PREPARING FOR THE MEETING 307
CHASING IT
No matter how often you check your mail, there is nothing from the bank. No matter
how hard you stare at the telephone, it does not ring. When will your nerve break? When
will you chase the target? Circumstances might guide you. If not, a telephone call after
about two weeks will probably nudge things along. Invariably, when this is necessary it
means that your plan was sitting still unread in an in-tray. As I keep saying, it is really dif-
ficult to persuade people to find the time to read your plan. This is one of the reasons why
you want to make it flickable and include photographs and charts to pull in the potential
reader. Presentation is everything right now.
Preparing for the meeting
Usually your first meeting is a round-table discussion, a general chat. You are more likely
to make a formal presentation at internal corporate reviews. Sometimes this is requested
at second or third meetings with external sources of funding – but I have seen or made
formal presentations at probably only 1 in 100 outside business plan meetings.
Nevertheless, it is important to be ready to give a formal or semi-formal presentation of
the plan. Whether or not you expect to make a presentation, it is a good idea to prepare
enough slides or handouts to take you through the key points. Again, the key is remem-
bering what the audience wants to hear and telling it to them.
Try to find out who will be at the meeting and how they will fit into the decision
-making process (see Seven groups at the conference table, page 290). For example, if a
lawyer will be there, you might expect questions about your copyright or patents, while
an accountant is more likely to quiz you on financial details.
You know almost for certain that when you arrive at the meeting, you will be the only
person who has read the plan from cover to cover. You might want to think about how
you will explain the contents. If you have done your homework properly, you can use the
list of contents as your (informal) agenda.
Whatever the occasion, you should probably prepare some hand-outs. If it
is my plan, I usually print a few of the charts, each one as large as possible in
colour on a single sheet of crisp A4 or letter paper. Make sure that you have
enough copies so that you can give one to each person in the meeting. Then, if the
discussion turns to an appropriate topic – such as break even, sales, or cash flow –
you can produce a picture to illustrate your point. Include a cross-reference to the
business plan so listeners can later find and read the associated commentary.
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