When to Have Sales Meetings
According to Grant Cardone, the priority of every sales meeting is money. Thus, it’s important to have effective sales meeting ideas to ensure that your sales team is focused and motivated.
Now, when should you hold your sales meetings?
A good rule of thumb is to have a sales meeting every week. Depending on the size of your company, you may need more or fewer meetings per month. But we recommend at least one weekly meeting for each person in your team and then planning big events around quarterly or monthly milestones as needed.
Here’s a guide on when you should be having a sales meeting:
Daily meetings
In daily meetings, you should be checking in on things like assigning tasks, approving work orders, and discussing any problem areas. Daily meetings can also be used to celebrate successes and identify major issues.
You can even hold standup meetings. These are quick meetings that should take no more than 15 minutes. You can use this time to check in on progress and get feedback, as well as answer any questions or concerns.
Weekly meetings
These are your main sales meeting times, and you should be discussing ongoing projects. Weekly sales meeting topics can also serve as a wrap-up for the previous week’s activities.
If needed, have two or more consecutive weekly meetings to accomplish everything that needs doing each month. Work on long-term goals, such as planning for expansion or marketing campaigns. It’s also an ideal opportunity to update your team with the information they need to hit their targets.
You should also make time for each team member to share their progress. It’s a good idea to set aside an hour or two per meeting slot so that everyone has enough time to participate in the conversation about the company.
(Image Source: Medium)
Quarterly meetings
This is a good time to discuss company goals for this quarter or reflect on your team’s performance over the previous three months.
You can ask them what they have learned from the last three months and get feedback on how well you’ve been managing as a manager. You should also talk about the next steps you can take to improve your brand.
It’s important to provide a way for employees to give feedback on what they’re doing and how you can help them in the future, so consider giving people an opportunity at these meetings to share their thoughts anonymously. You may not be able to address everything that is brought up but it should prompt some discussion with team members
Yearly meetings
This is a time for your team to share their accomplishments and goals for the next year. Discuss how you can make improvements in the business going forward. You may also want to talk about what went wrong last year and take this opportunity to apologize if necessary. You can even motivate and reward them with gift cards, bonuses, or other prizes for the job well done.
The frequency depends on the company’s goals and sales cycle. But whichever you choose, it should have a specific agenda with clear objectives to achieve by the end of each session so everyone knows what they are working for.
4 Steps to Plan and Prepare for Sales Meetings
Here are 4 steps in planning and preparing for a sales meeting.
Step 1: Define an objective for the meeting
To plan a sales meeting, you have to define your objective first. What are you trying to achieve with the meeting? How will success look like and what is your desired outcome?
To define an objective, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- What do I want my team members to know or understand as a result of our meeting?
- What feedback am I looking for from them about their performance, goals, or objectives?
- What do I want them to commit to achieving next in their work life?
It’s important to define your objective because it will determine the type of content you need to present in your meeting.
(Image Source: The Asana Blog)
Step 2: Prepare an agenda
Prepare an agenda in advance. What will you be discussing? How long do you think the meeting should last? Who else needs to attend and what topics they need to speak about? Do I have any visuals that you might want to storyboard or other materials that might help get my point across more clearly? Will food be served?
You can use a template as a guide for your meeting. Here are some things you might want to add to your checklist for this step:
- Decide on the date, time, and location of your meeting. Be sure that you have enough room for everyone who will be attending to sit together comfortably.
- Notice one or two objectives from your goals so they are clear in the minds of your team members before the sales meeting.
- Gather the materials you need to present your agenda, including any visuals and snacks.
- Create a list of questions that will help you get feedback from participants to assess their performance or progress on goals.
- Assign everyone who is going to speak at least one talking point ahead of time so they can stay on task and cover the points they need.
- Allow time for questions, discussion, or additional information that needs to be presented but wasn’t planned ahead of time.
- Look at your agenda again before leaving for the meeting so you don’t forget anything important.
Step 3: Invite team members
Invite your team members to the meeting by email. You might want to include a list of agenda items in your invitation so that they are prepared for what to expect at the sales meeting.
Make sure you get a headcount for the meeting. You might want to revisit your goals with them and give more detail on how they can help achieve those objectives during the sales meeting.
Step 4: Send meeting notes after the meeting
Use the notes from your meeting to create a document or presentation that can be sent out afterward.
Sending meeting notes can be done through an email or a document. This step is important because it will help the team stay on track.
5 Weekly Sales Meeting Ideas
Weekly sales meetings can be excruciatingly uncomfortable. No one wants to do it — but they should!
Here are 5 great sales meeting ideas to help you rock your next sales rally:
1. Timed pitches
Let each of your sales reps describe the company in their own way. You can break them into groups, depending on how many participants you have in the meeting. Give each group 40 seconds to deliver their sales pitch.
With this activity, you can choose the best one that everyone can use on the job.
2. Toolkit share
Bring in some of your favorite sales tools and let the team pick one they would like to use. You can also offer brief tutorials on how to use them if you are more comfortable with certain programs.
3. Group report-back
Have each participant describe what their responsibilities were during the previous week, including successes, challenges, and what they are looking forward to in the next week.
4. Spotlight
Have one of your sales reps share something that stood out for them during their workweek.
The spotlighted can pick a topic from any aspect of life, including inspirations or lessons learned on the job. It could also be about how they overcame a difficult situation.
5. Compliment sandwich
Give feedback with a compliment sandwich: start by giving praise or appreciation, then share the constructive criticism (no more than one sentence), and conclude with another appreciative remark.
This will allow your team member to take in both positive and negative feedback without feeling too beaten up.
The first step to building trust is for the team member to feel that they are being heard. There should be clear, constructive feedback and recognition of their good work to build a feeling of inclusion on your team.
Start by asking what you or how can I help? This will open up many doors as they will have someone to turn to with their questions.
4 Online Sales Meeting Ideas for Remote Teams
Sales meeting ideas are different for remote teams. Here are some strategies you can use:
1. Share a PowerPoint deck
You can share slides on a sales meeting topic such as operations, sales, and marketing updates, time-off requests, or anything you feel is pertinent to the company at this particular point in time.
Get feedback from the team by asking them what they liked about the slideshow and what was missing that they wanted to see.
2. Have a lunch and learn session
For this type of meeting, it’s easier if you send out the questions beforehand so that people can prepare for what they want to talk about in advance.
Recruit other members from outside your department or team who might be able to provide unique perspectives and insights.
3. Use a group chat to share information or findings
This type of communication is much faster than email, but can still be used for longer conversations when needed.
You could even use this as an opportunity to ask the remote team what they want from you during these meeting times.
4. Use a poll to quickly collect information from the team
This data can be used in your next meeting to help you plan how and what type of content should be presented.
You could ask people about their thoughts on an idea, or which topics they want more detail around like new features for products.
6 Sales Training Ideas for Meetings
Training can be done during meetings. Here are some of the best sales meeting ideas you can copy:
1. Sales role-play
A role-play activity is one of the good sales training ideas for meetings. It can be used to demonstrate the correct way of presenting and how to deal with certain objections.
The sales rep can play as the customer and the other employees can act as prospects.
2. Sales skills checklist
Create a list of sales skills that everyone should master to be successful, then check them off during meetings so they know what they need to work on.
It’s a great way for people who may not have the same skills to learn from one another.
3. Create a “real-world” scenario
One great way to help the sales team think about how they would handle different types of scenarios is by creating a mock presentation.
Ask them to imagine that one of their clients has contacted them and needs assistance with something specific, such as figuring out whether it’s worth hiring an outside consultant to help them execute a project.
After the participant has outlined their approach to solving this problem, ask for feedback on what they would do if some unforeseen problems arose.
4. Storytelling
Having a storyteller come in for sales meetings can help people understand what their product is or does more easily than reading about it themselves.
It will also provide you with details that might not have been included on your website, brochure, and other documents.
5. Leverage peer learning
Peer learning can be the best way for some people to learn, especially those who might not have all the skills necessary.
Pair up partners or small groups with different skill sets and give them a specific project they need to work on together.
This will allow them to ask questions of their peers when they are stumped while simultaneously providing answers and learning from each other.
6. Do a project-type meeting
This would be like creating marketing campaigns or performing research on customers and competitors. A project can provide an interesting take on the status quo while also providing useful information that you might not get out of a typical sales meeting.
4 Fun Sales Meeting Activities
Sales meetings can be fun. Here are some motivational sales meeting ideas that can ensure an exciting session for everyone:
1. Do a team-building exercise
This could be as simple as sharing some of your interests with everyone and asking them to share their interests.
This will create an atmosphere where people can talk about things they are passionate about, which should make the meeting more fun for all involved.
The activity shouldn’t take too long, but it should be something that everyone can do with ease.
2. Create a game out of your presentation
If you are going to give a sales pitch, then create some type of game for the audience members based on what they learn in your talk. This will help keep them engaged and entertained throughout the meeting while also reinforcing important points from your speech.
3. Discussion game
This is one of the fun sales meeting ideas you can use if you have a large group of people at your meeting.
It can be as simple as splitting everyone into smaller groups and asking them to answer questions about the topic being discussed or it could involve more elaborate interaction such as collecting answers from all participants and using those responses to create some type of story.
(Image Source: Hugo.team)
Create your own “mini-game”
Asking participants at your meeting to complete tasks throughout it can be an excellent sales meeting idea.
This is especially true if the tasks are related to the topic of discussion or help them think about how they would deal with different scenarios.
For instance, if your topic is all about lead generation, you can ask them to come up with ways on how to obtain leads. Each one of them would have a unique answer.
What’s great about this activity is you can use your sales reps’ ideas to improve your techniques or add newly discovered ones.
Speaking of leads, LeadFuze can help you gather leads for you in the most convenient way possible.
If your team is in charge of generating leads for your company, then LeadFuze can be such a huge help.
It’s the best way to find and generate quality leads for your business.
They have a team of experts that will help you get the most out of their system, so you can spend more time doing what matters – growing your business!
With LeadFuze, you’ll find it easy to find new prospects with its lead generation tools.
It also provides an automated follow-up process to ensure you never miss another opportunity again! All this plus 24/7 customer support means no one does lead generation better than us. Your life would be much easier with this tool.
Sign up now to get 25 leads for free!
4 Innovative Sales Meeting Ideas
Your sales meeting ideas should help you drive strategic results. Here are innovative ideas for sales meetings you can apply on your next sales rally:
1. Hold team members accountable for decisions made during meetings
During some meetings, it’s easy to get bogged down in detail-oriented conversations. To avoid this from happening, have a team member assigned as the “decision-maker.”
Even if he or she wasn’t at the meeting when decisions were made during meetings, they’ll still make sure everyone is on board with any final decision that needs to be reached.
2. Ask for feedback on the meeting throughout it
It’s important to get your team members’ opinions out in the open before they’re asked.
Asking people their thoughts and feelings during meetings can help identify any problems early, preventing them from getting worse or being overlooked.
If you want a sales meeting idea that will have everyone paying attention to the feedback given, try using a timer.
This tactic can be used to limit the amount of time someone speaks or for sales meeting activities like brainstorming where you want everyone participating in equal amounts.
3. Give your team members assignments during meetings
Giving people tasks and objectives for each meeting will help them focus their thinking on what they need to do next instead of getting stuck in other distractions.
This will help keep them from feeling like they can’t contribute to the meeting because of a lack of time or ideas and it’ll provide incentives for people who want more responsibility.
You could also use an assignment sheet as a form of follow-up after your meetings so you know what everyone is working on.
4. Start your meetings on time
If the meeting starts late, people will feel like they have to rush and those who are running behind or had an earlier commitment may miss it altogether.
Starting on time also helps set a deadline for when someone can leave if they need to get back to their desk to respond to emails that just came in.
You’ll also want to be sure you’re arriving on time and not anticipating a late start.
If people know they have extra time, they may become distracted or even just check out of the meeting altogether during its duration.
This is especially true for those who are less engaged in the first place so everyone must start on time if you want them to be fully present.
And always remember that in sales, time is money.
(Image Source: Task Pigeon Blog)
Conclusion
Overall, these sales meeting ideas can help you to get the most out of your meetings. The key is making sure that they are relevant and provide a structure for what will be discussed so people know when it’s appropriate to talk or ask questions.
You can also make use of funny icebreakers, games, challenges, and creative activities if you’re looking for something more interactive.
Sales meetings don’t need to be boring, so you must find ways to keep things fresh and interesting. Consequently, the meeting should be a productive learning experience for everyone there.