Easy and delicious recipe for a successful Virtual Freightcamp
Here you will find a delicious recipe for the Virtual Freightcamp occasion, taking place from 7-10 June.
It is easy to prepare. Even if you’re new to virtual meetings, it will be something simple to enjoy doing. The ingredients it requires are within everyone’s reach. Make sure you have a computer, a good internet connection, a camera and a microphone, normally included in your laptop.
It all begins with learning a few “basic” steps, which are in fact the same keys and foundations we all know well from our past in-person meetings. So, this recipe is valid for both virtual and in-person instances.
Step 1. Carefully prepare your meetings in advance
Meeting a new contact or existing partner after some time is a special occasion. You cannot leave it to a “let’s see what happens” approach. If you are aiming to create a valued connection prepare the meeting in advance.
A good idea is to use checklists to ensure you don’t forget to determine clear objectives, bring relevant points to the conversation and decide favourable outcomes. Some elements can be general but also each meeting and partner is unique, so pay attention in finding your mutual links.
2. Tenderize contacts with your openness and kindness
Start your meetings with a friendly small talk, you will be more likely to form a positive relationship if you take the time to find out about the person, before getting down to business. In the current times, it is easy to find points of conversation since we are all facing similar circumstances, remote work, lock-downs, isolation, etc.
Feel confident and prepared including a list of topics to open and close your meetings with friendly dialogue.
3. Blend opportunities on current and potential business
Initiate promising contacts in pre-arranged meetings with the freight agents of your choice. Explore opportunities of cooperation and find new business partners, whether you are the invitee or the invited in the meeting.
4. Add and mix synergies, leads, projects and developments
Keep the focus of your meetings so you can find synergies by trade lanes, freight specialties, relevant sales leads and regular business.
Here is our favourite topping: leave the last few minutes of every meeting to discuss the next steps.
5. Sprinkle a focused follow up of your meetings
You may have ended Virtual Freightcamp having around 20-30 1to1 meetings, that means many contacts, potential opportunities and even new deals.
You could classify your meetings depending on the synergies found so you do an appropriate follow up to all and maximise the outcome from the most promising ones.
It is clear that everyone focuses on first instance on the contacts with whom we found more possibilities of current cooperation, nobody misses there to follow up. However, leave the door open to those “colder” contacts by including them in your follow up strategy, maybe in future there is a match between you.
6. Measure results for a perfect dish
All the mix is out of the oven! Time to delight in the results of our meetings and connections. Monitoring and performing go hand in hand, in a regular way we must analyse if we are getting the expected outcome from our meeting connections and act if we need to improve.
Networking is an ongoing process and the above are only some tips within anyone’s grasp. Join us at Virtual Freightcamp to put this recipe into practice!
