Blog post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas for sales managers who want to equip their teams to win. To get a Sales Team Meeting Agenda that helps your team Seize the Day Every Day, visit our Store and download Seize the Day Every Day.

Our Meeting to Win subscribers just got an agenda that focuses on seizing the day every day.  The sales managers who subscribe to the weekly sales team meeting agendas were provided with a sales training exercise to help their teams decide what it means to seize the day in their unique sales role and then … actually do it.

To do this for yourself, figure out what you could do each day to move you closer to your goals.  Once you figure out what those few things are, schedule them every day.  These things are the most important things for you to do during your work hours. 

What you’ll find is that this will be as helpful in deciding what NOT to do as it is in deciding what to do. If you prioritize around the things that you MUST do to exceed goals, you will simply not have time for some less important things.  This simple exercise of not compromising on the activities that matter creates efficiencies in other activities and altogether eliminates some others. 

No one can do everything so make sure you and your team are doing the few things that really matter.

Have a great selling week!

Visit Meeting to Win at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.  Upcoming agendas include Troubleshooters and Turn Gatekeepers into Escorts.

I was honored to be consulted regarding a Selling Power Meetings Newsletter.  I wanted to share it here. To visit Meeting to Win, click here.

Make Sales Meetings Produce Results

by Renee Houston Zemanski  for Selling Power

In a very challenging economy, your sales meetings, whether they occur weekly, monthly, or yearly, provide multiple opportunities to bolster your team’s spirits and sales. Here are a number of ways to make your sales meetings pay off now and later.

“Every sales meeting should equip the sales team with information to compete more effectively,” says Jill Myrick, owner of Meeting to Win LLC, a company that provides sales team meeting content to help sales teams compete and win every week. “If you aren’t doing that, then you shouldn’t call it a sales meeting.”

To get the most out of your quarterly or annual meeting, Myrick suggests dividing it into different segments, making sure you have an agenda with set time limits. Begin the meeting by quickly reviewing the agenda to set the tone for the day. For example, open the meeting with “This is our objective for today,” or “At the end of our time together, you should all be able to…”

Read the rest…

Tired of seeing bad ideas win?  If you can answer “yes” to that question, keep reading.  I want to introduce an exciting new business tool.

My friend Ken Revenaugh of Fast Track Tools tells us that good ideas and a great vision are not enough to be successful today. Winners need an authoritative, convincing, articulate presentation. In response, Ken, a 15-year sales veteran and go-to communication expert, launched Fast Track Tools and an interactive online workshop, “Communicate to Win.” This is no boring audio recording! The program is a unique, interactive, career-boosting curriculum that provides practical, actionable information and resources for early-career and experienced professionals alike.

In addition to the valuable workshop, Ken shares a lot of great advice via his blog and several information-packed ebooks. I’ve seen Ken in action over the past 8 years and I highly recommend you visit his site and take a look at all the great resources: https://www.fasttracktools.com/. You can also follow him on Twitter @fasttracktools.

This is the January Sales Management Meeting Topic our subscribers received.  To get sales and sales management meeting topics, visit us at https://www.meetingtowin.com/subscribe to see all the options.  Enjoy the following exercise as a realistic and motivating start to the new year.

Meeting to Win
Sales Management Meeting Topics
January Topic:  SWOT Your Team for the New Year

Hello Sales Leaders,

You’ve probably all done SWOT Exercises before and the new year is a great time to go through this important and eye-opening exercise again.  I suggest re-visiting it at least twice a year to see what’s changed, what you’ve been able to address and prioritize sales management activity.  Do this exercise as a team for the region.  Each sales manager may want to take it down to their own territory level at the same time.  The outcome of this exercise will be an action plan and awareness around the realities of the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS facing you and your team in the new year.  Understanding the playing field is important in your overall game strategy.

In the following chart,

1. As a team, list the region’s STRENGTHS.  This list could include things like top performers, struggling competitors, stronger economy, no open sales territories, etc.  List anything about your region that could be considered a strength.
2. As a team, list the region’s WEAKNESSES.  This could be open territories, low-price competitor, natural disaster, etc.
3. As a team, list the region’s OPPORTUNITIES.  This could be an upcoming marketing campaign, new products, etc.
4. As a team, list the region’s THREATS.  This could be competitors recruiting your top performers, lowering employee morale, etc.

Once you’ve completed your lists, answer the following questions:
Which strengths can you maximize in the new year?
1.  ____________________
2.  ___________________
3.  ___________________

How will you do this?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

What weaknesses can be eliminated? (open territories, etc)
1.  ____________________
2.  ___________________
3.  ___________________

How will you do this?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

What opportunities can you seize?
1.  ____________________
2.  ___________________
3.  ___________________

How will you do this?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

What threats can you eliminate?
1.  ____________________
2.  ___________________
3.  ___________________

How will you do this?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

What strategies can you use to combat your weaknesses and threats?  For example, if a competitor is undercutting their price, you cannot eliminate this threat.  What strategy can you use to reduce this threat?

From this exercise, choose the 3 things that your sales management team can do to make the most impact on 2010′s sales performance.
1.  ____________________
2.  ___________________
3.  ___________________

What is the action plan to do these 3 things and what results do you expect?  When will they be completed?  When will you see the desired results?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Nice work.