The Shared Agenda: Confirming And Controlling Meetings
Meetings that drift without structure waste everyone's time and kill deals. In this video, sales training legend John Barrows breaks down one of the most underutilized tools in a seller's arsenal: the shared agenda. Barrows explains how sending a clear, collaborative agenda before every meeting does triple duty --- it confirms attendance, aligns expectations, and establishes you as a professional worth doing business with. He walks through the exact format, what to include and exclude, and how to use the agenda as a steering mechanism during the conversation itself. If you have ever had a prospect show up unprepared, go dark after a call, or take the meeting in an unproductive direction, this framework solves all three. It is a deceptively simple tactic that top performers use religiously and average sellers overlook entirely.
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About This Video
Meetings that drift without structure waste everyone's time and kill deals. In this video, sales training legend John Barrows breaks down one of the most underutilized tools in a seller's arsenal: the shared agenda. Barrows explains how sending a clear, collaborative agenda before every meeting does triple duty --- it confirms attendance, aligns expectations, and establishes you as a professional worth doing business with. He walks through the exact format, what to include and exclude, and how to use the agenda as a steering mechanism during the conversation itself. If you have ever had a prospect show up unprepared, go dark after a call, or take the meeting in an unproductive direction, this framework solves all three. It is a deceptively simple tactic that top performers use religiously and average sellers overlook entirely.
What You'll Learn
- ♦How to structure a shared agenda that prospects actually read and engage with
- ♦The psychology behind why shared agendas reduce no-shows and late cancellations
- ♦How to use your agenda mid-meeting to keep the conversation on track without being pushy
- ♦What to include in the agenda to establish authority before you even speak
- ♦How to handle prospects who ignore your agenda or try to derail the meeting
- ♦Why sending an agenda changes the power dynamic from vendor to trusted advisor