What if we told you to start your sales meetings by blasting a Pitbull song? Would you think we’re absolutely bonkers or maybe…just maybe, we’re on to something? Just like anything we do repeatedly, especially at work, meetings can become stale and boring. Those “This could have been an email” messages get shared, and people start to lose interest and attention. It’s time to breathe new life into your sales meetings! Or any meeting for that matter.
We don’t do anything around here without a plan, and that goes for sales meetings too. They need structure and organization. Whether it’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly, map out what you plan to talk about and give each section a strict time allotment. If a topic goes over time, suggest taking that conversation offline.
They always need an agenda, too. No exceptions. If people don’t know why they’re being gathered, they’re more likely to zone out and get distracted. We know that time = money, so the last thing we want to do is waste either. Leaders and managers, this is your moment to check in with your people, see how they are doing, do whatever needs to be done, and then let them get back to work. Don’t waste their time, or yours.
Here’s what a sample sales meeting agenda can look like:
- Ice breaker (5min): a riddle, fun question (what’s your favorite shape of pasta), energizing song
- Celebrate wins + shoutouts (5 min)
- Review goals and priorities (10 min)
- Discuss Pipeline Developments (10 min)
- Obstacles and problem solving (10 min)
- Training/learning + development moment (10 min)
- Action items and next steps (5 min)
Here are a few meeting best practices:
- Ask the team when they want to hold the meetings. Don’t just make it about your schedule. Ask them what works best for them. Do they usually have Wednesdays packed with client calls? Or do they feel less motivated after lunch? They’ll appreciate having some input.
- Send the meeting agenda out at least 2 days in advance to give your team time to prepare anything they need to share. Include any housekeeping or HR updates in it. This gives them a chance to review before the meeting and saves time when you are actually face-to-face. Plus, people can reach out to you directly with specific questions.
- Keep it on track. Do not run over time. Respect everyone’s schedule.
- Organized and succinct sales meetings are effective sales meetings. Don’t let one person derail the conversation. Give everyone a chance to speak and keep the overly social folks in check. Tip: Have a private, non-confrontational chat with this individual. Be clear about your expectations for how the meeting should run.
It is important to keep your meetings orderly, but not so much that you make them boring. No one likes a snoozefest.
So here are a few more tips to keep your meetings fresh and fun:
- Assign a different person to prepare to speak on each section can bring new energy to the meeting and encourage whole team participation.
- Use multimedia—show a video, play music, or lean on passages from books. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, especially for your training section…lean on the experts for help.
- Have fun! Don’t be afraid to go a little wild.
- Try The Villain Plan- Have everyone brainstorm a project and answer the question, “If we wanted this idea to fail, what would we do?” Then, flip the answers into your prevention or success plan. This “reverse engineering” approach is surprisingly energizing.
- Or Random Object- Right before the meeting, each person grabs a random object from their desk, and they have to explain how it represents the solution to a current challenge. The more ridiculous, the better, but often the metaphors surprisingly hit home.
Meetings should not be a punishment. They should be something that people look forward to. They bring teams together to spark collaboration and motivation and get everyone working towards shared goals. By designing purposeful collaborative meetings, you can transform what was once a time suck into a retention tactic that builds your culture and helps your business grow.
And you know what we say, Grow Big or Go Home!®