Effective Preparation and Follow up to Client Meetings

How many meetings with clients have you been to that were aimless, unstructured and poorly planned? If you're like most professionals, probably quite a few.
The problem is particularly acute when it comes to business development meetings: your first few meetings with a potential client when you and they are trying to figure out whether you should work together. Make a judgement error at this point and the relationship is over before it's begun. Yet many professionals try to "wing it" with little preparation and only vague objectives for the meeting such as "get to know each other" or "find out their issues"
Effective meetings do not happen automatically. Planning the design, preparation, the equipment needed and who needs to be involved is critical to a meeting's success.