As a freelance writer, you will occasionally or frequently have meetings with clients. It is vital that these meetings are well planned and well run; otherwise both you and your clients will waste valuable time.
I’ve had hundreds of phone meetings and face-to-face meetings with freelance writing clients. I’ve learned the importance of following the crucial rules for effective meetings I discuss below.
There are 4 types of meetings: in-person, phone, Internet, and a hybrid of some combination of in-person, phone, and Internet.
(Note: this post focuses on meetings related to freelance writing or other work projects; however, the advice applies to all types of meetings. Either way, you need these meetings to be as productive as possible, whether it’s a large group or just you and one other person.)
Before the Meeting with Your Freelance Writing Client
- Confirm the times the meeting starts and ends.
- Confirm the meeting place.
- Confirm who is attending.
- Confirm the detailed agenda and schedule.
- Confirm who will be running the meeting.
Do all of this both at the time the meeting is originally set and also 24-48 hours before the meeting happens. If you are the chair, firmly request a response from all attendees that they will be there. If more than 2 weeks elapses from the time the meeting is originally set, give an additional reminder around 5 days before. If you are not the chair, encourage whoever is the chair to take these steps.
If a meeting does not have a clear agenda, a clear stop time, and firm commitments that the important people will attend, you will likely wind up wasting a lot of time, not achieving any major objectives, and having to set yet another meeting. If possible, refuse to attend such a meeting and explain your reasons why.
During the Meeting with Your Freelance Writing Client
- Establish camaraderie and a good atmosphere. You want everybody to get along and feel comfortable with each other to the highest degree possible.
- The meeting chair must ensure that the meeting covers all the agenda items adequately and in line with the meeting schedule.
- Attendees should practice good communication skills, including listening to others, being respectful of others’ opinions, and being diplomatic and succinct when speaking.
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Important Results of the Meeting with Your Freelance Writing Client
- Who is responsible for what tasks.
- When the tasks will be finished.
- How attendees will coordinate tasks with each other.
- The time and place of the next meeting, with a tentative agenda that will be finalized later in light of the outcomes of the various tasks to be completed.
All of the above apply to telephone conference calls and Internet based meetings, with the additional caveat that you, or the meeting chair, must ensure that everyone has any needed telephone numbers or website addresses, along with pass codes.
Your Take
How do you coordinate and handle meetings with your clients? Any specific tips to add? Horror stories to share?
Thanks for this, John. I’m copying, pasting and keeping.
I’m glad you find it so useful, Marcie!
I attend or conduct web-based meetings every day, and the one bit of advice I’d offer is to make sure you have the best possible audio. If you are hard to hear or too loud or garbled it will be difficult to be effective and will annoy your audience.
– Invest in a good microphone/headset. Do some research and be ready to spend some money
– Whether you use a phone or VOIP, record yourself using the software and hardware you will employ in meetings and adjust based on what you hear.
– If you can, have someone record you from their end and listen to that for clues on how to improve.
The trick is to have your audio go unnoticed – if you are coming through fine people will listen to you and won’t think “Wow, what great sound!”. If you can barely be heard or are “chewing the mike” people will notice that and will be paying less attention to what you are saying.
Excellent advice, Craig. I’ve also been on meetings with poor audio, and it’s very distracting. The same goes for many of the podcasts I’ve listened to.
Interesting… I realized I do usually set an end time or give an estimate of how long I think we need to talk. You know, ‘we should be able to get this done in an hour or less.’ Good list, John.
Thanks, Anne.
I just got off a call with a potential new client and his team that went very well. He had a clear agenda and made sure we discussed every item on it.
congrats!