I’m often surprised by how little research some do before walking into client meetings. It’s always awkward when someone walks in and doesn’t know the company’s primary business, main revenue lines or organizational focus. Why should they hire you if you aren’t going to spend 10 minutes looking up who they are?
Wikipedia and LinkedIn are every salesperson’s best tools. Wikipedia tells you everything you need to know about a company’s history and business. LinkedIn tells you who you know, their role and what they think they do. With those two tools you can know everything you need before walking into a room.
So why aren’t you opening them up before you walk in the room?