Running an Effective Sales Meeting

You’ve scheduled a sales meeting, and only half of the attendees have arrived on time. On top of that, those who are in attendance are preoccupied with their laptops and PDAs, not focused on the task at hand. Does this sound frustratingly familiar?

The fact is that most sales meetings aren’t as productive as they should be. Your staff may find them tedious and frequently filled with information that they don’t find particularly relevant to their success.

Business owners and managers need to run meetings in a way that makes them a positive activity for employees — not just an obligation they must fulfill. Here are some key tips to follow to ensure you are running an effective sales meeting:

Select the Right Time

Timing is everything when it comes to sales, likewise when it comes to sales meetings. Don’t plan the regular sales meeting during a peak selling hour. Rather, choose an off-peak time such as Monday mornings, when many sales reps usually find it difficult to connect with prospects. You may also find that early Monday meetings also start the selling week off with a positive and upbeat tone.

Keep It Short

The old adage that less is more certainly applies here. If you are having regularly scheduled sales meetings, keep the length less than an hour. Thirty minutes is even better. Your reps will be much more apt to attend meetings if they don’t have to sit for hours, listening to information that doesn’t necessarily apply to them, while they’re thinking about all the sales calls they could be making.

Keep Updating, Keep Educating

Providing information and insights into the company’s products and services as well as information about the competition should be a regular part of sales meetings. Even for the most seasoned reps, staying abreast of price changes, market conditions and enhancements to sales technology is vital to success. Public relations efforts and marketing campaigns should also be discussed during sales meetings.

Sales Skills Education/Reinforcement

Reinforcing sales skills is necessary, regardless of how successful the team is currently. There is always room for improvement, and it’s the sales manager’s responsibility to identify specific areas of weakness. Role-play simulation is one way to impart new sales skills and promote full-team participation. For instance, select two members of your team and assign one of them the role of the prospect and the other the role of the sales rep. Instruct the “prospect” to present one specific objection (i.e., “We’re happy with our current vendor”) and ask the sales rep to utilize his or her objection handling skills to overcome the resistance. The rest of the sales team should evaluate the skill sets being demonstrated and offer a constructive critique of the techniques that were used. The role-play simulation can also be used to reinforce probing skills, the presentation of the value proposition and any of the other core components in a sales call. However, remember to keep the topic very narrowly focused so that it can be covered in a short period of time.

Motivation

The regularly scheduled meeting is the perfect time to motivate and “pump up” your team. Share good news and always keep the tone upbeat. Let everyone contribute to the morale boosting spirit (“Hey, Joe, want to share with us how you finally nabbed that big account with company XYZ last Thursday?”), and you’ll find that your team leaves the room feeling like they are making a positive and appreciated contribution to the company.

Friendly Competition

No, you don’t have to point out the individual who is having the bad week or quarter to promote competition. (These individuals are already aware of who they are!) Rather, take the time to congratulate the top performer(s). Who doesn’t like to have their success recognized? You will probably find that the others will soon be striving to be recognized as well.

A well-planned and ably facilitated sales meeting can be one of the most productive hours of your sales team’s workweek.