Tips for Preparing for a Consulting Visit with Bill

Bill is always asked, understandably, “What can we do to be ready for these meetings?”  Here are some ideas:

• Don’t just schedule the first meeting, schedule the first few. As indicated in the Statement on Scheduling sent with the contract paperwork, sometimes Bill’s schedule gets busy. If you want to build momentum and make progress, waiting until one meeting is completed to schedule the next often doesn’t work because by then Bill’s schedule is booked weeks out.

• Be logged in to both the database and web views and be ready to share your screen – the entire screen, not just specific applications, so close anything you would not want Bill to see or that would be in the way. Bill wants to work in your live database with your data, so you need to share your screen and database – and again, both views, please. (This will be the case for every meeting, please, so please make this a standing to do item, thanks!)

• If you’re going to talk about problems or challenges, have examples of them ready to go. Clients who don’t do this waste a lot of time in the meetings hunting around for an example of the situation.

• Likewise, have at the ready any files or documents or anything else that we need to look at or reference. Again, a lot of time is often wasted when clients have to remember where or find something we need to look at.

• Make a list and prioritize the list of the topics you want to talk about and the challenges or questions you have with them so there is a clear agenda to drive through.

• Prior to each meeting, let Bill know what you’d like to discuss so he can give you ideas how to prepare to make the meeting most productive.

Thanks!