Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being invited to sit in on a number of my clients’ sales meetings. These were all small-to-midsize firms with a team of 3 to 15 seller-doers (and in some cases, full-time salespeople). All of these meetings were very similar… and all of them made the same mistake!
In every case, the person responsible for managing sales would spend most of the time going around the room (or the zoom) and asking each seller-doer for a recap of their current sales activity and pipeline.
WHY?!
If you’re in the role of sales manager, you should already know this information. It’s why there are sales reports, CRM reports and pipeline reviews (1-on-1 meetings with each seller-doer). And if you’re one of the other seller-doers in the meeting, you don’t care! The sales recaps are a waste of your time.
OK, every once in a while, maybe there’s a potential lesson for everybody in one of those recaps… and if so, the sales manager can tease it out so it’s brought to everyone’s attention. But other than that… skip the recaps.
What should be discussed at sales meetings? In general, those things that everyone can benefit from. And specifically…
#1. A review of the sales numbers. And make sure to include:
- Year-to-date revenue
- Year-to-date vs. last-year-to-date
- Year-to-date vs. goal-year-to-date
- By industry
- By service line
Then discuss any implications from these numbers.
#2. Group help. Do any of your seller-doers have a real situation with a buyer that they’d like some help with? Maybe the rest of the group can pitch in… a “wisdom of the crowd” sort of thing. And even if no one has a specific solution to the problem, just talking about it with the group might elicit a new perspective that can help.
#3. Company news. That is, what’s happening at your firm that the whole team needs to know about… e.g., changes in staffing, a colleague speaking at a conference, key employee on vacation, new technology being considered, etc.
#4. Sales training. Pick a selling skill that could use some improvement. Deliver a presentation on it or do some role-playing. Are there certain team members that are particularly good with certain selling skills? Let them teach it. In addition to selling skills, are there other topics relevant to MR or the industries you serve that everyone should know about? Bottom line: keep working to continually improve your team’s knowledge and skills in support of their selling efforts.
#5. Coming trends. Ask your seller-doers, “What are you hearing out in the marketplace?” “What questions are buyers asking?” “What do they want to talk about?” This is an opportunity to help the entire team to “keep their finger on the pulse of the industry.” Then discuss the implication of these trends among the group… i.e., what does this/could this mean to us?
#6. Celebrate success! Take some time to recognize those on the team who have had a recent success… closed a big deal, secured their first meeting with a strategic prospect, etc. Celebrating amongst the team showcases success among their peers and creates an opportunity for camaraderie. Celebrating those same successes company-wide shows the entire firm that those wins are important to everyone and this helps to create a sales-friendly culture.
Bottom Line
Having a weekly or biweekly sales meeting is a smart idea… but make sure it’s time well spent by everyone involved. You don’t want your seller-doers to hate attending these meetings, so make sure the meeting content is relevant, important and enjoyable.
Good luck and good selling.