11/5/2024-Single topic meeting agendas

Buyers may not openly fawn all over you when you use an agenda to start a meeting, but they’ll secretly respect that you are thinking about their time. Use meeting agendas….always.

Meeting time with your customers is always limited, putting enormous pressure on you to run them efficiently.

It’s never good hearing the customer say, "I have to go." So if the meeting is scheduled for 30 minutes, close it down after 25.

Creating and managing a single-topic agenda for client interactions proves you can manage priorities and time. You’ll still be able to wander into other topics, but having one agenda item will create a calm and measured pace for your meetings.

The customer may judge their trust in you as much by your ability to tightly manage a meeting as by your offering value.

As you build your agenda today for an upcoming pitch meeting, answer the question, "what kind of meeting is this?"

Is it a value meeting where you must differentiate yourself from the competition?

Is it a meeting about issues and challenges that need attention to unlock forward motion?

Or…is it a trust meeting? (Well…they’re all trust meetings.)

Let your answers to the above drive your agenda construction; your customers will appreciate your focus.

The number one reason sellers don’t extract maximum value from their client pitch meetings is that they don’t create and use an agenda. The second biggest mistake that hinders meeting efficiency is jamming too many items onto the agenda.

The good news is this is easily solvable.

Create a habit you will follow religiously: create the agenda and use the agenda in the meeting.

Many sellers report they feel uncomfortable presenting an agenda in a meeting. Look at the issue from the other direction: do you know how relieved your prospects will be when you come prepared and in control? (They’ll be ecstatic…and you’ll be differentiated against 95% of reps who don’t come prepared with formal agendas.

The highest form of respect you can pay customers for their time is showing them how you are prepared. An agenda does that and more!

For many sellers, proper prep means subscribing to a ritual…like preparing agendas for every customer meeting!

Who better to help you think about rituals than master basketball shooter Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors? This Steph video featuring his non-traditional prep protocol will make you smile.

Creating a single-topic agenda may not be the same as prepping for a basketball game, but if you focus on smart meeting prep, you’re more apt to hear the customer say, "Thanks for putting an agenda together."