Throughout my nearly 30 years of experience, I have always found that the best way to prospect is through referrals.

There is nothing stronger than being introduced in an extremely positive way to a new prospect, from someone who they trust and care about.

In order to generate these referrals, you’ll need to tap into your existing client base, leveraging their network of friends and family.

You can’t wait for the referrals to come to you. You have to take initiative and actively prospect with your clients on a regular basis.

The great news is that it’s simple and easy to do with the right approach. The right approach is by using an agenda in your client meetings that blocks off time for prospecting.

Introducing The Agenda

Hypothetically, imagine that you are an existing client of mine who is meeting with me for an annual review. There are couple things I want you to feel within the first minutes of the meeting that the agenda will help accomplish.

First, I want you to feel that I’m professional. I’m professional because I came prepared for this meeting. I’m not just winging it.

In addition, I want you to know that I care enough about you that I am using the agenda to make sure you know how our time will be utilized, instead of me just doing whatever I want to do.

With this in mind, you should have your agenda printed out and open with some dialogue along the lines of the following:

Then, the client typically says, “Yes, that’s good.”

This is really simple, but think about what we’ve just accomplished. They’ve experienced you as a professional, who is prepared and cares enough about them to check in prior to diving into the meeting.

Additionally, they just gave you permission to prospect at the end of the meeting. What may have been a daunting task had you not brought it up at the beginning, is now out in the open and agreed upon.

Use The Agenda With Existing Clients

A word of wisdom: Do not bring up prospecting on the agenda with a prospective, new client.

Imagine if you’re a brand new client, you’ve known me only for a few minutes and I’m bringing up prospecting on the agenda.

You would not have even figured out if YOU want to work with me yet. You haven’t even figured out if you like me yet! It would not be professional or appropriate.

I’m not telling you not to prospect at the end of a new client meeting with a prospect where everything is going really well. There may be situations where it makes sense to do it. I’m simply telling you not to open with an agenda that has prospecting on it.

However, you should use this agenda in all of your annual reviews with existing clients. I found it to be extraordinarily helpful in my meetings.

Not only for the reasons stated above, but it also helped solidify my own commitment to prospect in all of these meetings. With prospecting on the agenda, you're highly likely to do it and dedicate the appropriate amount of time to it, not just the last two minutes.

I encourage you not just to read this article, but to take action! Start using an agenda in your meetings and you’ll quickly see how your prospecting results – and your clients perception of you as a professional – are greatly enhanced.

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