Set Expectations for a More Productive Sales Meeting

How many times has this happened to you? You get into a sales meeting and the prospect looks at you and says, “I’m really busy today and I have only ten minutes for you. What do you have for me?” This is after you have been waiting in the lobby for 20 minutes past the meeting’s scheduled start time.

Or you get to the end of your meeting and ask the prospect for a decision, and the prospect says “I didn’t realize I would have to make a decision on this today. I thought that when you said 'move forward' it meant that I would review what we discussed today and think about the next steps I want to take with this.” You leave the meeting, walk back to your car, and ask yourself, “What just happened in that meeting?” or “Why weren’t we on the same page?” You’re left feeling out of control of the sales process.

We all go into meetings with a certain set of expectations and ideas on the agenda and goals that we want to accomplish. The prospect you’re meeting with has their own agenda and goals in mind for the meeting or call as well. The challenge is that your agenda and your goals may not be aligned with theirs.

Unless expectations and goals are clearly expressed and agreed to between you and the prospect before you meet or have a call, both of you will be left feeling frustrated and the meeting or call will not be productive. The result is that you lose control of the sales process, sales cycles become longer, and you can turn into a “professional visitor” rather than moving the sale along with each meeting, call, or interaction with a prospect.

Think back to your meetings and calls with prospects in the last 3 months. How often do you and your prospect lack clarity on what you both wanted to get out of the interaction, and on what decisions were to be made at the end?

Start setting clearer and stronger expectations to remove any lack of clarity for your interactions with prospects. This will help you to remain in control of the sales process from the start. I encourage you to do this for all meetings and calls in your life – both business and personal.

Shad Tidler

Connect with Shad Tidler

For 25 years, Lushin has guided business leaders toward intentional, predictable growth.

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