You will be able to run a first meeting in four parts: agenda, their situation, a fit check and the next step.
You have booked a first meeting. A coffee shop near Raffles Place, thirty minutes, with someone who answered your message and said they were open to a chat. You arrive early, order a kopi, and then a small panic sets in. What do you actually say once they sit down? Do you start with your product, with small talk, or with questions? And how do you end it without either pushing too hard or drifting off with "okay, keep in touch"?
Most first meetings go wrong because they have no shape. The seller talks, the buyer listens politely, and thirty minutes later nobody is sure what was agreed. A good first meeting has four parts: the agenda, their situation, a fit check and the next step. Each part has a job, and if you know which part you are in, you always know what to do next.
The first two minutes set the tone for everything after them. Before any questions about their situation, say three things out loud: how much time you have, what the meeting is for, and that you would like to ask some questions.
It might sound like this. "Thanks for making time. We've got about thirty minutes, is that still okay? I'd like to use it to understand what's going on for you and see whether I can help. If I can't, I'll tell you. Is it alright if I ask a few questions first?"
Then hand it over: "Before we start, is there anything you specifically want to cover today?" This question does more than it seems to. It tells you what is on their mind, and it turns the meeting into something you are doing together rather than something being done to them.
Picture Farhan, who sells accounting software to small businesses. His buyer, the owner of a bakery in Bedok, answers the agenda question with, "Mainly I want to know if it works with my payment terminal." Now Farhan knows the question he must answer before the meeting ends, and he has twenty-nine minutes to get there.
This is where most of the meeting should go. If you have thirty minutes, aim for at least half of it on the buyer's situation: what is happening now, what they have tried, what it costs them and what would need to change.
You already have the tools for this. Module 3, Listen more than you talk, covered the three levels of listening, open questions and summarising back. Use all three here. Ask open questions, follow up on the words the buyer uses, and before you move on, give them a short summary of what you heard. Lesson 3.3, Summarise back what you heard, explains why that summary matters: it shows them you understood, and it lets them correct you before you build on a wrong assumption.
The temptation is to jump to your product the moment you hear a problem it solves. Hold back. The buyer who mentions one problem in minute five often mentions the real one in minute fifteen, and you only hear it if you are still asking.
Once you understand their situation, say plainly what you can help with and what you cannot. This is the fit check: an honest statement of where your product matches the buyer's problem and where it does not.
For Farhan, it might sound like this. "From what you've said, the part I can help with is the month-end reconciliation that takes your Sunday. The payment terminal you use does connect, so that's covered. What I can't help with is the staff rostering you mentioned. That's a different kind of tool, and I'd be guessing if I told you otherwise."
Saying what you cannot do feels risky the first few times. In practice it does the opposite. It shows the buyer that your yes means something, which supports the credibility you worked on in module 2. It also saves you from a sale that turns into a complaint three months later.
Keep the fit check short. This is not the moment for a full presentation. Link each point to something the buyer said, using the buyer's own terms from module 4, and let them react.
The last few minutes are for agreeing what happens next and when. Most first meetings do not end with a purchase, and they should not try to. What you are closing is the meeting itself, with a step both of you have agreed to.
A next step might be a follow-up call with a business partner, a trial set up for one week, or you sending a short comparison by a named day. Propose one, and ask whether it suits them. "Shall I send you the pricing for the two plans that fit by Thursday, and we talk again on Monday morning?" Lesson 5.3, Ask for a next step every time, goes into this in detail.
If the buyer hesitates here and says they need to think about it, that is normal, and lesson 5.2 covers what to do.
Here is a rough split for a thirty-minute meeting, as a guide rather than a rule:
Agenda: two or three minutes Their situation: fifteen to twenty minutes Fit check: five minutes Next step: three to five minutes
If you finish the meeting and you are not sure which part ran long, it was probably the fit check, because that is where sellers slide into presenting. Watching the clock helps, and so does writing down in advance what you will say in each part.
The opening line and the next step are the two parts you can prepare almost word for word. The questions in the middle you can prepare as a short list and then let the conversation lead you away from it. Think of the next first meeting you have booked, or the one you would most like to book, and keep that buyer in mind as you start the activity.
Write a one-page plan for your next first meeting with the opening line, five questions and the next step you will propose.
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