This company data and information make you more relevant when you go into a customer meeting. The more pieces of the puzzle you have to work with, the greater your chances of getting your message across.
Whatever your role, it is good to feel prepared. In just a few minutes you can get a pretty good overview if you know what to look for. Here are 9 tips on what is smart to know and easy to find out.
1. What are the key financial figures?
Revenue and profit say a lot about the size of the company and its profitability. It can also be useful to go through the financial statements to see where the company has its largest costs. Is it payroll, or is it in product costs or other operating costs?
2. How many employees are there, and have there been any major changes recently?
The number of employees over time can give us an impression of how stable the company is and whether changes have occurred that have affected its finances. A change in headcount can be a good basis for discussing the reasons behind any scaling down or scaling up. It could, for example, be technology or equipment that has made certain functions redundant, cost cuts, reorganizations or new departments being set up.
3. Have there been mergers or ownership changes?
Mergers can mean both opportunities and risk! You may have an opening for upselling, or there may be a risk that competing businesses are already inside one of the companies and that your contract is in danger.
A change of ownership or major changes in the majority shareholding can also be highly significant and may lead to a change of strategy or have other consequences. Here, close dialogue can be a major advantage if the company is an existing customer.
4. Who sits in management or on the board and holds key roles?
It can be useful to map out the people in key positions. For those whose roles are registered in Brønnøysundregisteret, this is linked to the company and lets you see networks, other companies in which they hold roles, and where they have historically held a role as managing director or board member.
5. Who are you meeting?
It is smart to check the job title and where in the organization the person or people you are meeting sit, together with whether you happen to have mutual connections on social media. It can tell you a lot about whether the person is a decision-maker, what kind of environment they are part of, or whether you share the same interests. That makes it easier to mirror the customer, a well-known technique for building rapport more quickly.
6. Have there been conflicts, court cases or events that are weighing on the company?
If one or more disputes are going through the courts, this can be an early warning that something is not quite right, and it can also take up a lot of capacity for those involved. Depending on the type of dispute, it can also say something about what the customer is focused on right now. This will depend on the size of the company.
7. Have there been important news stories involving the people, the company or the industry?
An article in a local newspaper about plans to hire more people, a piece in a trade journal about new technology in an industry, a new law with consequences, or anything else relevant to a company or a portfolio can be important information that says something about where the company is heading. There may also be changes in management or on the board that are important to catch.
8. Is competition in the market intense, and what are the most important competitive advantages?
Many people are driven by competition, and if you can convince them that what you offer will give them an edge over the customer's competitors, it will make what you say more compelling. Find out who the competitors are and what they compete on.
9. What are the usual goals in the role of the person you are meeting?
It will help you get priority if you can work out what the goals are for the person you are meeting. Or is it perhaps smart to ask what the short-term and long-term goals are? If you can help make sure those goals are met, there is a much better chance that your relationship becomes more of a partnership than a supplier arrangement. A finance director or a marketing director often has many of the same goals no matter which company they work for.
Interested in learning more?
If you need to know more about how to quickly get an overview of a company and the people you are meeting, we hope you will get in touch with us!
