Prepare an encounter that can change the work

Start from the customer’s actual situation and the result still missing. Use a recent episode, current comparison or failed attempt to establish the question. Keep a reported problem, a possible explanation and a warranted reason for action distinct. Reuse sufficient knowledge before asking the customer for it again.

Set a concrete attainable objective for the encounter: obtain an introduction to the problem owner, clarify a consequential criterion, obtain permission for a sample, or agree who will prepare a proposed trial. “Build the relationship” does not say what the other person can use or what changed. The proposed objective must allow a useful correction, refusal or different next action.

Prepare from the question backward. Recover facts available elsewhere; identify the relationship, consequence or alternative that needs the participant’s knowledge; prepare questions and suitable material for that relationship. For a consequence, trace the proposed connection before asserting a benefit: which extra work follows from this difficulty, for whom, under what conditions? Ask what would defeat the explanation as well as what supports it. MKT.12 supplies needed inquiry and MKT.1 the qualified customer situation; a domain expert supplies a missing technical or operating account.

After the encounter, compare the actual return with the objective. An introduction received, a criterion clarified and a demonstration requested are different results. Preserve the new fact and its limits, identify who will use it, and prepare the next contribution from that changed state. A cordial meeting can leave the objective unmet; an unwelcome correction can settle it usefully. What happens between meetings also matters: a colleague can reject the case, a provider can withdraw support, or the customer can propose a better trial after reflection.