Prove that you can do something about their problems Explaining problems to vendors is work. If you can't give a reasonable assurance that the meeting will be

Prove that you can do something about their problems Explaining problems to vendors is work. If you can't give a reasonable assurance that the meeting will be productive, the people who have to take that meeting will naturally assume it will be a waste of time. No matter what my problems are, I'm not going to waste time talking about them with some company that's never done anything for me.