There’s something so invigorating about getting your sales reps together for a meeting, whether that’s in person or online. It’s a chance for everyone to get on the same page, to discuss wins and challenges, and to look forward together as a team. Sometimes, though, these sales team meetings can get derailed. To avoid this happening to you, consider the elements of a successful meeting.
Jess Pingrey, a sales professional who works in the B2B space, says that getting your sales meetings right can make the difference between achieving your sales revenue target or failing to deliver. In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we share Pingrey’s seven steps for a productive sales team meeting.
1. Know your purpose. Do not call a meeting just to have a meeting. Instead, define why you are bringing your team together and give them an agenda, so they know what is ahead. If you want your sales reps to come prepared with status reports or specific information, ask for it a few days in advance.
2. Define your expectations. Make sure you let your sales reps know if you expect them to provide updates on the status of their deals. You might also set an expectation that no one multi-tasks or brings a phone to the meeting. Also, be sure to start and end your meetings on time to show respect for everyone’s work time.
3. Stay on track. Conversations can often veer off in other directions during meetings. When this happens, you end up losing valuable time. If this happens, Pingrey recommends setting up a time to talk about the issue later rather than letting the meeting run long. A way to get ahead of this is to allow a certain number of minutes to each agenda item and move on to the next topic when the time is up.
4. Review progress toward goals. Pingrey notes that this is one of the most important elements of a successful sales team meeting. Ask each sales rep to come prepared to share their current won deals, projected won deals and lost deals.
5. Share challenges and solutions. In addition to status updates, reserve a portion of your sales team meeting for collaboration. This time gives sales reps a chance to talk about where they are struggling or get ideas on how to handle objections.
6. Celebrate successes and high performers. With your sales reps all together for the meeting, you have a captive audience to give public recognition to those sales reps who closed the most deals or brought in the most revenue. Public recognition is a powerful way to boost motivation and give a shout-out to your hardworking team members.
7. Decide next steps and key action items. Before you close the meeting, make sure everyone knows what to do next. Designate sales reps to specific action items and write down key goals for the next meeting.
Your time with your sales reps is valuable. With some advance planning, you can take steps to making the most of your sales meetings. Remember that this time together is a chance to collaborate and celebrate victories, which helps your sales reps stay motivated to reaching the next big goal.
Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: Jess Pingrey served on the founding team of a successful B2B startup and uses her industry knowledge to deliver the best answers to questions about sales tools and sales management.
