2/6/2024-Meeting Management

Selling is a series of "one shot to make a good impression," so you must make the most out of your customer meetings. Even if you’ve seen this client a million times, create a meeting agenda!

Whether you’re pitching a talker or a nodder, managing customer meetings is hard. There’s so much you want and need to cover, yet time moves at double speed.

There’s an easy fix: focus on the one or two things you must* accomplish for every meeting.

After creating a customer-focused agenda for an upcoming meeting, study the following sample list of topics to help you decide on your must get for the interaction.

> Value proposition: is this the meeting to pound hard on how your VP meets the customer’s needs?
> Objections: do you know what could derail this opp?
> Needs analysis: do you have a full picture of client needs or need more insights to best frame your VP?

Meetings go fast…orchestrate them through a tight agenda that delivers for both you and the customer.

Ever been in a pitch meeting that completely goes south because of one small issue that blows up? Of course, you have.

Solution: use agendas.

If you feel a little queasy about using agendas when creating an informal tone for your meetings…stop that silly thinking right now! The benefits you’ll reap from presenting an agenda are too plentiful to ignore.

You’ll appear and be more professional to the buyer by using agendas; they’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness and respect for their time.

Wait ’til you sense the customer’s relief that you’re organized when you open meetings like this: "So I prepared this agenda to ensure we’re productive…oh, and certainly if you have other items you want to cover, I’m happy to listen."

In this 2-minute SNL skit, it’s obvious Rainn Wilson is NOT using a prepared agenda to run the meeting.

As you’d expect, chaos ensues.

Agendas will help you manage your customer meetings, but it’s your targeted preparation that will yield what you need from each interaction.