Thursday 27 - Finish every meeting with agreed next actions

Hello Subscriber,

Have you ever found yourself running out of time at the end of a meeting with a customer?

It can be so frustrating. You might have had a really good discussion, and they might be really interested in what you’re selling. But suddenly, you realise that the remaining time has just disappeared!

What can you do to ensure that this never happens again?

There’s one question that you can ask in your head all the way through the meeting, especially in the second half of the meeting:

“Who is going to do what and by when?”

Here are some typical answers to this question:

• You will prepare the first draft of a proposal and send it to the customer for review before the end of the day.

• You will make arrangements to meet with more stakeholders to enable other people to share their priorities and hopes.

• The customer will brief a key colleague on the discussions and what happens next.

• The customer will send you some further information to enable you to prepare more detailed proposals.

It is critically important that EVERY selling meeting with customers ends with an absolutely clear agreement about the next actions from everybody involved.

Here’s one area of practice to emphasise today

Confirm in writing

• If we finish every meeting with clearly agreed next actions, we can follow up every discussion with written confirmation.

• In our written confirmation, spell out very clearly who has agreed to do what to increase the chances of these next actions happening on time.

• If we’re using an email to confirm in writing, we might copy other key stakeholders so they can be aware.

• Using a collaboration platform, we might use an @ mention for some people so that they know what’s happening.

To Repeat: One area of practice to emphasise today

What does success with today’s practice look like?

• You will establish the habit of ending every meeting knowing exactly “who is going to do what by when”.

• You will no longer have to guess or make assumptions about the range of opportunities in your pipeline.

• You will sell more if you end every meeting with customers with clearly agreed next actions.

• The most common reason that sales don’t happen is that momentum is lost. Other priorities come along, and the customer is unable or unwilling to give the time and attention needed to bring things to a conclusion.

• End every meeting with agreed next actions to minimise the risk of losing momentum.

Coaching Focus

Here are some suggestions about what your sales team leader or coach can do to help you with today’s practice focus.

You could invite your sales team leader or coach to help you to:

1. Review recent meetings to ask you the question: “In this situation, what was agreed about who was going to do what by when?”.
   

2. Ask you the following coaching questions:

   1. Why is it sometimes difficult to finish meetings with customers with the question, “Who is going to do what and by when?”

   2. What could you do differently to ensure that every meeting with customers ends with great clarity about “who is going to do what and by when?”

   3. How will you remember to finish every meeting knowing who is going to do what and by when?

Final Reminder: One area of practice to emphasise today

If you have questions or comments, it would be great to hear from you. Just hit reply and send me an email.

Have a great day!

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