# Meetings with people who cannot say yes Quote: "We book meetings with people who can't say yes." Canonical: https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/meetings-with-people-who-cannot-say-yes No. 14 of 20 in "Sound familiar?" (https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar) Service: Pipeline That Fills (https://fortitudemedia.ai/pipeline-that-fills) Publisher: Fortitude Media Limited When quoting, attribute to Fortitude Media and link to the canonical URL above. --- ## Why do our sales meetings keep being with people who can't make the decision? Meetings land with the wrong people when whoever books them is measured on meetings booked, not on who turns up. Junior staff accept calls more readily than owners, so any volume target drifts towards them. Fix the definition first: a meeting counts only if the person owns or materially influences the decision, works at a firm that fits, and knows what the call is about. The calendar looks healthy. Then you join the call and it's an assistant gathering options, or a manager who needs to ask someone who has never heard of you. Forty minutes, a polite follow-up, silence. ## How the wrong people end up in your diary ### You are paying for bookings An appointment setter or sales development rep on a meetings-booked target will find the people most willing to take a meeting. Those are rarely the people with the budget. You get what you count. ### The list was built on job titles A title tells you little. In one firm the operations director signs everything, and in the next nothing moves without the owner. Finding out who decides means researching the firm and then the person, and most lists skip both. ### The invitation was vague Messages offering a quick chat about synergies get accepted by people who don't know what they have agreed to. The meeting starts as a surprise and ends as a courtesy. ## What it is costing you Count last quarter's first meetings and mark those where the person could never have said yes. For each, add the hours: preparation, the call, the follow-up, the proposal you probably wrote anyway. For example, 15 wasted meetings at four hours each is 60 hours of senior time. Put your day rate on that, then add whatever you paid to have them booked. ## Check it yourself in ten minutes The evidence is already in your CRM or calendar. 1. Pull the last 20 first meetings. Next to each, write the attendee's job title and whether they could have signed. 2. Mark which ones led to a second meeting with someone more senior. That is your real qualified rate. 3. Reread the message that booked each wasted meeting. Did it say plainly what you sell? 4. Look at how whoever books them is paid. If the words held and qualified appear nowhere, you have found the cause. ## What we would do in the first 90 days We start with the definition, because everything else follows from it. - **Week 1:** Agree in writing what a qualified meeting is: held, with someone who owns or materially influences the decision, at a firm matching agreed criteria, who knowingly agreed to talk about your offer. - **Weeks 2 to 4:** Two-pass research. First the firm: does it fit. Then the person: who decides, and what gives them a reason to talk this month. Month one is warm-up. - **Months 2 and 3:** 80 to 120 approaches a month, each written and approved by a person. The fee is per meeting held. The monthly report counts meetings held and pipeline accepted by your sales team. Pipeline That Fills is £1,500 to set up, £1,000 to £1,500 a month to manage, and £500 to £1,000 per meeting held. No meeting, no meeting fee. Prices exclude VAT. ## Questions founders ask ### Who decides whether a meeting was qualified? The definition does. It is agreed before any message goes out, along with the criteria a firm has to match, so there is little to argue about afterwards. The person either owns or materially influences the decision or they don't. ### Is a meeting with an influencer ever worth taking? Yes, if they materially influence the decision and can get you to the person who signs. A finance director who shapes the shortlist is worth an hour. Someone collecting brochures for a boss who hasn't asked for them is not. ### Can we fix this with the sales rep we already have? Often, yes. Measure them on qualified meetings held, not meetings booked, and cut their volume so they have time to research who decides. Expect fewer meetings for a month or two, and judge the change on second meetings and proposals. ## Related - "I delete twenty LinkedIn pitches a week. I'm not going to send them." · https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/i-will-not-send-linkedin-spam - "The last agency sent reports, not customers." · https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/agency-sent-reports-not-customers Next step: a free 30-minute Growth Review with a founder, ending with three fixes in writing. https://fortitudemedia.ai/growth-review