Come together

Legal advissrs and managers spend up to 40 per cent of their time in meetings. Multiply that by their hourly rate to see how costly meetings can be if not managed effectively and that's before you calculate lost opportunity costs.

There is a misconception that client meetings,be they review or transactional, are not appropriate arenas to discuss business development (BD) opportunities.

Every client contact is a BD opportunity and a chance to strengthen the client relationship, and a BD opportunity. This may be based on an opportunity arising during the meeting or the result of a pre-planned aproach. Take a transactional meeting. Throughout your discussions the client will be briefing you of salient facts surrounding the case, much of which will be pertinent to this transaction. But if you review those same discussions from your BD perspective, how much additional information about his affairs is the client also informing you about? This is invaluable if 'collected and stored', to explore (at another time) opportunities to provide additional services.

Some might argue this is covert and unacceptable. The converse is that clients like to feel valued, and for you to demonstrate a good understanding of the client's affairs is one of the most positive ways to achieve this. When is it appropriate to raise the extension of your service offering? Preferably when the client is not distracted with other matters you are discussing, and equally you should have sought the client's permission to extend the discussion.

Aconsiderable amount of client contact is in the meeting environment, be it face to face or conference calls. Thus an integral part of building and sustaining your credibility with clients is how you participate in and manage your meetings with them. Meetings fail, or succeed, based on three main principles: planning, progress and people.

Planning

It is not uncommon that meetings are arranged at short notice, but this is no excuse not to prepare and plan accordingly. No matter how brief a meeting is, unless clear objectives have been set and circulated, meaningful outcomes will not be achieved. Without these stated objectives, participants at the meeting cannot prepare. Consequently their contribution and commitment will be minimal. The overused phrase 'failing to prepare is preparing to fail', cannot be overstated, particularly in respect of meetings.

Good planning is based on common senseand a systematic approach. Make time beforethe meeting to put the structure and administration in place. Specifically you need to:

• fix meetings at an appropriate time and length;
• clarify the purpose of the meeting and get client agreement; particularly relevant if you intend to bring a BD topic into the agenda, which you have not previously discussed;
• be specific about individuals' contributions;
• plan the agenda and circulate it in good time; and
• consider what supporting information is needed and circulated in good time.

The amount of effort you put into planning for a meeting will determine the outcome you achieve. Do not lose sight of BD when planning agendas, even for a transactional meeting there will be occasions when it is appropriate (with the client's agreement) to discuss a cross-selling opportunity.

Progress

Actions are agreed, decisions made, but nothing seems to happen, often the result of inertia.

Failing to maintain the momentum set at the meeting can let a high level of interest wane. Actions that may help to deliver progress include:

• circulate a record of the meeting, incorporating agreed actions and timescales;
• follow up with those who attended the meeting to ensure actions are completed on time;
• a simple diary reminder for action will ensure progress is continual and towards a common goal; and
• where you have 'collected & stored' BD opportunity information, ensure this is diarised for further action.

People

Well-managed transactional meetings willhave a momentum of their own. BD requires a more proactive input, to ensure progress is made and not left to 'a spare moment'. As meetings can bring together several individuals, both on the client's and your side, they are vulnerable to the attitudes and behaviours of the members.

By agreeing the agenda with the client, the selection of attendees and their roles will be determined. How often have you sat in meetings and wondered what contribution an individual is making? Your client will be asking the same of your team.

When new items, such as BD opportunities are added to the agenda, it is critical the right people attend from the client side. For instance, on a transactional matter the client may be the decision maker, but if a new dimension is introduced is he/she still the decision maker for that subject matter?

New thinking

Each client meeting is an opportunity not onlyto progress matters in hand, but to develop other areas. Think of your attendance as a multi-tasking event: on one level you are dealing with the current issues, while on another your BD antennae are gathering information that will help you to explore further opportunities with the client at future meetings.

We invest a considerable amount of time in meetings. It is imperative we maximise thistime to the benefit of all: if managed correctlymeetings mean opportunities.