Meeting to Win subscribers have just begun the Summer Deal Makers Series. (Join us by subscribing and get a new agenda every week.)  We thought we’d share the idea with our blog readers, also.  As we’ve mentioned about once a week leading up to the summer, we all know that it can be more difficult to move deals forward in the summer months.  Decision makers are on vacation and, therefore, sales process steps take longer to complete.  Before you know it, sales cycles have doubled and sales reps don’t have much more than a tan and some frustration to show for the summer. 

There is an alternative, though.  As a team, choose two deals per rep and get in each other’s business.  Each deal owner should share their summer strategy on those deals with the team. The team should provide input and ideas to keep the deal moving and, hopefully, closing during the summer.  Each week, each rep should share what was accomplished on those 2 deals the previous week, the planned accomplishments for the upcoming week and, again, get input from the team. This can be done in rapid-fire format.  Do it every week on the same deals.  Stay focused and close those deals this summer.

The benefits of this are increased summer momentum, accountability to keep things moving in the summer and laser focus on sales and customers.  The side benefits include increased morale, better team work and sales lessons galore. 

To get structured sales team meeting agendas on this topic and many others, join as a subscriber and get in on the Summer of Momentum from Meeting to Win. We don’t want you to miss a minute of the fun.  Join us or create your own fun.  Best wishes for a great summer!

Great weekly sales team meetings can be powerful Sales Performance Engines.  Is yours?  If not, there might be a quick fix to take your team to higher and higher heights. 

Take the assessment to determine if there is room to improve your weekly sales team meeting. 

Sales Team Meeting Assessment:  Is There Room for Improvement in Your Weekly Sales Team Meetings?

1.  My team would join my weekly sales team meeting if attendance was optional.

(A)  Yes

(B)   No

2.  I, the Sales Manager, am talking more than 50% of the meeting time.

(A)  Less than 50% – Others are talking the other 50%

(B)   Yes, I do most of the talking.

3.  We set a clear goal for our sales team meetings and leave knowing if we accomplished that goal or not?

(A) Yes, our meetings have a purpose and a clear goal.

(B)  No, our meetings do not have a clear objective.

4.  In our sales team meetings, everyone is expected to contribute and actively participate?

(A) Yes.  Our sales team meetings are a team effort.  We see it as everyone’s resposibility to use this time wisely.

(B)  No, sometimes I think people are checking email during the meeting.

5.  Everyone leaves each meeting with a new idea to try or a new skill to practice in the field that week.

(A) Yes, our meetings equip our teams to sell more that very week.

(B)  No.  We usually just go over numbers and hear what everyone accomplished last week.

6.  My sales team meeting agenda is sent in advance so everyone can prepare for a great meeting.

(A)  Yes.

(B)  We do not have an agenda and, if we do, it is not sent in advance.

7.  My sales team meeting topics

(A) Are relevant to our current selling environment – challenges, initiatives and goals.

(B) Are the same every week.

8.  My sales team would say our weekly sales team meeting is a great use of their time.

(A) Yes!

(B)  Probably not.  I’d be afraid to ask.

9.  My team ties successes in the field to something they learned during a sales team meeting.

(A)  Yes, often.

(B)  Rarely if ever.

If you find yourself marking (B) to any of the above questions, there is probably room for improvement in the way you execute your sales team meetings.  This blog lists many resources -articles and tools – to improve your sales team meetings.   Of course, Meeting to Win is happy to help, also.  Contact us to set up a consultation.  We’ll be happy to provide some guidance and point you to the tools available to begin using your sales meetings as sales engines.

(This post brought to you by sales team meeting expert, Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas and best practices to turn your sales team meetings into sales performance engines. Join us by subscribing here.)

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Being a successful salesperson takes unbelieveable self-discipline.  It is a job that requires proactive activity to move forward.  At the same time, there are enough things to simply react to that a salesperson can stand still instead of move forward.  I am in the process of writing a sales team meeting agenda to help our subscribers identify their anchors and then figure out how to pull them up occassionally so they can move forward into the sea of opportunity that exists for them.   I thought I’d share the concept in a blog post, also.

How can you tell if you have anchors?  Here are a few questions to answer:

• Have you identified a new problem to solve for your current clients?
• Have you presented new ideas and solutions to help them meet their goals?
• Does your pipeline grow and move at a good pace?
• Have you added new customers, new contacts and new referral partners to your client list in the past year?
• Are your sales growing?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, you may need to find and pull up your anchors so you can move forward and grow your business.  Anchors are the things you are doing instead of developing and expanding your business.

To get started, think about everything you do in a week to simply maintain, or not lose, your current business.  These are your anchors.  Examine those activities closely and determine how to use those to grow your business or how to delegate them to a capable associate with different responsibilties (customer service, etc).  Anchors can be good sometimes.  Occassionally it makes sense to stop, drop your anchor and get ready to move forward again.  Just don’t sit there too long. 

Now, replace your anchors with business development activities.  Your ship will be sailing again before you know it. 

Pull up your anchors – the sea awaits.

Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC.  Join our growing community of subscribers for weekly sales team meeting topics in a 60-minute format.  Agendas include practical exercises, practice sessions, discussion topics and leadership opportunities.  Grow your sales with Meeting to Win.

Each quarter Meeting to Win leads our subscribers through a business book in the Sales Performance Book Club.  Each week’s reading assignment and Discussion Guide are included in the weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletter.  To subscribe, visit us at our website www.meetingtowin.com.  Enter the promo code Q4PUSH and get weekly agendas free for all of Q4 2009.  First payment isn’t due until Jan 2010.  Learn more here.

Grab the following book, read a chapter per week as a team and use the Discussion Guide during weekly sales team meetings.  Your team will be motivated and inspired by the new ideas and practical advice.  Happy Selling from Meeting to Win.

Sales Performance Book Club

Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play

by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig

Chapter 1

• Chapter 1 lists 5 premises or key beliefs. Do disagree with any of those? 
• Which of the key beliefs made you think about your client relationships differently? Why?

 Chapter 2

• Each participant should share if and how they will take one of the “No Guessing” challenges.

Chapter 3

• What is different about the way the authors suggest you qualify an opportunity vs. the way you do it today?
• What will you try from this chapter?

Chapter 4

Discussion questions:

• Share thoughts around qualifying the resources of time and people. Does the team do this today? What are the benefits?

 Exercise:

• Each participant should practice the “three-part response” (pg. 85) out loud for the group.

 Discussion:

• How comfortable is each member of the sales team with executing the “three-part response”?
• What, if anything, will each participant do differently when qualifying resources, time, people and money, moving forward?
• When will each participant expect to have a chance to practice qualifying resources and using the “three-part response”?

Chapter 5

Discussion questions:

• Each participant should share one “take-away” from Chapter 5.
• Are there benefits to understanding the Decision Process as outlined in Chapter 5? Why or why not?

 Exercise:

• Take two live deals in the team’s pipeline and fill in the blanks on the Decision Grid on page 98. (There will probably be blanks since this is not in practice yet.)
• What gaps exist in the salesperson’s knowledge of the decision process for each deal?
• How can those salespeople fill in those gaps?
• Each salesperson on the two deals should share specific next steps to complete the Decision Grids for those opportunities.

Chapter 6

Discussion:

• What differences exist between the way each participant prepares and executes the final presentation vs. the way the authors suggest sales professionals should do it?
• How does the authors’ advice apply to the team’s sales process? What would work?
• What specifically will each participant do differently, if anything, after studying this chapter?

 Exercise:

• As practice, choose one person with an upcoming presentation to prepare and share their presentation for the team prior to sharing it with the prospective client.

Chapter 7

Discussion:

• For each participant, what opportunities are you currently pursuing? What has been the approach so far? 
• After reading this chapter, what will be each participant’s specific next steps in pursuit of the top opportunities?

 Exercise:

• Three volunteers should practice for the group an “opening statement” (pg. 195) for an upcoming meeting with a new prospect.
• Group should share feedback and reaction.

Last Words

Discussion:

• Upon completing the book, what does each participant want to do differently after reading Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig?

Exercise:

• Please complete the SPI.
• Each person should share their SPI (Sales Progression Index) score. 

• Based on the SPI score, each participant should share their next steps on that live deal.
• Did the SPI reveal any surprises for the sales rep?
• Is the SPI exercise a valuable exercise to use to advance deals?
• How can you use it moving forward?

Helping Clients Succeed sales training is based on Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig. To learn more and follow their blog, visit ninety five 5 at http://www.nf5.com/default.aspx.

Meeting to Win leads a new Sales Performance Book Club every quarter.  These are included on weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletters.  To learn more and subscribe, visit Meeting to Win at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.

I read Seth Godin’s blog this morning. He is on my mind because I plan to pick up his book, Tribes, this week. Anyway, he announced a very neat opportunity for the right person – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. I sent it to a few people that I immediately thought of. Check it out – it could change your life!