Aim to go into every selling conversation with an agreed agenda

Hello Subscriber,

Our goal is to finish every selling conversation with clarity about “who is going to do what and by when”.

Today, I’ll share with you one of the most reliable ways to achieve this goal.

People have been meeting to develop ideas and decide what to do for thousands of years. Generations before us have come up with the answers about how to make meetings more effective. So what’s the big idea that has emerged from these thousands of years of experience?

It’s enormously valuable for all meeting participants to know what’s coming ahead of time. It’s called an agenda.

As far as you can, plan to go into every selling conversation with an agreed agenda. This way, everybody knows what to expect, even before the conversation starts.

And it makes it very straightforward for you to include in your agenda that the last thing you’ll discuss is “who is going to do what and by when”.

Example First Meeting Agenda

Here’s an example of an agenda you could propose for a first meeting with a potential new customer:

1. Our products and services - A very brief introduction to our products and services that might be of particular value to you.

2. Current situation - How you currently do things in this area of your business.

3. Goals - Your performance improvement goals.

4. Discussion - How your performance improvement goals might be achieved with our products and services.

5. Proposals - Development of outline proposals and commercial implications, to be confirmed subsequently in a first draft proposal.

6. Next actions - including the date, time and location of our meeting to review the first draft proposals.

Is the agenda in writing or agreed upon verbally?