Message management

When meeting executives for the first time you might default to your safe zone ... pitching your firm and its 'unique' methodology.

Interestingly these 'unique' methods all look very similar to senior people - usually a series of right facing arrows! And if that's the case, your carefully crafted pitch will blur into the amorphous mass of consultancy presentations.

An alternative is to focus your conversation on specific issues the client will recognise, the results they can expect, and the impact of those results on their business. Start with your point-of-view about this, then ask the executive for their perspective.

Make it all about them and their business ... not you and yours.