Wake Up and SELL!

When we say ‘sales meetings’, what thoughts, feelings and sensations arise? If you had very positive thoughts, feelings and sensations, you are among the few. Unfortunately, sales meetings, like many other meetings you attend, are not run well and, hence, become a dreaded obligation rather than an event that motivates and inspires people. Here are some ideas to bring some energy and inspiration to your sales meetings.

First, let’s review the purpose of a sales meeting. The purpose is to inform, educate, communicate, and energize your sales team. It is not about you talking to them, it is about finding ways to fully engage team members so that they ‘own’ the meeting as well. It is crucial that they walk away with having gotten something worthwhile from the meeting. As a sales manager, you must always be asking yourself “What’s in it for them?” as you plan for the meeting.

Planning for the Sales Meeting

Preparation on your part is crucial. Here are some things to think about as you plan for the meeting:

• Ask yourself, “what are the most pressing issues my team or individual members are facing?” Make sure the information and topics discussed are important and valuable to attendees.

• Be very clear as to what outcome you want from the meeting. Do you want sales people to walk out with a new skill, role play experience, information, etc.? Know what you want to accomplish and what value/benefit each attendee will get from the time spent together – this lets your team know you value and respect their time.

• Create an agenda that is flexible yet consistent. The agenda needs to be flexible so ‘pressing issues’ can be discussed yet consistent enough that what is covered clearly communicates where you want your sales reps’ attention to be focused. See Agenda suggestions below.

• Never let your sales meetings turn into a lecture and rehashing of issues without reaching a decision, conclusion or agreed upon next step.

• Send the message that the time you spend together is important and your commitment to not wasting their time. Show up prepared for the meeting and ask that each attendee do the same. Gather what you need ahead of time. Send out what you want individuals to have reviewed, i.e., reports. Don’t waste their time reading reports in a meeting, rather, point out the good and bad news and get their input on ways to improve. The past is the past – keep the meetings focused on forward movement and finding solutions,

• The sales meeting is a forum for solutions ~ Ask salespeople to present problems along with offering solutions.

• Keep communicating the Vision for the team and the company ~ keep reminding why you do what you do and what’s in it for each individual. Successful individuals create successful companies – it goes hand in hand and your job as sales manager is to ensure that your sales people are set up for success and they have all the resources they need to be successful.

• Start and end the meeting on time. Table issues or move them to a committee or smaller group discussion to then report back to the team. Put time limits on each agenda item, ask someone to be the timekeeper, and a few minutes before time is up, ask the timekeeper to let the group know time is almost up. With a few minutes left, summarize what has been discussed and gain agreement on what the next step(s) need to be.

Suggested Meeting Agenda Topics

1. Recognize your sales team's efforts: Congratulate salespeople for any closed deals, opening new opportunities, doing new positive behaviors and realizing profits. Praising individuals for winning or making improvements reinforces and encourages winning and improvements.

2. Have sales people share one win. At least one positive “sales” story should be shared in every meeting. Have each salesperson come prepared with a story that either celebrates a success or teaches a lesson, or both. Make special note of lessons learned.

3. Review Sales Results - Review Company Revenue Goals (based on company budgets) and Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date revenue results. Celebrate success and if numbers are off, discuss the specific behaviors the team will commit to to turn things around.

4. Review Marketing/Networking Efforts
Each sales person should have a ‘Behavior Plan’ as it relates to their commitments to doing networking and marketing activities that generate leads, opportunities to get in front of prospects and further build relationships with current clients. Ask individuals to report on results achieved versus results planned. Encourage individuals to share lessons learned from marketing/networking efforts.

Give the team updates on Company-generated marketing efforts. Be sure these efforts are being tracked and that results of efforts are reported frequently. Debrief with the team what marketing efforts are working and which are not and what recommendations they have for increasing marketing results.

5. Give Updates on Company Initiatives - If the Company is engaged in company-wide initiatives, give the sales team an update on how the initiative is going. What results are being realized? What changes are occurring? Information is power – turn over as much as you can to your sales team, give them specific actions you want them to take to support the initiative and enroll them in championing the initiative throughout the company.

6. Competitive Updates - Knowing who your competitors are, what differentiates them from you, and how to position the company against them is crucial information that should be discussed during sales meetings. Ask sales people to bring information to meetings. Here are some questions to guide the discussion:
- What competitors did you hear about this week?
- What did prospects/clients say about them?
- Who was in the news?
- How will we prevail over XXX company or situation? (What is our
competitive strategy in this situation?)

7. Technical Updates – The latest and greatest

8. Set and Review individual commitments/next steps/decisions made during the meeting

Ideas for Mixing the Sales Meeting up
• Open up your meeting - Bring in clients and ask him/her to explain why he buys from you. Doing so is always powerful and eye-opening.

• Substitute the regular sales meeting for a sales blitz - i.e. Everyone makes prospecting calls and reports back on their success.

• Have each sales person present their top prospects to the team

• Have each sales person present their top clients and client relationship strategy to the team

• Have each sales person bring in something that they believe would be inspirational to the team

• Practice one training skill

• Have one sales person be prepared to Debrief a Sales Call – Using your company's sales process, review what happened on the sales call.

Running an effective sales meeting requires planning and preparation, involvement by all attendees and a perceived value that what is discussed significantly contributes to individual and the company’s success. Find ways to do that and your sales people will never want to miss another meeting again!

Labels: Sales Meetings