"How long will it take," I asked into the telephone a week before the meeting.

"If we can't explain everything and get out of there in an hour, we have a problem," he replied.

They had a problem.

Fast forward to the meeting - an hour and twenty minutes into the hour-long meeting.  I was irritated and after returning from a restroom visit explained that we had ten minutes. 

"Another meeting?" was the reply.  "Trying to make a liar out of me," I thought.  I know, I know.  I should have said "we're closing in on the hour-and-a-half mark of an hour-long meeting."  But I am polite as I think most people are so the presenters never had a clue that I was more than finished.

But I am about learning and we could end this story with the best advice I've ever heard about a meeting: Stay within your time .  It is so simple and so solid.  It shows respect, it is appreciated and it will often be rewarded.  Yet every salesperson is tempted to keep selling.  It is practically a sign of success.  "We was there an hour-and-a-half," our presenters may have told themselves.  "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

No it isn't.  Set a time expectation and demonstrate your skills by staying within it.

My theory is that an hour meeting means a twenty minute presentation.  If you get to an hour - which is plenty of time to sell or explain so many things - and the prospect or client clears their calendar or is actively engaged and keeps asking questions, then and only then do you keep talking. 

If the listener has been quiet during the presentation and has no questions, you missed or they are sold.  That simple.  Don't drag them through additional punishment.  Thank them, leave and follow-up.  Show them how much you truly respect their time.