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Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Get In Each Other’s Business This Summer

Monday, June 7th, 2010

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!

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Sales Managers, Trade Teams for a Week

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

(I posted this article, Sales Managers, Trade Team for a Week in February.  Today, my HBR Management Tip of the Day came across my e- mail on the same topic.  I thought it would be nice to update this post with a link to the HBR Tip, Need New Ideas? Trade Places.)

I had the opportunity to work for a company that created a culture of sharing best practices.  Due to that culture, Sales Managers really developed relationships across territories and had the neatest (seriously, that’s the only word that really described it) flow of best practices.  These managers would even ask to be put on each other’s team distribution lists so they could have visibility into each other’s communication style and content (can you imagine requesting more e-mails!).

From this culture comes a sales meeting idea that should wake up Monday mornings and fit right in with our Guest Speaker spotlight this week.  Why don’t you and another Sales Manager trade teams for a week?  Lead each other’s sales team meeting, conduct one-on-ones and get out in the field with each other’s team.  Get together the next week and share observations, lessons you learned and ideas to improve.  Then, discuss those lessons with your team on your next sales team conference call.

This is fun, enlightening and energizing for both teams and both Sales Managers.  Keep it interesting – trade teams next week.

(Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas and sales team meeting topics for Sales Managers who like to provide sales training and development weekly.  Visit us here:  http://www.meetingtowin.com/)

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The Q4 Push – Are You In? The Time to Act on 2010 is NOW!

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

j0433410This has been a tough year for many.  It’s Q4 and salespeople could be feeling tired and ready to “write this one off” and take another shot at it in 2010.   Here’s the problem with that.  Momentum is a very cool thing and it’s great when it’s working for you and horrible when it’s working against you.  So, even if 2009 is a lost cause in terms of goal achievement, there is no better time (well, a month ago would have been better, but…) to get momentum going for 2010.

To gain more and more momentum as you close in on 2010, try these strategies:

The first five on the list come from the advice my friend Alvin of Tactivity shared in a LinkedIn discussion. I’ve added (and repeated) a few ideas that have helped me, also.

  1. If you’re on pace to the President’s Club in your organization, then increase your activity.
  2. If what you are doing hasn’t been working, then complete a thorough cleansing of the pipeline/funnel: Is it real? Is it good business? Can you win?
  3. Prioritize your activities around the health of your newly cleaned funnel
  4. Brainstorm a list of possible actions for your top opportunities; then choose only the 3-5 activities that will really advance them towards closure
  5. Go get it done!
  6. Conduct business reviews with existing clients to secure relationships, identify risks and uncover new ways to help them.
  7. Examine your territory for new opportunities a tough economy has turned up.
  8. Increase your sales activity.  Oh, did we already mention that one?  Action creates action, energy creates energy.  Make more calls!
  9. Solidify referral partners.  Decide to gain 20 referral partners and stay in touch with them, ask for referrals, be accessible and be someone they would be proud to refer (hint: send them referrals, also).
  10. Stay “on the grid” with prospects and existing customers.  Share useful information to help them run their business more effectively.  Don’t be out of sight or you know where you’ll be…. Out of mind.  Many of their sales reps have “gone dark” lately as companies do lay-offs and reorganizations.  Just being there may differentiate you!
  11. Have a team meeting every week to celebrate successes, share ideas, collaborate on hot deals and challenge each other.  This team accountability and celebration is fuel for your sales engine.  (You know we couldn’t leave this one out!)
  12. BONUS:  Increase sales activity.  In my experience, there is NO substitute.  Commit to accelerated sales activity in Q4 if you do nothing else.  Yeah, it’s worth mentioning 3 times. 

2010 can be an amazing year.  Salespeople that build momentum now can get a head start and be rewarded by helping more customers in 2010 than they ever thought possible.  Not to mention, for some 2009 can be a distant memory….  Get started today.  Staring in January 2010 will be TOO LATE.

To help sales teams build momentum during Q4, Meeting to Win is running a Q4 Push Promotion which means…free sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers.  Sales Managers can subscribe for sales team meeting agendas and get all of Q4 for free.  First payment of $10/month won’t be charged until January 2010 (sales managers can unsubscribe any time in Q4 and never be charged).  The agendas are designed to motivate sales teams and accelerate performance while continually gaining and maintaining incredible momentum. 

Read more HERE then join us by subscribing HERE and entering the Promo Code “Q4PUSH”.

Posted in LinkedIn, Uncategorized, agendas, best practice, communication, culture, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, meetings, new managers, new years resolutions, opportunity, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings, sales team, sales team meeting ideas, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »

Maintain a "performance culture" in a recession

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Right now Sales Managers must set the tone for their sales teams. The news is gloomy and Sales Managers have a lot of power to deal with the economy realistically while not allowing their teams to become “victims”. Let’s spend some time on this topic this week.

We sent out a press release regarding maintaining a performance culture during a recession. http://www.ibtimes.com/prnews/20081119/sales-teams-can-maintain-a-performance-culture-during-a-recession.htm

In the next post, we’ll list out several ways beyond what the article shares to create and maintain a performance culture during tough times. We may also create a list of how to do the opposite! It seems some Sales Leaders are masters at this.

Feel free to share a comment about how you, as a Sales Manager, are keeping your teams focused, pumped up, realistic and strategic. We’ll share our findings soon. Check back in….

Posted in What They Are Saying About Meeting to Win, culture, performance, recession, sales managers | No Comments »