How to Prepare for that Initial Business Meeting

"You have an initial business meeting. Before the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), demonstrating that you cared enough to research the person and company would have earned appreciation. Today, your failure to conduct research will count against you. It is important to perform preliminary secondary research using 21 st century tools. Is It Worth Your Time? Is the meeting important enough for you to be spending your time researching the person/company? If you frame the question in a binary way, you get "essential/not essential." This blunt framework may cause you to miss opportunities. We recommend using an ordinal scale of 0 to 10. Assigning the meeting a "0" means it is a courtesy meeting, typically a "meet and greet," that has no impact on your career. Assigning the meeting a "10" means it could be critical. If you assign the meeting a rating of 6 or higher, we recommend using the ideas below to conduct preliminary secondary research."

"Why would you want to spend time conducting research for an initial business meeting? Garick Ng, author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right (2021), frames his response around your ability to build a new relationship upon your demonstrating what he calls "the three C's: competence, commitment, and compatibility." There is another reason: in an age of AI, an overwhelming amount of information is easily accessible. Failure to do your homework before an initial meeting could work against you more than the praise you might earn for having done the research."

Assess meeting importance on an ordinal scale from 0 to 10 rather than a binary essential/not essential framework. Assign 0 for courtesy meet-and-greets and 10 for critical meetings. Conduct preliminary secondary research when a meeting rates 6 or higher using 21st-century AI tools and online resources. Research demonstrates competence, commitment, and compatibility and helps build new relationships. Use LinkedIn to identify shared experiences such as schools, associations, and companies. Look for anniversary dates and other conversational entry points. Failure to prepare in an era of abundant information can harm professional prospects.

Read at Psychology Today