Establishing and nurturing strong client relationships through client-meetings are crucial for building a thriving client book. The experiences of the client of this paper and industry peers support this notion. Surprisingly, little literature explores the direct link between client-meetings and RM performance, with some studies focusing solely on the impact on clients, not RMs' outcomes. Nonetheless, the frequency and quality of these meetings are closely monitored as a key indicator of an RM's effectiveness. Therefore, the relationship between these two variables had to be explored.

A correlation and regression analysis between the number of client-meetings and RM performance over five years was conducted to gain valuable insights. As data quality was crucial, the analysis focused on client-meeting numbers extracted from the CRM system and Outlook, complemented by an RM survey. The annual RM performance reports were used for establishing an RM performance ranking. The main issue was retrieving accurate client-meeting numbers. Therefore, the study considered Outlook schedule entries as the primary data source and set criteria for performance relevant client-meetings.

The study found that client-meetings are considered a relevant factor in explaining and predicting the performance of RMs, and an optimal meeting number based on the specific environment of this paper's client was determined. The number and quality of client interactions are seen as indicators of RMs' effectiveness in managing their client book. Higher client-meeting numbers have a positive impact on RM performance rankings or at least show a positive correlation with better performance. However, it remains unclear whether the high meeting numbers are a result of the RM's proactive approach that generates new business or a response to external business inflows and client demands. It is likely that a combination of both factors contributes to improved performance. Based on the research findings, the management is advised to continue including client-meetings as a performance metric. However, it is vital to measure meeting numbers accurately and consider other factors that may impact RM performance. Recommendations include introducing CRM entry guidelines, exploring the source of meeting requirement deviations, and considering the RM's mindset and attitude towards meeting targets.