Six Steps to Successful Team Meetings

My company recently polled sales leaders about the quality of their sales meetings, and the average rating was a 6.3 out of 10. Only 21 percent rated their meetings at 8 out of 10 or higher—leaving 79 percent at 7 out of 10 or less. If you find yourself heading into a meeting and you know at the end of it you will rate it 7 or less out of 10, would you want to attend? Now, think of your sales team. How energized will they be? Sales meetings allow sales teams to share war stories, brainstorm and feel they are in it together. Leaders feel this gathering makes a sales organization run and work hard to deliver value to their teams. How do you make sales meetings a not-to-be-missed component of a great sales culture that builds the engagement of your team? Traditional sales meetings are regarded as:

• Sales leader dominated (70 percent of talk time)
• Results-focused (we are X percent short of our target)
• Information based
• Individuals on team share in detail what they did last week or will do this week
• A necessary evil

What companies should strive for:

• Team contributes and shares (leader speaks 30 percent maximum)
• Activity and results based
• Skill based
• Individuals practice and solve more than share
• Essential component to team success

The right meeting makes the most of the opportunity you have to build the skills of the entire team and to motivate them. The meetings must receive a minimum rating of 8 out of 10 by the sales team. Contrary to what many sales leaders believe, they don’t need to be loaded down with content to achieve this goal. In each meeting, if you provide your team with just one idea, strategy or tactic that will improve their game, and motivate with some positive reinforcement or reward, you will see a gain in productivity and sales results. Follow these six keys developed to guarantee successful sales team meetings.

Start with an Energizer Salespeople are high energy and it is important to tap this energy early and often. Start your meetings on time and start with some fun. Reward those who show up on time to help eliminate the lateness factor. You will be amazed that if you start every meeting with some fun the lateness factor will go away. From week to week, try playing trivia games, telling funny stories, sharing sales highlights of the week or commenting on the focus for the month ahead. Create different energizers and capture them so our sales leaders have a variety of great energizers at their fingertips for every sales meeting.

Keep it Simple, Stupid (K.I.S.S.) The K.I.S.S. principle will prevent you from bloating your meeting agenda. Always ask, “Does this item need to be in the meeting or could it be done outside the meeting or as prework?” You keep it simple with these four steps: keep the pace of the meeting fast; create a fun atmosphere; create value by helping the team to better execute on a key sales skills that will help them close business; and involve team members in sharing on a regular basis to create shared ownership.

Three Rules for Individual Updates Individual updates are fantastic and a very important part of team meetings with one caveat: the topic for individual updates must be small, with answers timed so that they don’t disrupt the overall agenda for the meeting or sap the team’s energy. The three rules for individual updates are: set time limits; create different themes around successes, key learnings and focus for the time ahead; and know when to take individual issues offline.

Motivate and Reward You must build motivation into every team meeting. The sales team has a tough 
challenge and need to feel supported and recognized for their hard work. This is not about big gifts or exceptional moments; the simplest thank you can have great meaning. 
Categories examples might include: fun rewards (which might include a kitschy item of clothing or trophy); competitive awards (organized around key metrics or goals, or having the team demonstrate a specific skill and then selecting a winner); team awards (where there is an incentive for the whole team, or where each team member recognizes the efforts of someone who supported them); recognition awards; and external rewards where you get feedback from outside the team about team members, or where you recognize someone outside of sales for their help and support.

Capability Activity Ongoing professional development is the way your team will stay at the top of their game. Every sales meeting must stretch and challenge team members’ skills and expertise. It is the key to delivering value and delivering on the expectation of the meeting rating at least an 8 out of 10. Capability activities can focus on prospecting, networking, lead generation, client meetings, presenting solutions or closing.

Standard Agenda While this is not part of an excellent sales meeting, it will help you create them and ensure that you consistently rank an 8 or higher. Keep your agendas in a folder for reference so you don’t repeat any of the fun and creative segments. With the application of these six keys to your own sales meetings, you can manage to bring the amount of preparation time a sales leader needs to 10 minutes or less per meeting. Anybody can have an 8-out-of-10 meeting when they spend two hours preparing for it. Consistently high-value meetings planned in less time are great results. Following the steps can help you provide a focused and consistent investment of your time, that will in turn guarantee gains in the productvity of your sales team and their overall goals and results.