Client Meetings – A mini horror story! The foundational element of the entire service  industry, Client Meetings, can surely terrify some and be a cakewalk for others.  Especially for junior designers, they can feel intimidated to speak their mind to clients  {we can see you nod to that..}. Unfortunately, regardless of who you are or how senior  you get, client meetings are a mainstay in the industry, and to move ahead, you’ll have to  develop the capacity & motivation to manage them well.

Here’s a list of the common mistakes we find designers’ making in client meetings, and  what they should do instead:

1. Not Setting The Right Expectations! 

Instead: Share your meeting agenda with the client upfront

Often, we get lost in the pressure and stress of presenting. We’ve practised and perfected  our content, flow and delivery- but not everyone has as much of an understanding of the  topic as we do. Especially on client calls, ensure that you set expectations right upfront.

This can be as simple as taking the first 5 minutes of the call and saying:

• “So in the last call, we had discussed this” {a little recap helps}
• “The agenda for today’s call is to discuss visual style preferences” {Be direct}
• “By the end of this call, we hope to have chosen 1 or 2 styles that we can go ahead  with.” {Set boundaries & timelines}
• “Would you have any questions before we start?” {their view on everything?}

This ensures that you set the right context and expectations for the meeting and nothing is  left to the client’s imagination.

2. Forgetting to get back on pending issues or Not Mentioning Pending Issues 

Instead: Address them first

No one, especially not clients, likes to repeat themselves! If they’ve asked you about something, and you’ve told them you’d get back to them, please ensure that you do.  Better yet, address it at the beginning of the next meeting! Not only does this show professionalism, it acts as a continuing thread between the last meeting and the new one.  Always, always revert, if you say you are going to.

P.S – Clients mostly have a sharp memory with things they can hold you accountable for  {but please, some of them are gems!}

3. Saying Yes To Everything  

Instead: Let me check and get back to you

You’re in a meeting, the client has requested a bunch of changes, and they ask “Can you  do that?”. A silence ensues, and every nerve of your brain wants to say YES, because it’s  the quickest way to end the conversation. However, committing to things that you are not

sure of will definitely become a sore point in the future. To save yourself some future  grief, remember that you have an option besides nodding your head. Try approaching  something along the lines of “I’m not 100% certain that is possible at the moment. Allow  me to check with the rest of the team & update you soon” (and pen it down ASAP!)

4. Not recording the feedback efficiently 

Instead: Take notes during or after the meeting

Feeling Deja vu? A crucial client meeting, and you couldn’t remember a few key points.  Everyone’s been there! To prevent this from happening, either record the meeting, or  make live notes. If you’re presenting, and you can’t – ask a colleague to make them. If the  meeting is too long for either of the two, we suggest recording {put technology to use} or  jot down the key points right after the meeting is over {fresh out of the head}. Think of  this like handing a summary of the meeting to a colleague who wasn’t on the call – but  who has to action the project forward. Ensuring that you save the key points somewhere  will allow you to get back to even the minor points the client made, thereby showing your  reliability as a professional & saving unnecessary time/ stress while joining the missing  puzzle pieces.

P.S. – We also do a recap for the client via minutes of the meeting, in case they also have  a task to close in order for you to proceed.

5. Running Overtime  

Instead: Ask them 15-20 minutes prior, if they have additional time to complete the call.  If they don’t, you can pitch via email & ask them to comment, or continue the discussion  in the next meeting/ call.

Meetings overshoot. That is common. While it can happen for a variety of reasons, it is  crucial to pre-emptively understand that the meeting will overshoot, and request for time  from your client. This shows that you value your client’s time, as well as your own. If  you are at a crucial discussion point in the meeting, have the courtesy to inform them that  it might take a few more minutes than expected – well before the meeting time is up!

Don’t ask for it at the very last minute (15 mins at 10:30) instead, pop the question when  you start to anticipate the overshoot (Ask for a 10:45 extension at 10:15 instead).

Conclusion:

These tips and tricks are suggestions to help your meeting go productively. Creating great  designs is only half of the battle, the other half is making the client happy. It is important  for a designer to develop the allied soft skills it takes to become a better designer, and  getting comfortable with client meetings is one of the most crucial skills (and it’s how we  train our junior designers too!)