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Sales Training Tips:

Sales Training Class for More Productive Weekly Sales Team Meetings

Hands up who has experience of the weekly sales team meeting, 8 am on a cold, damp Monday morning, off the back of the weekend from hell (good or bad - delete where applicable), where you spend an hour and a half (if you're lucky) listening to each salesperson run through their forecast with a sense of deja vu?

Not uncommon I'm sure, but the best use of people's time? Or a productive way to start the work week?

For my sins, I have spent 27 years in sales and sales management, working for large vendors (IBM & Sun) and channel partners, so I have sat through and hosted hundreds of sales meetings, the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Sales meetings are not a place for reviewing forecasts. That can be done with individual sales people, as part of the ongoing sales management process. I see a sales meeting as a fantastic opportunity to tap into the combined experience of the people in the room, sales, sales support and management. Even in a relatively small sales team, if you tot up the combined years of experience, it's probably 100 plus. This pool of knowledge, of solutions and sales situations is gold and it's a positive crime to let people sit around a table and not share what they have learned (often the hard way).

Some of the best sales meetings I have been involved in consisted of a discussion on a specific sales opportunity, where maybe there was a sticking point, or the competition were strong and where the team came up with a bunch of great ideas to tackle the issue. How about discussing a particularly good win, it might be something that can be replicated, or give some ideas to the other team members to help their sales campaigns. I've also had good experience of giving the job of hosting the meetings to people in the team and rotating weekly, it provides the opportunity to see how they rise to the challenge and it allows for some diversity.

Depending on the size of organization you work in and it's structure, you might want to consider inviting other people from the organization into the sales meeting, it gives them an insight into what the sales people are up to and the challenges they face and it provides them the opportunity to reciprocate. I have found this works well with finance, and post sales functions.

Asking a vendor/supplier in to do a short 'punchy' pitch on a specific subject can be worthwhile too and I have seen some positive results from getting customers in to talk about why they chose your solution/organization. With both these options, it's a good idea to tag on a social event to help build relationships.

As with any meeting, internal or external, having an agenda, sticking to realistic timings and having someone take minutes to capture actions and ideas will pay dividends over time.

Oh and if you do choose to continue with the 8am Monday morning, don't forget the Danish pastries, bacon rolls and paracetamol!

Source: Patrick Birkby link

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