School is back in session for most students and the topic of getting along with one another is always a central theme in classrooms. What a great place and age to learn to resolve “workplace” problems.

On that topic, I wanted to share 3 ways to reduce workplace conflicts.
1. Man Up.  Do not ever send an e-mail about a sensitive issue or a conflict. The only e-mail that is acceptable is one that requests a time to sit down and talk. Schedule enough time with the person involved and bring your issue to them face-to-face.

2.  It’s NOT About YOU.  When having your face-to-face discussion about whatever issue you are facing, do not make it personal.  Talk about the situation, not the person.  For example, if someone keeps disrespecting you in team meetings, instead of saying “YOU always interrupt me” or “YOU always put down my ideas, WHY do you do that?” try something like “When I’m interrupted by your comments during meetings, I get the impression that you don’t value my contributions.  Is my impression correct?“  Then be quiet and let them answer.  The conversation is already less confrontational, but no less direct and clear.

3.  If you must TATTLE, do it like a Kindergartner.  Kids are very open communicators and we can learn something from that.  Typically, before a kid gets an adult involved in their conflict, we hear something like “I’m gonna tell”.  Here’s a life lesson.  There are times that an issue needs to be escalated and resolved at a higher level.  If you’ve practiced #1 and #2, this should rarely, if ever, happen, but if it does, the right way to escalate is to include the other person(s) in the conflict.  Say something like, “I realize that we both feel strongly about this issue and we disagree about how to handle it.  We must get it resolved for the sake of the customer/project/business.  I plan to involve [insert supervisor's name here] to get their opinion and decide how to move forward.  Would you like to be involved in that conversation?” 

Put these ideas into practice and enjoy workplace communication and collaboration like never before.  Have a great day!

Sales Team Meeting Agenda on this topic coming soon. 

Subscribe to Meeting to Win and get (1) a new 60-minute sales team meeting agenda every week AND (2) access to the Sales Team Meeting Topic Library (100 topics to download anytime).

Summer is moving right along and it’s time to start thinking about the Fall selling season. Wise sales people are already taking action and positioning themselves strategically as all the decision makers finish up summer vacations and settle back into their offices to make some purchases. What an exciting time of year!

At Meeting to Win, we also start planning for a great Fall with sales team meeting topics to keep your team motivated and successful between now and the holidays.

What you can expect from Meeting to Win – Fall 2011:

• NEW ACCESS FOR SUBSCRIBERS – Subscribers will have access to ALL STORE items for download anytime.
  • 100+ Topics currently available.
  • New topics added regularly.
• We’ll continue to provide a brand new topic every week for subscribers.
  • Including such topics as:
    • Course Correction – Be the GPS
    • Dump the Slides
    • How’s That Working For You?
    • Basic Boot Camp
    • Image to Win
• MORE EXPERTS.  Our Summer of Experts series was so successful that we will continue to provide sales team meeting topics with expert content throughout the year.
  • SNEAK PEAK:  Join us in the Summer of 2012 for Summer at the Movies.
• Sales team meetings topics on the pulse of today’s business environment – equipping your team to sell more that very week.

Join us by subscribing and get a momentum boost for the Fall of 2011.

Memorial Day is right around the corner.  This is a day we get to stop and commemorate those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  What a job!  If you are serving in the military, it’s not hard to find some higher purpose in every little task you are asked to do, but for the rest of it, it might be harder.

Stop and think about what your actions translate to for those you serve.  For example, if you are a realtor, by doing your job correctly, you are helping to create a comfortable home that a family can enjoy, afford and thrive in.  What does that mean?  That means they are more likely to be happy, educated, stay together and raise productive members of society who will impact generations to come. 

No matter what you job, look for the higher purpose.  It will show in your work and attitude.

Happy Memorial Day. 

Meeting to Win subscribers, look for the upcoming Sales Team Meeting Agenda, Your Work’s Higher Purpose.  It is sure to be a motivating topic your team will enjoy.  If you are not a subscriber, join Meeting to Win today and get a new sales team meeting topic like this one every week.

Get a NEW sales team meeting topic EVERY Friday morning delivered right to your inbox – Subscribe to Meeting to Win by clicking HERE.

Meeting to Win subscribers are preparing for a Q2 Sales Performance Book Club on the book Reinventing Work: The Brand You by Tom Peters.  Grab the book and start your own Sales Performance Book Club. 

DISCUSSION GUIDE:

Reading Assignment #1:  Chapters 1-5

1.  What is different about “making a living” in your generation vs. your parents’ generation?  What evidence do you have to prove those differences?

2.  What changes in the world, your profession, your industry do you anticipate in the next 5, 10 and 20 years?

3.  Who would you say have a positive brand in your company? What do they do – or not do – to build that brand?  What is your brand?

4.  Do the branding exercises in Chapter 4. 

5.  What is your impression of the book after reading the first 5 chapters?  What do you hope to gain from spending time reading this book?

Reading Assignment #2: Chapters 6-10

1.  Choose 10 packages that you would want to be associated with? Why those packages?

2.  Think about yesterday.  What did you do to add to or detract from your brand?

3.  Think about last week.  How much of your time did you spend on what you value?

4.  What is a strategy you could use to gain important business skills?

5.  Spend some time with the pricing experts in your own company.  Understand exactly how much is costs to provide your products and services.

Reading Assignment #3: Chapters 11-15

1.  Begin answering the question:  “Who are you?”

2.  Now, give yourself a title.

3.  Does your calendar reflect who you are and your new title?  If not, what should or should not change?  

4.  What are some tactics for getting things done in your current role?

5.  Is there a crappy task available?  How can you make it cool?

Reading Assignment #4: Chapters 16-20

1.  How can you make things happen in your current role without the aid of marketing dollars?

2.  List your top 10 “projects”.

3.  Follow steps 1-7 at the beginning of Chapter 17.  

4.  What “clutter” can you dump?

5.  How empathetic are you to your clients?  How could you improve this?

Reading Assignment #5: Chapters 21-25

1.  What is your “Saleable Distinction”?

2.  How is your “rolodex”.  Could your “community” use some building?

3.  What steps can you take to “own” your community (LinkedIn, Professional Associations, etc).  

4.  What steps can you take to “expose yourself”?

5.  What has become stale about your approach/solutions?  How can you make it new and relevant again…and again… and again?

Reading Assignment #6: Chapters 26-30

1.  What is the closest thing to a “big idea” you currently have?

2.  Answer the questions on page 122.

3.  Grab a team mate and discuss how your department or team can reframe a project.

4.  List 15 “elements” of your identity

5.  What is your assessment of this book so far?

Reading Assignment #7: Chapters 31-35

1.  In the past year, which of your actions have built your trustworthiness?  which have detracted from it?

2.  What impression would someone have of you based on your card alone?

3.  Whether you have one yet or not, describe “your” website.

4.  What are 5 opportunities you have in the next week to practice your presentation and story telling skills?

5.  What specific actions help you stay positive and enthused?  How often do you need to do them?  How often do you actually do them?  Commit to doing them as often as needed to stay enthused.

Reading Assignment #8: Chapters 36-40

1.  What growth opportunities exist in your current projects?

2.  What could you add to your personal and professional renewal plans?

3.  Pick one thing from the list of 50 in Chapter 38 and do it today.

4.  Choose your Board of Directors.

5.  How do you currently connect with the front line?  How can you get more involved with the front line?

Reading Assignment #9: Chapters 41-45

1.  How can you incorporate your rolodex activity into your schedule?

2.  Begin writing your Mission Statement.

3.  Who is in your “Hall of Fame”

4.  How do you get the word out about YOU?

Reading Assignment #10: Chapters 46-50

1.  What is the global appeal of your stuff?

2.  How do you feel about the word “sell”? 

3.  How can you “ask for the business” in a current situation?

4.  After reading this book, what, if anything, are you or will you do differently? 

5. Mark your calendar for one month from now with this question.  “Am I doing anything differently because of the time I invested in this book?”

Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Topics available for purchase and immediate DOWNLOAD at the Meeting to Win Store. 

You may download the Meeting To Win Sales Team Meeting Topics-To-Win Catalog.  This was updated in January 2011 and is a list of 90+ sales team meeting topics available for immediate download on the Meeting to Win Store.

We currently offer 90+ sales team meeting topics across 21 different selling categories.  Each topic can take 20-50 minutes to execute depending on how you want to use it.

Enjoy interactive, interesting and inspiring sales team meetings with Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Topics.

Happy Selling,

Jill Myrick

Owner, Meeting to Win

jill@meetingtowin.com

www.meetingtowin.com

As you can imagine, Sales Managers often call us to discuss challenges they face in regards to their sales team meetings.  We are addressing those challenges one-by-one in our Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter in an effort to eradicate the world of bad sales team meetings.  You are welcome. 

Today, we are addressing one we hear as a complaint from sales people and a challenge from sales managers.

Problem: 

Everyone agrees that regularly held sales team meetings add value to a salesperson’s week.  But…many, many teams have these meetings sporadically.  They are often scheduled last minute or, worse yet, cancelled last minute or, in the worst cases, abandoned completely.  Whatever the reason, salespeople experience inconsistent sales team meeting schedules.  We do know that regular, consistent communication is a key activity in any healthy relationship, professional or otherwise.  Why would it be any different on a sales team?  Lack of communication reduces morale, accountability and trust and increases miscommunication, fears and negativity.

Solution:

• Use the technology available to you to proactively schedule your sales team meetings.  Most find it’s best to have the meeting at the same time each week and simply put a recurring appointment on the calendars of the sales team.  (You may want to change quarterly just to keep things fresh.)  That way, you can include an agenda, call-in information, etc right in the meeting notice.  The sales team will plan around this meeting since it is part of their schedule already.
• This next one is the most frustrating thing for a salesperson.  DON’T CANCEL THE MEETING!  Too often, this cancellation goes out at the last minute or every week.  The sales team begins to not believe you when you schedule this meeting.  It is disrespectful to ask salespeople to plan around a meeting that you end up cancelling regularly.  Don’t treat their schedule any different than you want your schedule treated.  It is better to just not schedule the meeting in the first place.
• Salespeople in particular can get very disconnected. Often they are out in the field by themselves all week taking care of customers.  Give them an hour a week to stay connected with their teammates.  This gives them a chance to feed off of the team’s energy, share frustrations, brainstorm solutions and simply connect with those in their shoes.  Don’t deprive them of this motivational hour.
• As the Sales Manager, your team is your only job. Without them, you wouldn’t have all those other tasks anyway. So, make them your priority and let nothing stop you from your weekly team meeting.  They are your job – don’t let other things become your priorities.  At Franklin Covey, they ask managers “What is the one thing that has to happen or else nothing else matters?”.  For you, it’s that your team performs.  Nothing else you do will ultimately matter unless your team performs. A weekly sales team meeting is a key activity to have on your list of top priorities.

This is such a common problem – I hope this is helpful for Sales Managers.  Sometimes managers hesitate to schedule their meetings because they don’t know what they’ll talk about.  Those managers may want to subscribe to Meeting to Win.  We send subscribers 60+ minutes of sales team meeting content every week.  You’ll never lack for great sales topics for your sales team meetings again.  Join today.

 To see solutions to other sales team meeting problems, visit other articles in this series:

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: The Dominator

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Chirp…Chirp…

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Latecomers

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Data Dump

For a list of ideas for your upcoming sales meeting, visit Sales Team Meeting Ideas You Can Use Today.

The Monday Morning Sales Team Meeting is a critically important hour in the week of a salesperson.  Executing these sales team meetings poorly can leave your team unmotivated, desperate and, as we’ll address today, overwhelmed.  Because I am guessing you want to do none of these things to your sales team first thing on a Monday morning,  I am sharing the Meeting to Win  Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter one trouble at a time.  Thanks for joining us.  As they say, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.  With a small amount of attention, your meetings can be the exceptions to poorly executed sales team meetings that plague sales teams the world over.

Solve your sales meeting problems with The Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter.

Problem: 

You, the Sales Manager, want to have inspiring, interactive and energizing sales team meetings.  Afterall, you have been a sales rep before and have endured countless horrible, motivation-robbing sales meetings.  And, yet, you find yourself leading those very meetings. 

The problem is that you barely have enough time to cover the volumes of information your boss, home office, marketing team, product team, HR team and Collections teams demand that you cover with your sales team.  Have you ever noticed that everyone wants a piece of the sales team?  HR wants to reorganize them, Finance wants to count their sales, Operations wants to get along with them, Marketing wants to promote underperforming products, Product teams want to promote their products and the Executives want to sell more.  The sales team is the vehicle for all these departments and they all want to communicate – often.  This leaves your sales team meetings full of powerpoint decks and, ultimately, turn your meetings into Data Dumps.  And, no one is paying attention unless the particular topic happens to affect something they are currently working on.  So, boring sales meeting?  Check.

Solution:

• To begin with, I happen to believe that, if done appropriately and in the best interest of sales and the customers, it is OK to push back on some of these requests.  At the very least, ask that they be reprioritized and spread out.  It’s worth a shot… I did have a VP of Sales who set up barriers around the sales teams Tues-Fri to protect selling time.  Great move!
• The reality is that companies feel that it is necessary to dump this data and aside from respectful push-backs and reprioritization, ultimately, it’s going to have to be…dumped.  So, as a team, acknowledge that this information needs to be shared and, hopefully, in many cases it is actually helpful.  Then, figure out a better way to share it so you can reserve Monday mornings for sales-generating sales and customer topics.
  • Some ideas:
    • If you have an intranet, carve out a team page and post any information that can simply be posted.  As a team, set a standard for reading updates once per week or whatever makes sense.  Last time I checked, we are all adults and can be trusted to keep ourselves updated.  Expect that.
    • Since Monday mornings are the worst time to dump, set aside one hour (outside of selling time) to Data Dump.  Call it what it is and dump away.  Everyone can come prepared for an administrative meeting.
    • Share information on a recorded webinar.  Send your team a note when there is a new webinar so they can access it when it is more convenient for them.  They can call you with any questions.
    • Create a team newsletter.  Once per week or less frequently, update the newsletter with necessary data dumps.  Again, set a team standard that this needs to be read regularly. 
    • Send this information in e-mails with clear subject lines.  I’ve seen coding systems used, too.  “A” meant read/take action within 24 hours (everyone hates fire drills); “B” meant “read/take action within the next week”; “C” meant “FYI/good info to save”.  With a good system, the team members can prioritize and manage their time around all the information coming at them. 
      • The inbox can be the most overwhelming place!  Teach everyone to use Outlook most efficiently.  E-mails can be coded and filed as they come in.  They can set aside informational e-mails to read outside of selling time.  Color code emails from important people (customers!). The best thing I did was differentiate between e-mails sent to just me and those sent to a distribution list that just included me with a code in Outlook.  Guess which one got filed in “read later”?

So, Sales Managers, be the filter and manager of all the information your team needs to be successful.  As we suggest on almost every selling challenge.  Discuss this challenge as a team, throw around ideas and come up with a solution that the team agrees on.  Then, execute effectively.  Dump your data, just do it in the least disruptive way possible.  Your team will feel more motivated and less overwhelmed.

Stay tuned to the Meeting to Win blog for solutions to all your sales meeting troubles as we continue adding to The Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter.  To get new sales team meeting topics every week, complete with a 60 minute agenda,  join Meeting to Win.  We’d love to work with you and your team!

 To see solutions to other sales team meeting problems, visit other articles in this series:

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: The Dominator

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Chirp…Chirp…

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Latecomers

For a list of ideas for your upcoming sales meeting, visit Sales Team Meeting Ideas You Can Use Today.

If you’ve spent any time with me or Meeting to Win, you know that I try to pass along anything that will help you, the Sales Manager, hold interesting and effective sales team meetings.  If you haven’t been spending time here, WELCOME to the best place to improve your sales team meetings!  Here is an article by a sales consultant respected the world over.  He shares 10 strategies to help your next sales team meeting be the exception.  (Subscribe to Meeting to Win and take the guess work out of planning interactive, helpful weekly sales team meetings.)

Oh No, Not Another B****y Sales Meeting!

by Jonathan Farrington posted on The Customer Collective

My experience suggests that most frontline sales professionals, in most companies, do not enjoy sales meetings. It is also my perception that most sales managers in most companies do not have a clue when it comes to using these events as an excellent opportunity to motivate their people ahead of the next week/month/quarter, and send them back out into battle really fired up.

Even fewer appreciate the need to add in an “educational experience” into the agenda. So here are a few tips which will increase the chance of your team actually looking forward to your meetings. 

Read the Rest…HERE

Sales Meeting Ideas You Can Use Today

We are happy you stopped by.  Chances are you are a Sales Manager who is looking for ideas to improve your weekly sales team meetings…maybe even for a meeting you have in an hour.  

Let’s get started…

We believe you have come to the right place!

Since we know Sales Managers often visit our website with an immediate need, we are going to give you a ton of ideas you can use right now – most are FREE. 

Then, if you like your Meeting to Win sales team meetings, we invite you to solve your sales team meeting challenge forever by subscribing to weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win.  For the cost of a fast-food lunch, you can get 60-minutes of sales generating sales team meeting content delivered right to your e-mail every Friday morning.  (Learn more About Us.) 

First, here is immediate help for your upcoming sales team meeting.

10 Ideas for a Great Sales Team Meeting Today!

1.  Use this FREE Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agenda, Create Better Buying Experiences.  If you work with customers, you can use this always relevant topic! 
2. Invite a Guest Speaker to your sales team meeting.  For ideas, visit Wake Up Monday Morning Sales Team Meetings with Guest Speakers.
3. Start a Sales Performance Book Club.  Ask your team to come to your next sales team meeting with one book idea for the team to consider (or use a Meeting to Win Discussion Guide).  Give them each 3 minutes to share an overview of the book and why they believe it might be a good one.  At the end of the meeting, the group can choose a book.  Your next 8 meetings are covered as you work your way through the book of choice – see the Sales Performance Book Club article for agenda help.
4. Dust off your sales training manuals from your last training session.
5. Conduct a War Room session at your next sales team meeting. Follow our guide for positively and productively addressing a selling challenge. Leave empowered to overcome at nagging problem.
6. Go to the well of sales team meeting ideas with the Meeting to Win 100 Sales Team Meeting Topics e-book for $99 (or 50 cents per meeting).
7. Make your upcoming meeting about improving ALL your meetings. Your team will be grateful!  Download the FREE Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings from Meeting to Win.
8. Have a fast-paced, idea-flowing brainstorming session.  As a team, add to this list of 25 Actions to Take to Improve Your Sales Performance This Year.  At the end of the meeting, ask each person for their own commitments from the list and get an update during each sales team meeting for the rest of the quarter or year.
9. Share relevant Best Practices on a common sales topic. Pick one sales topic relevant to the entire team and ask the team to share experiences on this topic, successful and otherwise.  The goal of the sales team meeting is for everyone to gain one or two new ideas on this sales topic. 

10.  Maximize limited selling time with Seize the Day Every Day, a ready-to-go 60-minute sales team meeting agenda from Meeting to Win.  Download NOW for $19.95.

Other agendas you can download to use NOW include:

• Pipeline Health Check
• End of Year Sales Lessons
• Getting a Head Start on Economic Recovery
• Habits of Wildly Successful Salespeople

Subscribe to Meeting to Win weekly sales team meeting agendas and never need a last minute idea again.  Learn more About Us.  We’d love to meet you!

Too often sales people guess what it takes to succeed.  In most companies, someone has tried to take the guess work out of success by assigning sales activity goals.  The theory behind sales activity goals is that the powers that set these goals are saying that “if you do these activities, then you will be successful“.  I am suggesting that salespeople take this a step further and learn to predict their own success. 

This summer, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a recruiting project for a sales leader I’ve known and respected for many years.  In the beginning, we were using educated guessing to understand what it would take to be successful.  After one or two hiring experiences, we were able to extract some data and begin to predict our own success.  By backing into our success ratio, I know to the exact numexactly how much recruiting activity I need to execute to get the outcome we desire.

Taking the guesswork out of your success is a powerful tool in long-term success.  You can plan for vacations, slower periods – or that new car.  So, before the next selling season begins, do the math and predict your success.  If you don’t like what you see, you’ll have the information to change your future, also.

Join Meeting to Win before Friday and get a sales team meeting agenda on using your lagging indicators (sales activity) to impact your leading indicators (revenue) or, in the spirit of this article, predict your own success.  With Meeting to Win, sales managers get a new sales meeting agenda delivered to their inbox every Friday morning.  Stop dreading Monday mornings and join Meeting to Win.