Pre-visit brief template for customer visits

Short answer: A pre-visit brief is one page you fill in before meeting a customer in person. It names the visit's goal, the dated reasons for meeting now, who will attend and who is missing, your questions, what to bring, and the next step you will propose. Fill it in the day before.

A pre-visit brief template gives you one page to fill in before you meet a customer in person: who you will meet, why the meeting is happening now, what you want to leave with, and what has to be ready on the day. Copy the template below, fill it in the day before, and read it once on the way in.

A visit costs more than a call. You travel, the customer gives you a room and an hour, and several people may join who never answered an email. So the brief needs two things a call brief can skip: the logistics, and a clear reason the visit is worth everyone's time. If the meeting is a video call, use the shorter pre-call brief instead.

The template

Keep it to one page. Write "unknown" where you don't know yet; each unknown is a question to ask.

How to fill in each section

Goal

Write one outcome you can check when you walk out. "Build the relationship" is not a goal. "Agree who runs the trial and when it starts" is. If you can't name one, ask your contact what they hope the meeting decides.

Why now

Use changes with dates: a new leader, a job post for the role that owns the problem, an engineering article about the pain, a run of incidents. A source with no date is a lead to check, not a reason. The guide to buying signals covers which changes hold up.

Who will be there, and who is missing

Ask your contact for the invite list a few days before. For each name, check they still hold the role, and write the date you checked. Then look at who isn't coming. A visit with the engineers but no one who owns the budget can go well and still lead nowhere. A stakeholder map helps when more than four people are involved.

What to bring

Anything you show should work offline or on a phone hotspot, in case the guest Wi-Fi doesn't. If you demo, load it with something from their world, such as their public incident history or a job post that names the problem. Print the brief or keep it on your phone, not only on a laptop you will close.

The day before

• Confirm the time, the address, the entry process and who meets you at reception.
• Recheck the news and job posts for anything from the last week.
• Send the agenda to your contact, with the goal in the first line.
• Check the demo on the laptop you will bring.

After the visit

Within a day, write what you learned under each section: answers to your questions, who said what, and what changed in the plan. Send the next step you agreed, with its date, to everyone who was in the room. The brief then becomes the start of your account plan for the deal.