If you are going to do something, you should do it right. There is no point holding sales meetings just to tick a box. Sales people would rather be out on the road, speaking with prospects and customers; in short, selling. Many sales people think sales meetings are a waste of time, right?
Well sales meetings can be a waste of time when they aren’t relevant or planned as part of the team development process. Sales meetings when positioned to engage your sales team, equip them with skills and energize them make the meetings worthwhile.
The frequency of the sales meeting is and individual preference and availability of bringing your sales team together. When I was a Sales Manager, every Monday morning began with a 45 minute sales workshop, with the sales meeting themes being relevant to the areas which were in need of work. The sales meetings paid off, as my team consistently outperformed the others in the company.
Ultimately, the success of training during sales meetings will be based on the relevancy of the training as well as the delivery. Our research indicates that the ability to engage, equip and energize is also important for training to have a direct impact on results. The sales meeting themes work best when they are designed to meet these objectives.
Sales Meeting Themes
It is possible to take one topic and expand it over a month so that you can dig deeper into the subject and follow up on its application in the field. This allows you to move the process to adoption.
A good example of this is building the skill to fill the sales pipeline. Week 1 could be an exercise on calculating your pipeline, week 2 could look at the next steps now that the pipeline has been evaluated, focusing on the best resources to fill the pipeline – current / referral / lead generators. Week 3 can be identifying the challenges to fill the pipeline and week 4 can be an activity to meet those challenges.
Yet sales meeting themes which are different each week can also work well. Determine what’s currently holding up sales conversions and what you are hearing your sales team say is challenging them. It could end up being anything from sales strategies, prospecting, marketing, problem solving or even personal development. You can even ask them what topics they want to focus on. I did that with my sales team and they came up with about 6 topic. Then I asked the sales team who was a pro in each one of these topics. They knew who that was. Next, I asked those sales people if they would plan and present that sales meeting. Those sales meetings were great. They didn’t want to make them boring – they were the most energizing sales meetings and each seller learned something new to help them increase their sales.
Bottom line; take advantage of a low cost, no cost opportunity to build a team of top performers – your themed sales meeting.
For some inspiration, download the 30 Minute Sales Meeting template on the right!
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Top performing and top producing sales managers whose sellers meet sales quotas consistently conduct Field Ride Alongs, One-on-One Coaching and Sales Meetings to build skill and will. Clone yourself for some one-on one-coaching or own the latest done-for-you sales training with these special offers only available here.
