2/6/2025-Pitch meeting management musts

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!

"Damn…I didn’t find out about X" is the worst possible reaction after you’ve left your pitch meetings.

You can easily avoid that horrible feeling through proper prep.

Head into your meetings with the premise that you may never see or talk to the customer again for a long time. Ask yourself, "What must I accomplish in this meeting?" And, "What must I ask?"

Pre-script your one agenda item and associated questions for your customer and you’ll never hit yourself over the head after a pitch meeting again.

In addition to getting requisite tactical questions answered in your next pitch meeting, think about covering these core categories to your meeting musts list:

1. Value proposition: how much time do you need to spend on your VP for this particular customer?

2. Possible objections: what questions will you ask that surface the truth about how your prospect is really thinking about your offering?

Meetings go fast. Orchestrate them with tight agendas.

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."

If you are as sharp at running meetings as Rainn Wilson is in this SNL Short, you won’t need to prepare agendas and questions before your meetings.