My third week with OPRO has been a bit of a tricky one as I wasn’t able to make into their head office due to commitments with the club. I needed to be in everyday during the week for my rehab, as it was a short turn around for the club heading to Cardiff for a Friday night game.
I was determined to try and make some headway off the back of the contracts meeting myself and Daniel had last week. He had mentioned a contract had come up for renewal with a company I was already involved in so I got in contact and arranged a meeting for late afternoon that I could attend after club duties. This would be my first meeting, by myself, representing OPRO so needless to say the nerves kicked in nearer the time. I arranged to meet the client at a local coffee shop and we chatted for about an hour. Reflecting back I felt I gave a good account of myself and OPRO and feel like some business will be done between the two parties in the future.
Daniel had prepped me really well on what OPRO could provide for the client and what they would expect in return, with a certain amount of leeway in-between. This really helped my confidence and I think the research/training they’d given me in each department the previous two weeks had set me up quite well in terms of knowledge on the product, company etc.
It’s with this confidence that I wanted the deal to happen there and then, for them to say yes let’s do it and me to be able to call the directors and say I was able to get it over the line. But I quickly realised it doesn’t work like that and I remember David (OPRO MD) saying to one of his employees on my very first day, “you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you reach the prince”. I realise that a lot of groundwork are put into these deals and you will have to take meeting after meeting before anything happens, which in a way is great at the moment as I’m learning something new at each one!
Myself and Daniel were able to meet up the following afternoon so I could give him a debrief and allow him to keep me up to speed with another campaign he’s working on and I will be involved in. They’re definitely keeping me on my toes and busy which is brilliant and for them to have the confidence in allowing me to take my first meeting showed a lot of trust.
Looking forward to the next club, association or governing body that I can meet and to help the clubs in their upcoming campaigns.