You’ve got a meeting with a prospective client and you’ve left your preparation to the last minute. What are the ESSENTIAL things to learn during your taxi ride on the way to the meeting?

The Taxi Taxonomy, presented in the two-by-two below, is a client analysis cheat sheet. It is no substitute for more in-depth preparation, but provides a useful start to the intelligence gathering process. The Taxonomy suggests classifying your analysis into four Ps (to make it easier to remember):

• Profit drivers* – the revenue, cost and other strategic priorities of the organisation;
• Political drivers – the cultural and political state of the organisation;
• Position drivers – the role and requirements of the person you’re about to meet; and
• Personal drivers – their key personality attributes and preferences.

There is a continuum of data ranging from the overt to the obscure. The overt can usually be ascertained from web and social media searching. Obscure data most often comes from speaking with those with direct first-hand experience, including employees, clients, suppliers or business partners.

The Taxonomy in Practice

A client of mine gets her business analyst to prepare a one-page Google Doc summary based on the four quadrants in the Taxonomy before every client meeting. With repeat clients much of the data is the same but any new items or changes are highlighted. She then updates the Google Doc with new or fresh insights after each visit. Ironically this is usually done on her smartphone during the taxi trip back from the client.

MBA IN A DAY

For those interested, I will be expanding on this framework and presenting many others at a forthcoming public seminar called MBA IN A DAY. The seminar is targeted at mid-career lawyers looking to enhance their knowledge of business and develop a deeper understanding of their clients and prospects. Many lawyers are experts in the law but have received very little training in business. Click here to read more: http://mbainaday.strikingly.com/

Source: Fotolia

* For non-profit organisations and government agencies, this quadrant might be reframed as Purpose drivers, and include things like social charter, development strategy, cost and operational priorities and H2 and H3 opportunities.