Top 10 Reasons Clients Resist Meeting With You

Clients have the same resistance to meeting with you that you have in making the time to meet with them, believe it or not! You think in such a challenging market you are so busy managing the candidate side you don’t have the time to leave your desk and carve out the time to meet face to face with your prospects and clients. How can you afford not to?

Your job as a sales professional is to educate your client to your VALUE PROPOSITION by investing the time to meet with you face to face. But first you have to believe in the value yourself and second, you have to understand why prospects & clients resist meeting with you. What’s their perception?

Here are the Top 10 Reasons:

1. Your competition! Seriously, your competition has set the tone for you – they have met with your clients and wasted their time. They spent the entire meeting talking about how great they are and defending themselves against you and everyone else. There was no VALUE PROPOSITION communicated to the client. Your client isn’t going to go there again unless you can educate them to the real value you bring to the table, especially now in this recession.

2. Time constraints. That’s reality. Your clients are as busy as you are and time is precious to them too. They think they don’t have the time the same way you do. What that means is they default to the “I don’t have time” logic, or what they think is logic. Remember, that’s an objection you can overcome by demonstrating the ROI of meeting with you. Once you begin delivering value from your initial conversation, their resistance will be outweighed by your confidence and consultative approach.

3. Loyalty. Those are the clients you want to pursue! The prospects and clients that tell you they are “ALL SET” because they are loyal to another consultant or recruiter are the ones you want to align with. We all know loyalty sometimes results from habit or resistance to change as opposed to consistent delivery of exceptional service and value. What a perfect opportunity to showcase your expertise and provide a reason for clients to raise their bar.

4. Training. Your clients are not trained in facilitating consultant visits. Think about that. Your prospects and clients are trained in best practices of their area of expertise, not how to participate in or choreograph a meeting with recruiters. It’s your responsibility to take the lead, empower your clients to participate in the meeting and train them how the process works. Demonstrate your value proposition through an agenda submitted ahead of time. Create some excitement and anticipation to meeting with you!

5. Fear. There is real fear factor clients have about meeting with you. The buying process is an emotional choice even for non emotional people. Most people have had a negative experience with a recruiter or sales person where they felt pushed into an agreement or relationship they were not comfortable with. That leaves baggage we have to be prepared for. That fear is real and you can either enhance it or diminish it through solid consultative presentations. If clients sense you are there for your agenda or your sales quotas, they will be fearful to meet with you. Think of how you can make your contact look good to their boss through meeting with you. How about recording or videoing the meeting for them? As a thank you gift, it sure beats a denim shirt or a jar of candy!

6. Lack of Clarity. Clarity in your communication is critical to initiating interest in live meetings. This is especially true with C Level managers who are particularly savvy and very decisive. You have about 10 seconds to engage them or you have lost their attention and more importantly their respect. The clearer you can communicate your value and your insight into their business the easier the face to face meeting will be to secure. The best way to become confident in communicating with clarity is to practice and role play with scripts. Preparation and practice will help you present with the clarity you need to reinforce a sense of confidence and establish trust in you as the expert.

7. The Recession. It’s here and everyone knows it. Therefore people are cautious to invest in anything they don’t know the value of. With impending layoffs everywhere your clients may be psychologically frozen and more comfortable not going out on a limb to meet you, or any new business partner for that matter.
You need to understand the impact of the recession historically for your clients. History does have a way of repeating itself. The good news is the more confident and clear you are about your value proposition, there isn’t a better time to develop new accounts, business relationships and leverage them as the recession shifts into a healthy market again. Talk about being ahead of the curve!!!


8. Your Presentation. When was the last time you listened to yourself present a candidate or market your services? You will probably be amazed what you hear…
Pitch or tone that is either too high or too low, word fills that dilute the power of your communication, and possibly some phrases that lack clarity. And what about the length of your message? Do you even have a clue how long your presentation takes? A good way to start practicing your presentation skills is to change your voicemail message daily. First of all it allows you to customize your message which promotes interest on the callers part. Secondly it allows you to record and re-record until you sound like the expert you are!


9. Money- Finances and budgets are real. Now more than ever clients are cutting back on expenses and spending in general. You are probably already shifting your headset to expect to lower your fees just to get deals right?! Well, don’t!
Remember, people only question price when the value isn’t clear. With increased clarity in your communication coupled with a solid value proposition, your fees will stand by themselves. That’s why it is critical to meet live with your clients to establish your credibility, value and relationship power. When your cold calls revolve around fee negotiations you can take that as a sign your value isn’t clear.

10. Geographic location- Today most recruiters reach out to clients and candidates nationally or internationally. Flying has been the only means to meet with those clients and so face to face meetings have been mostly a luxury. Now with webcams you can have face to face meetings without leaving your office or getting on a plane. Leverage the distance factor and still be up close and personal. If you don’t, your competition will.