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Question number eight on the docket for things you might do in a sales meeting with a client prospect, is…
Do you ask to use the bathroom?
Of course, one imagines that if you have to go, you ask. I’m not suggesting that you’d hold it. But, would you ask to use the bathroom even if you didn’t have to go?
It cuts into your meeting time, which is certainly one reason not to do it.
That said, here are four reasons to visit the facilities, whether you need to employ them or not.
1) You never know whom you’ll meet in the bathroom. It’s like a mini-tour, and you just might run into the CEO. In which case introduce yourself and tell him or her why you’re here.
2) If the meeting is going well, and you’ve established credibility as someone useful, take the break near the end of the meeting. It gives you a minute to think, to connect the dots around what you’ve heard so far, and to make sure there isn’t an important question you’ve not yet asked.
3) If the meeting isn’t going well, the ol’ bathroom break is a temporary get-out-of-jail-free-card. It gives you a chance to reset your plan for the rest of the meeting.
4) It gives them time to think. They get a chance to have a quick chat, and hopefully stir up something that they want to ask you about. Don’t be surprised if you return from the restroom and find three people in your future client’s office, each with questions for you.
And finally, thinking practically, when you’re on the road you never know when you’ll have the chance to use a clean restroom. Take the opportunity.
Tags: bathroom, chance, opportunity, thinking, time
