The sales team is the quarterback of your company. Your entire organization is structured such that the sales team gets an advantage on the field and the market as a whole. Given that the weight of the company rests on the shoulders of sales representatives, it should come as no surprise that sales meetings are scheduled week-on-week to boost their morale. These huddles help validate the sales process and directly affect the growth of your business.
If you happen to be in charge of running a sales meeting, then you are probably aware of the need to streamline the discussion. Every minute you and your sales team spends in the conference room is precious. Here are a few tactics you can carry out to make the most of your sales force’s time and help the team members stay focused throughout the rest of the week.
On the Dot
Schedule sales meetings at the beginning of the week, preferably Monday or latest by Tuesday morning. You want to talk to the team when they’re fresh and build that momentum as the week progresses. Ideally, a sales meeting should last anywhere between forty five minutes to an hour. Do not entertain any excuses for people being late. If the meeting starts at 10 am, make it a point to close the doors to the conference room at 10:01 am. It sends out a message that you value the time of your sales force and wouldn’t want to waste a second of it.
Aligned Agenda
Set the agenda for the meeting before it commences. Having an agenda also helps you keep track of the conversations without digressing into tangents that do not need the attention of your entire sales team. Start by stating the company goals and targets you would want the sales team to achieve. Reiterating business goals at the beginning of every week engrains a company culture that is consistent. The agenda can include sales stats, performance charts, quotas and forecasts.
Short & Sweet
Regular meetings have a knack for becoming a dreaded routine. Keeping each member’s presentation to a couple of minutes ensures that the meeting doesn’t spill over into the next hour. Finishing the meeting on time or earlier frees up more of your sales team’s time to focus on engaging prospects and closing more deals. A short and sweet report on sales activities from the previous week is usually sufficient to summarize the performance of your sales representatives. It’s a good way to ensure that each and every member in the sales meeting has a chance to speak without any hesitation.
Motivate Each Member
Sales meetings are an avenue to encourage your team to outperform. It goes without saying that a sales rep closing deals consistently has to be recognized and rewarded with kind words. But bear in mind that weaker sales reps need an extra push to transform themselves and a little appreciation can go a long way in helping them gain more confidence to get the job done. Take the time to distinctly define each member’s role in the sales team and build a support system that guarantees job satisfaction.
Numbers Speak Louder than Words
For each sales meeting, figure out key metrics that can be shared with the team. These numbers should speak directly to the sales team and help them evaluate their own sales strategy. Perhaps it’s the number of calls they’ve made that week, or the number of emails they’ve sent between Monday to Friday. Measure each action taken on a weekly basis and take informed decisions for optimized results.
Overcome Roadblocks
Challenges are part and parcel of doing business. Sales representatives fresh off the boat can find it difficult to pick up the phone and connect with customers. It’s never easy to hear ‘no’ from customers but you can help them get over rejections. You may even notice that their email open rates are on the decline. In such cases, sales meetings become an opportunity to address these roadblocks and suggest tips and tricks that help them overcome these hurdles.
Next Steps
A good sales meeting should end with every member being crystal clear about their next steps. A quick recap of highlights and lowlights before leaving the conference room adds a sense of closure to sales meetings. Another best practice you can follow is to let people take turns at taking notes during each session and share the minutes of the meeting on email. It ensures everyone is on the same page and sets expectations that can be exceeded in the upcoming week.
Sales meetings are an amazing team building exercise, if executed effectively. In conclusion, regular sales meetings are a must for achieving business goals on time. It leaves a lot of room for innovation and knowledge sharing that would otherwise be isolated. Follow these steps in your next meeting and let us know about your experience in the comments below.
