5 Sales Meeting Tips

Matrix Key: Financial Viability - Profitability/Finances - Weekly Meetings - Sales

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.'  Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." - Mary Kay Ash

1. Send a Relevant Agenda Before the Meeting
This helps ensure a productive meeting.  If you find that there isn’t really much to talk about, you might opt for sending an email rather than having a meeting.   When creating an agenda, ask yourself if the item really needs to be on the agenda or if it can be done outside the meeting.  To ensure that individual updates don’t take too much time, set time limits and create themes such as Key Findings and Future Areas of Focus.  Have others participate in the planning of the meeting.  For example, someone might secure a guest speaker, another might send out the agenda, another might be the timekeeper or topic leader, etc.  To make your agenda interesting you might ask your group to solve a challenge before the end of the meeting.  You might also give them an article to read before the meeting, ask them to think about ideas on a topic, or research something for the team.

2. Start with Some Fun
Start your meetings at the scheduled time and stick to the allotted time.  Begin with some fun to get people interested and to encourage people to arrive on time.  You may start with trivia games, funny stories, highlights of the week, or brainstorming ideas for the coming month.

3. Invite Relevant Guest Speakers
The guest speaker can share information with the sales team that will help team sales.  A guest speaker might be someone from the marketing team who shares a marketing report about your target market or a product developer who might answer questions about a new product.  A customer might also share their experience working with your company.

4.  Motivate and Reward Your Team
Sales is challenging and it is important to support and recognize your team for their accomplishments.  Celebrate successes! You may give away small prizes, even a little chocolate can make people feel good.  You might create different categories for rewards.  Rewards can be team-based, fun, competitive, or recognition-based.

5.  Ongoing Skills Development
Challenge the skills of team members to keep them on top of their game.  These can be skills in networking, lead generation, prospecting, closing, presenting solutions, public speaking etc.  You might ask someone at each meeting to teach a sales module.  Each week, ask a sales person to share something they tried that is working.  How and why did they do it and how can someone else try it?