A week later, Amy called up Ms. Spins's secretary and set up an appointment with her.
After putting down the phone, she turned to Olga who had walked over to collect papers from the printer and said, "Well that is settled. Ms. Spins agreed to meet with the boss on the 2nd of April."
"Good. You should send them a meeting agend next."
"But aren't these meetings standard?"
"Yes and no. An agenda will help set everyone's expectations of the meeting straight and both sides get a chance to prepare in advance. It is also a good way to find out what a potential client's concerns are, since if they want to talk about something else they will tell you so. It will save a lot of time and make Dr. Soon look more professional."
"How so?"
"Well for one thing, if he knows what they are really interested in, then he can call the right people to get updates from them. I mean, we assume they want a call centre, but what if they are more interested in outsourcing the mail-order segment of their business. Just because Dr. Soon is the VP, it does not mean that he will know everything, but knowing what they want in advance will help him prepare to answer their questions more intelligently."
"Wow, I thought that executives and managers do know everything."
"Generally yes. But during these kind of discussions, the information they have must be very specific. They must be able to know what they can commit and what they can't commit to a potential client.”
Amy watched Olga's back for a while and finally concluded that Olga had never turned her down before, so she asked, "Could you show me how to write the meeting agenda suggestion?"
Olga smiled; Amy always did use the right words to ask for her help, how could she refuse.
Ref: Gadgets/200307-01
Date: 20 March 2007
From: Dr. Soon Le Mah
Vice President of Sales and Supply Chain Management
Direct Line: +60-xxx-xxx (Direct)
Direct Fax: +60-xxx-xxx (Direct)
Email: Soon@here.com
To: Ms. Susie Spins
President of Procurement
Gadgets2Go Pte. Ltd., Kuching
Tel: +60-xxx-xxx
Fax: +60-xxx-xxx
Dear Ms. Spins
Re: Meeting Agenda
I look forward to meeting you on 2 April 2007. Our secretaries have confirmed the time as 2.00pm to 4.00pm. I hope to be able to cover the following topic on that day.
If you should have any other issue you wish to discuss, please feel free to contact my office and I will try to get the information you need before the date of the meeting.
Yours truly,
.............................
Dr. Soon Le Mah