The 3 Big Benefits of Sending an Agenda.

Sending an agenda to your contact person before a meeting sounds fundamental, but from my experience, not many salespeople do this or are not doing it well.

There may be reasons why this is not done. Salespeople are busy people, and sending an agenda is seen as ‘another’ thing to do. But there are advantages to making this your discipline. There are also risks associated with not making this a habit.

Let’s review them together:.

Benefit Nr.1: The customer comes prepared

First, consider how the meeting with the customer was arranged. Did you agree to meet again a few months ago, or was the appointment made very recently?

Whatever it is, there is a risk that your contact, running a very busy schedule themselves, forgot what topics you agreed to discuss. Entering the meeting room like that is awkward at best. You may even have to remind the customer of the main reason for your visit.

Sending an agenda ahead of your meeting has the benefit that your customer comes prepared. They will join the meeting with a formed opinion and may even have challenging questions for you. The bottom line: the conversation will be of higher quality than joining the meeting unprepared. That is what you want as a Trusted Advisor. If the engagement level is high, you increase your chances of helping customers move forward in their buying process.

Benefit Nr. 2: The customer brings another stakeholder. 

This is one of the major challenges Salespeople face: how to reach and involve more stakeholders. We know that buying rooms are getting bigger and bigger. Statistics show that when Salespeople reach out to more stakeholders, their closing ratios increase, too.

Hence, when you send an agenda before your meeting, your contact person may want to bring another stakeholder in. This is particularly true if you are selling from the Buyer’s Perspective and making the agenda a rather more strategic and forward-looking Discovery conversation.

Benefit Nr. 3: The customer adds their topics to the agenda

I recently experienced the following at a customer meeting with a sales rep i was joining for the day: There was no agenda set other than an introduction of the new contact person after a previous one has left the company. When we entered the customer’s premises, we were invited to go on a warehouse tour. All went well at this stage. Back in the boardroom, we sat down with the new logistics manager, and because she was so new, there were questions she couldn’t answer, but because she wanted to understand the situation, she called the CFO in. He had many questions for our sales rep, like the differences between the quotation of a forwarder and what we offered.

Our sales rep did fantastic work and knew her stuff. Everything was cleared, and potentially, this was turning into a great win. But what is the moral of this story?

If the sales rep had sent an agenda, then the new logistics manager would have invited the CFO anyway to the meeting. By asking the new logistics manager if there was anything else she would like to add to the agenda, our sales rep could have prepared for the CFO’s questions.

The Agenda Process

In summary, sending an agenda ahead of a customer meeting has these three advantages. And the process is straightforward:

• Write the subjects you would like to discuss as the first agenda point. Ideally, keep these to two maximum
• Ask who else should attend the meeting (related to your subjects)
• Ask what else they would like to add to the agenda

For sales reps, this wouldn’t take too much time. It’s a matter of being well-prepared and making it a habit as part of your sales process. The advantages definitely outweigh the time it would take.

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