Planning a Sales Meeting

Do you ever dread going to meetings? Those extremely long meetings where all you want to do is check your blackberry the whole time that leave you feeling why am I not in the field with my customers or better yet, in front of a new one. Yeah, I thought so.... Effective sales meetings are valuable for everyone involved, not just a venue to cover requisite housekeeping issues.

Here are a few tips for organizing your next sales meeting:


Determine a reason for your meeting...

Reasons for Sales Meetings:
· Train or retrain
· Communications
· Motivation/Recognition
· Solve Problems
· Introduce a new product or contest


Encourage Participation: Extremely important and helps get buy in
· Tap everyone’s creativity
· Create team spirit
· Stimulate interest
· Reward and recognize
· Hone skills
· Increase motivation for self-improvement
· Evaluate salespeople in-depth
· Receive feedback on effectiveness of training

Pitfalls to Avoid:
· Lack of form or content
· Overly administrative
· Generalizing problematic behavior/results
· Irrelevant topics

Some things to consider…
· Off-site meetings
· Guest speakers
· Duration and timing
· Monthly meetings for everyone…weekly meetings for non-performers

Meeting Topics…some examples: (don't try all of these)
· Industry updates
· Market/customer knowledge
· Cold Calling
· Setting Appointments
· Overcoming Objections
· Systematic and strategic follow-up
· Time Management
· Product knowledge/new product training
· Customer service
· Role-playing
· Building goodwill
· Contests and special promotions

Ways to Make Sales Meetings More Interesting and Lively
· Show films or video
· Update product knowledge
· Create a game show
· Case studies/role playing
· Increase competitor knowledge
· Allow “show off” time
· Conduct brainstorming sessions

Sample Agenda

1. Icebreaker/Team Building activity


2. Provide agenda and desired outcomes of meeting


3. Representative reporting – Provide to sales reps (prior to meeting, ideally at least 1 week before) an outline for their 3-5 minute update. Include:
   a. Report on prior months production…new clients, total orders, revenue, etc
   b. 3 things that went well, and 3 things they need help on (take notes, because after the meeting, you can either pair people up to contact each other, or include in the meeting notes so some may take initiative and call each other)
   c. Territory update: competition, branch challenges, opportunities, etc.


4. Overall report out for your profit center. Include all measurements including total new clients, total revenue compared with prior month, retention statistics, etc…


5. General company announcements


6. Training or Guest Speaker
   a. Consider having your reps take turns presenting their area of specialization
   b. Ask a top performer to prepare 15 minutes worth of training


7. Exercise (tied into speaker or training)
   a. Role playing
   b. Group brainstorming
   c. Group Activity: Share best practices. (Getting interview, kicking off interviews, good interview questions, asking for business, prospecting). Have groups work together for 5-10 minutes, then have a report out so all the groups can hear what each other said.


8. End the meeting with each representative giving their own personal goals related to revenue (orders), new clients, and interviews with Top 25 prospects. Have someone take notes. Compile notes, and send out updates monthly.