By Austin Roff, Sales Leader - New Home Star //
It’s the beginning of a new week and time for another weekly sales meeting. You begrudgingly took a little time the night before to put together the usual agenda, general announcements, and training topics for the coming week. The sales team shuffles in with their customary demeanor, one group is off to the side talking about last night’s game on TV, another few are sitting at the table answering emails, and don’t forget about the rest of the team who is more interested in scrolling through pictures and funny memes on Instagram than actually preparing for the meeting. All of them, anxiously awaiting your arrival and another delightful PowerPoint presentation they get to sit through for the next hour.
Sure, project updates, reviewing sales goals, and information sharing are all acute elements of a typical sales meeting, but do you ever wonder why 15 minutes into your lecture the three people in the middle row have a glazed look in their eye and the guy in the back keeps looking out the window every 30 seconds? It’s simple. They aren’t inspired, and you aren’t connecting with them.
As a leader, look at the sales meeting from the lens that the meeting is your stage, your team is the audience, and you are the director of the show. Notice how I didn’t say, “star” of the show? Check your ego at the door, and throw away the belief that you can be the only one to present during this time.
Below are some of my best tips and tricks for crafting an effective and efficient sales meeting:
Know Your Audience and What Motivates/Inspires Them
It could be finding a short article that you or another person shares to inject thoughtfulness and perspective or a video that increases their drive and energy. Knowing your audience, and knowing what fuels their inner passions will enable you to create a sales presentation that will better resonate with them.
Provide an Agenda Beforehand
Defining the itinerary in advance informs everyone on the purpose of the meeting and allows them to come prepared with questions and comments for more robust training and conversation. If you are assigning a certain area of training, be sure to send that out several days in advance to allow your team the proper time to prepare and come ready to engage.
Start Your Meeting with a Team Icebreaker
Before diving into the meat of what you want to cover, start things off by actively engaging your team in a fun/useful exercise. It should be something that gets them out of their seat and creates a buzz in the room that these meetings are fun and provide a means for your team to connect with each other.
Consider Assigning Areas of Training/Presenting to Team Members
Your team is tired of you speaking all the time, and they want to get involved to show their skill and knowledge. Identify people on your team who can present on something better than you. This empowers them and shows the team you are humble and willing to build up others as leaders on the team.
Promote Collaboration and Diversity
Use breakout groups to enable the best use of your teams’ strengths and welcome different perspectives, ideas, and opinions to obtain the best solutions. Divide the group up into teams for a deep dive into high-level role play and increased reps on areas that need improvement.
End the Meeting on a High Note
Don’t end your meeting without providing some kind of inspiration and motivation for your team before they leave. The bottom line is that you need to find something that sends them out the door ready to light the world on fire.
Send out a Follow-up Email Outlining the Minutes of the Meeting
Take some time later that day to send the team a follow-up email recapping what took place at the meeting. To take it a step further, you could assign a different person each meeting to be in charge of this and send out their views to the rest of the team. The point of this is to keep things fresh in their mind and to show the team these meetings are serious and vital to their growth.
In today’s workplace, your people want to be involved, they want to grow, they want to be inspired, and they want to work with a purpose. At New Home Star, our sales meetings are a place where those traits are cultivated weekly. The planning, time, and thought you put into executing a great sales meeting each week will yield great returns to your bottom line and leave your team heading into the week prepared and inspired. Now it’s your turn to give it a shot and see the results firsthand!