How to Plan and Organize Good Business to Business (b2b) Meetings

Business to Business Meetings or B2B meetings is called in popular management parlance is one of the most critical aspects in today's business environment. In simpler words B2B meetings means networking with potential companies with whom a business would like to partner in some form. Such Business to Business meetings could happen with companies anywhere in the world depending on your company's strategy and objectives.

Business to Business or B2B is the buzz word today. Companies are tying up with each other in an effort to build up on common synergies in a fast globalizing world. As globalization picks up it is becoming increasingly evident that companies anywhere in the world cannot operate in isolation. Bigger firms are already multi-national and so they would already have the networks in place to meet, evaluate and penetrate new markets. Thus B2Bs are more important if your company is in the medium to small segment.

The need of B2B meeting arises from the idea that companies can benefit from networking with other firms either in the same business or allied businesses. Setting up B2B meetings is a very country specific process. It is an extremely challenging exercise. What applies to India may not necessarily apply to companies in China or say Brazil for that matter. Based on my experience of having organized such B2B meeting of various scales and level, I have listed below some rules that are generally applicable when you are in the process of planning and delivering B2B meeting for your company.

Evaluate the need: The first and most important aspect of setting up a successful B2B meeting is to evaluate your company's need. It is important that you spend those few crucial hours reading through or understanding in detail what the company you are representing wants. Ask question. Raise issues. Try to get into your company's shoes as to try to find relevant answers. What would your company be looking at? What are its intentions? Are they looking at entering a new market or just assess the potential? Are they looking at consolidating their presence in a market where they already exist? These are a few very relevant questions that you must answer before you begin the process of defining your company's need.

Do some research: The extent of research that you will do on the company and the sector to which it belongs depends on a few parameters. Is it the company you are working for as an employee or as a consultant? Which sector does it belong to? Do you have any major interest in the sector? Is it a sector that you would be continuing to focus on? Is this a one off task that you are undertaking or would you be required to or seek to handle more tasks of such nature. Given these rather broad parameters you would have to carry out some level of research into the sector that you are handling. Read a few industry reports and newspaper articles about the sector and if available about your company. Nine out of ten times the chances are that you will definitely get a few leads about other companies in the sector. This practice of research actually comes handy when you are trying to set up meeting for your company in another country. It helps to read about the developments that occur in the sector in that country. You definitely will also get a leads about companies with whom you could set up possible B2B meeting.

Define the need: Based on your evaluation and understanding of the needs of your company and the industry research you carry out it is time for you to set your focus on streaming and defining the needs of your company. What makes this different from evaluating the need of a company? When you define the needs of your company you are in turn undertaking a process of crystallizing the aspirations that your company wishes to achieve from the proposed B2Bs. This is in fact a very dynamic process. You may find a whole new approach or value proposition that you might want to suggest which also makes this a continuous process. The B2B meeting may just throw up some new ideas which you may share with your company in the day approaching the B2B meeting or even later. Hence it is very important that you define the need of your company as it helps you understand your company better before you venture out to set up meetings for them.

Spell out the agenda: It has been seen that most B2B meeting do not materialize or are not taken seriously because of the lack of well spelt out agenda. Setting up the agenda for a potential meeting is as important as evaluating the needs of your company. It is the first step towards establishing a good affirmative contact with potential B2B partners that can lead to fruitful meetings. It has been seen that companies are averse to meeting you if you do not have a clearly spelt out agenda. It is therefore important that you set the right agenda based on the needs of your company. It may still not be time for you to contact potential companies but a form of advance readiness would be very helpful when you speak to potential companies for meeting. The agenda could be very broad or it may be very specific. Whatever it be, there has to be something. It could be a meeting for a potential partnership, or a technology transfer agreement. It may be for a buyout or just a look see meeting. Companies would definitely not appreciate meeting across the table not knowing what the other person is looking out for or thinking about.

Define the strategy: You are now closer to begin the process of identifying potential companies for B2B meeting. But before you begin the actual process it is very crucial for you to set up an overall strategy of how you want to identify and target potential companies for meetings. How are you planning to pick and choose the target firms? With whom do you want to set up meetings for your company? What are the possible parameters on which you will identify the firms? How does your company want it to be? Should it be based on their turnover or is it based on their market size, their growth figures and/or ideas that you have gathered about their growth strategy? When you define your targeting strategy keep in mind what the focus of your company is.

Identifying & contacting target companies: Based on the strategy you have designed begin the process of identifying and contacting the target companies with whom you would like to plan and propose possible B2B meetings for your company. Your strategy plan will be a great aid to guide you in the process of identifying and contacting suitable companies for meetings. As you contact them, spell out the agenda clearly in line with your understanding of that company's interest. For instance, a company may be possibly interested in looking out for potential partners, let them know that your company is also looking out with the same set of ideas. Another company may be looking out for someone who could transfer technology to them, let them know that your company would also be interested in discussing those points. This is where it helps to understand your company's overall strategy and agenda well. It is important that you quickly move on from one potential company to the next. Keep informing them and get on the next one. You can always come back to check up on them. It is important that you contact a substantial number of companies for possible B2B meetings. May be somewhere in the ratio of 1:5 of more.

Set up your contact database: The messiest aspect of setting up B2B meetings is managing the contact database of all the companies that you are contacting. Understandably you will contact them by all means - phones, faxes, emails - it will help you to have a well laid out plan for managing the contact database. Advisably keep a bound notebook handy where you can keep noting down additional numbers, names, and contact details references any other information that you keep receiving. Loose papers can be messy and confusing. If you are working on a large database, you may also consider assigning code numbers to your contacts which will be easier to remember rather than full names of companies.

Your ability to set up good and well-ordered Business meetings can be a great boost to your career. It helps to keep these points in mind as you plan your next set of B2B meetings.