropriate.  Sadly, this happens all the time. 

3.  Take Notes..  This shows you are listening.  If you use an iPad, tell the customer you are taking notes so they don't think you are doing email.  

4.  Don't Interrupt the Customer.  You are there to listen, respond and solve problems.  there is nothing more irritating to a customer when a sales person must get their point across.  

5.  Start and Stop On Time.  This does vary by country but to start on time you must be an animal on logistics.  Walmart security takes 30 minutes.  US Federal Agencies...much longer.  Don't be surprised, call ahead.  I will do a separate note on  meeting prep.

6.  Summarize What You Heard.  Really important that you synthesize what they told you.  In so doing most customers expand and clarify their situation.  Playing back to them what you heard will help you build rapport and show that you care.

7. Discuss Agenda @ Beginning.  This ensures a productive meeting.  Here's what I do.  My team has told me you would like to talk about X.  They have briefed my on your situation but I would like to hear from you directly.  Is X the right objective?  Or are their other topics we need to discuss?  You would be surprised how often the customer wants to cover X and Y.  

8.  Communicate Action Items.  Who will do what by when?  Really critical in building a trusted relationship.  

Reply to my text to suggest a topic you'd like to learn about.