Meetings come in many flavors. Internal meetings, meetings with customers, meetings with suppliers, meetings with regulatory agencies, meetings with strategic partners, etc.

Often, the meeting with an outside person or group is either leading up to or in response to a contract. For those meetings, special attention has to be paid to how the meeting is set up and conducted

Before each pre-contract meeting, it is important to review not only the goals of the immediate meeting, but also the goals of the contract negotiation (even before a contract negotiation is started). Sometimes, innocent statements in an early meeting provides key information that might harm your negotiation later.

Negotiations are a delicate dance of compromise. If you give secrets away to your future partner, the final compromise may unfairly favor your partner.

If the contract will be negotiated by someone else in your company, consult with them so they know the meeting is occurring and invite them. They can also tell you some sensitive topics to avoid or positions that should be subtlety inserted into the meeting conversation.

Sometimes you can gather important information for your company by watching how the other side interacts with you. Who is the decision maker? What issues seem more important than others?

For after-contract meetings, it is important to know the major terms of the contract so you don't make statements that could be misconstrued by the other side. Sometimes, especially with foreign contract partners that live a different culture and speak a different language, it is possible for them to take away an innocent statement to mean your company is changing the terms of the contract.

Treat every meeting as an opportunity to negotiate, whether it is planting early seeds of your position, or gathering information that will help your company in the future.

-Don Burtis