Archive for the ‘free sales team meeting topics’ Category
Sunday, July 11th, 2010
We here in the northern hemisphere are experiencing the dog days of summer. If you haven’t taken a vacation yet this summer, shame on you. Immediately stop reading this and find a beach house - minimum stay 7 nights. If you are back from vacation, then continue reading. It really doesn’t take a lot of extra effort to gain the competitive edge. It simply takes a few strategic moves to create momentum that will reward you when others are just getting back in the game. Now, mid-July, is the time to take action. You have a good 6-8 weeks to get a headstart that you will not regret.
Check out the Meeting to Win ideas for heading into the next selling season with a head of steam:
Click on this link to get a list of ideas: Getting a Headstart
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- Ask everyone to read this blog post before your next sales meeting.
- Ask everyone to come with their own ideas to add to the list. During the meeting, create a comprehensive list of ideas.
- During the meeting, ask each person to commit to 1 or more activities that will make the biggest difference in their momentum.
- Ask someone to “own” the Summer Momentum Project (leadership opportunity). It will be their job to monitor and report on the team’s progress until the end of August.
- Then, once a month, Sept – Dec, ask the team to share the results of the SMP. I guarantee you will have RESULTS!
To get sales team meeting agendas that lead your team through exercises to gain momentum, close more pipeline opportunities and stay motivated during the dog – and any other – days, subscribe to Meeting to Win weekly sales team meeting agendas.
Look forward to Monday mornings!
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
Posted in Summer Selling Season, agenda ideas, free sales team meeting topics, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, summer sales | No Comments »
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
When I had the privilege to represent Franklin Covey’s Helping Clients Succeed sales training program in the marketplace, I realized something life-changing. The Consultants who shared the content always shared the fact that sales professionals needed to be effective communicators and, so much of any sales training program, is teaching them to be just that. A salesperson must first elicit information and then, using that information, make a compelling case for their products or services. Up until that point I had thought of myself as a salesperson, not a communicator. A powerful clarification on my real job.
I answered the phone call of a salesperson this week. The timing was perfect since this Friday’s Meeting to Win agenda is Masters of Communication. This call demonstrates exactly why sales professionals need to focus on their communication skills daily. First of all, this salesperson was clearly surprised to catch me “live” at 6:30pm. From the sound of it, he fully expected to get voicemail and probably had a good plan for that outcome. Then, because I am nice to salespeople, I said that I had about 2 minutes when I was asked if I had some time to talk. I had something on the stove and 2 minutes was even pushing it. Again, I caught this salesperson by surprise by giving him any time at all. Then, for the next two minutes this salesperson shared information about their service and used the phrase “in essence” about 10 times. (Let me say that many of my early sales calls could have been examples in blog posts just like this one!) The problem is that I don’t remember the service or the benefits because I was distracted by the fact that he seemed caught off guard and used this filler phrase over and over. I felt like it was merciful to end the call nicely.
There are some powerful communication lessons from this short call.
- First of all, be prepared for voicemail or live person.
- Have a clear reason to call that could be compelling to the person you are calling.
- Have a goal for the call and share the goal with the person you’ve called.
- With a plan, the need and, therefore, use of filler words or phrases diminishes.
- Eliminate jargon, cliches and lingo.
- Record your calls and listen to them.
- Role play every scenario you could encounter with team mates and help each other.
- Practice your “elevator pitch” every chance you get. Be able to nail this in any situation.
Becoming a master takes practice. Look for and create opportunities to practice. When that top prospect answers the phone finally, you want to be ready.
To get sales team meeting topics like Masters of Communication and many others, subscribe for weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
Using the scenario I shared above, ask each salesperson to role play catching a prospective client “live” who says they only have 2 minutes to talk. What do you say in those 2 minutes? What is the goal of your 2 minute call? Ask each person to do the role play and ask the team for feedback. After this meeting, everyone will be prepared for one more scenario they may encounter.
Tags: motivate sales team, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas
Posted in communication, free sales team meeting topics, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
I am finally reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve only been carrying it around for 2 years and, yesterday, on a flight read the first half. The concept of 10,000 hours is one of the many pages I’ve dog eared. This is the concept with supporting examples that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert and a stand-out. I’ve always been a believer that experience counts in sales. Think about how much time you actually spend in front of a customer practicing your trade – 10 hours/week if you’re lucky? How long would it take to gain 10,000 hours of practice? 19 years? 25 years?
YIKES!
So, if you want to be an expert, you have to find more practice time. Here are some ideas:
- First of all, use your weekly sales meeting as a one-hour practice session. – 1 hour/week (Who saw that coming?)
- Role play your upcoming customer encounters with a team member or manager before the customer encounter. - 2 hours per week
- Spend time pre-call planning – opening statements, questions, objection responses, etc – 2 hours per week
- Take one sales training class per year. – 16 hours per year
- Spend 2 more hours per week with customers than you do now. – 2 hours per week
- Regularly attend a customer meeting with a peer to observe them. – 2 hours per month
So, adding all of this to your current 10 customer hours per week, you’ll be at 18 hours per week which would put you at expert status in half the time as your peers. My math shows 10 years (which is how long it seems to take in any field – music, technology, sports).
I love this concept because it means you have control over how you stack up against your peers in the marketplace. Invest time in your trade and it pays off.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- As a team, ask each person to calculate their own individual sales practice hours. Just use number of years of experience, add in training hours and ask each team member to come up with their number.
- Now, as a team, figure out how to get an additional 5-10 hours per week of sales practice.
- Commit to getting more practice and then track your performance against other sales teams in your own company. What results do you expect?
Enjoy working on your 10,000 hours.
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, practice, sales team agenda.
Posted in agenda ideas, best practice, discipline, free sales team meeting topics, performance, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
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!
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, move deals, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, blog, culture, discipline, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, meetings, sales meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Each quarter, Meeting to Win encourages our subscribers to invite a Guest Speaker to their weekly sales team meeting. We’ve updated the list we published in February with more ideas on Guest Speaker options. Invite a Guest Speaker to your next sales meeting and see your team light up.
Wake Up Monday Sales Meetings with Guest Speakers
Subscribe to Meeting to Win weekly sales team meeting agendas and enjoy upcoming topics such as:
Price vs. Value, Deal Makers (Series), Masters of Communication, 13 Critical Success Factors for Salespeople (Series) and many others to keep your team fired up, equipped and winning all year long.
Tags: guest speaker, sales meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meetings
Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips | No Comments »
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
This post brought to you by Meeting to Win.
Subscribe and get a NEW sales team meeting topic every week or visit our STORE for 90+ sales team meeting topics across 21 different categories (see CATALOG HERE).
Sales Team Meeting Idea – Sales Performance Book Club
We at Meeting to Win are on a mission to end boring sales team meetings. Boring sales team meetings put sales teams to sleep right at the beginning of the selling week when they should be at their very best. The last thing salespeople should have to do is recover from their sales team meeting so they can be productive each Monday. As part of our mission, we want to share a sales team meeting idea for Sales Managers who share our passion.
Sales Team Meeting Idea – Sales Performance Book Clubs
As a team,
Choose a business or sales book from Amazon.com (choose your own or subscribe to Meeting to Win and follow along with our quarterly Sales Performance Book Club – includes Discussion Guide and Chapter Exercises). Cover one or two new chapters each week during your weekly sales team meeting. Assign the chapters to the members of the team. Each week give them 20 minutes of the agenda to lead the team on that chapter’s topic.
They can:
- Lead a discussion on the information in the chapter.
- Ask the team to apply the lessons to their own business.
- Practice skills or ideas from the chapter.
- Pull one or two key lessons from the chapter.
- Set one action item based on the work done during this meeting.
- Get creative – give them the chance to do whatever they want with the chapter. You’ll see a new side of some team members.
Meeting to Win provides Sales Performance Book Club discussions each quarter as part of our Sales Meeting Agenda Subscription. We cover one new book each quarter. Next one, Mind of the Customer, starts in April 2010. Join us by subscribing today.
Join the MISSION TO END BAD SALES TEAM MEETINGS by having motivating sales team meetings that inspire your team to perform. Everyone wins!
Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides Sales Team Meeting Agendas PLUS for Sales Managers who want to lead great sales team meetings.
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales book club, sales performance, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, performance, sales manager tips, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Your products and services – or solutions – meet very important needs of your customers. The more your solutions directly impact their ability to do their business more effectively, the more powerful and important your partnership becomes. Salespeople can hitch their solutions to the most important wagons with a little focus on the right needs.
No matter who you are positioned with in an account, an understanding of the top company goals is useful in the short term and often critical in the long term. In the short term, simply offering a solution they are asking for may be enough to make a sale at a department level. In the long term, much like what we have seen in the past couple of years, spending gets scrutized for one reason or another and any spending not directly tied to the most important goals gets cancelled. Also, salespeople often find themselves in the position of being sold internally by an ally or coach. They have to provide the information and incentive to get their internal ally to fight for their solutions. If that person is armed with the connection to the top goals, the more likely they are to be successful in their interal sales role.
So, we know it’s important, now, how do you do it. Here are some things that you may want to try:
- First of all, start high in an organization. The more effectively you can tie your solutions to their unique company goals, the more likely you are to stay high. Even if you get delegated lower during the process, you still have access higher.
- Research, research, research. Find out everything you can about what the CEO is focused on accomplishing.
- Find out what role your contacts play in the top company goals. For example, pretend your contact is in HR and one of the company’s top goals is the successful launch of a new product for 8% revenue growth this year. How will HR help the company reach this goal? Is it their job to find new sales people? Is it their job to train everyone on the new product? What particular part will they play in this goal? Once you know this you can help them reach their goal which helps the company reach it’s goal.
- Demonstrate how you can help them reach these goals more efficiently. Show how the investment with you gives them the gains they need.
- Once you are in, monitor your contribution and share it in regular reports and communications. Check in often on progress and make sure you stay aligned should the goals get altered.
- Learn to ask questions that get you to the most important goals. You’ll be surprised that often your current contacts actually don’t even know the company’s top goals. You need to learn to ask questions that don’t make them feel stupid yet also help you work toward gathering the necessary information. Simply asking someone “what are your company’s top 3 goals?” may sound like a pop quiz. Use your communication skills to have productive conversations where you both learn if necessary.
Solutions tied to top goals stand the test of time and scrutiny. Get hitched to the right goals for long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers. This week’s agenda is Tie Your Solutions to Their Goals. If you would like to lead your team through exercises designed to help them “get hitched”, subscribe today.
Tags: CRM, customer meetings, existing customer, motivate sales team, new customers, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda
Posted in Account Management, CRM, communication, efficient, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Who is on your “team”? By team I mean everyone that helps take care of the customer from suspect stage to account management stage. This could be your proposal people, your billing dept, your sales engineers, your operations team, your customer service representatives and the list goes on. It typically takes many people working together to win, keep and grow customer accounts. How well your team works together is being observed and judged by customers and is a big factor in their decision to work with you or not.
There are many challenges facing your extended team. Everyone has different bosses, people are spread all over the country, they leave the company and have conflicting priorities. How do you pull the team together for the good of the customer?
Start by identifying the team. Make a list of everyone who touches every stage of the sales cycle. List these people or functions by sales cycle stage. Include the role they play in that stage.
Now that you have this chart, figure out how to improve your team work. To get started, list 5 areas of breakdown in your team work. Are proposals often late, do customers have billing issues, is Customer Service unresponsive, are orders delivered late? Take each breakdown one by one and figure out how to address it so customers have a better experience.
Some solutions may include:
- Involving an extended team member earlier in the sales cycle.
- Making an effort to get to know each other outside a sales cycle.
- Including the extended team on sales team meetings occasionally.
- Making sure everyone is clear on their role in the customer account.
- Creating a customer-focused culture where everyone sells.
- Encouraging team leaders to focus on working together.
- Creating a communication system across departments.
Work together as a team to win as a team. You’ll enjoy these internal relationships and your customers will be the big winners.
(Meeting to Win provides new sales team meeting agendas every week for Sales Managers who subscribe to the sales meeting agenda service. This Friday, the sales team meeting agenda Work as a Team to Win as a Team will be delivered to our subscribers. Join us and start having better sales team meetings this week.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams, sales teamwork, team work, work as a team
Posted in Account Management, CRM, agenda ideas, agendas, free sales team meeting topics, performance, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting | No Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
So, now I am getting inspiration from beer ads! The ad says that fortune favors the bold and it supports the Meeting to Win message this week about Playing to Win instead of Playing to NOT Lose.
Top performers take risks. They risk losing deals or entire accounts by speaking up when clients are making bad decisions. They hold their ground during negotiations. They challenge a competitor’s offering. They demonstrate their value and then demand the right price. They walk away from bad deals. They get to decision makers. They risk offending gatekeepers. They ask their referral network to make introductions. They challenge strategy. They point out problems. They share solutions. They say no to non-selling activities. They care more about results than padded activity reports and inflated pipelines. They call higher in organizations.
Fortune favors the bold. Take a risk today – and tomorrow – and the next day. Play with passion.
Just Sell quote from Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th president of the United States on being bold.
(Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers who want to lead inspiring sales team meetings. Join us by subscribing today. Upcoming agendas include Playing to Win or Playing to NOT Lose, Work as a Team to Win as a Team, Lost in Translation, System Based Selling and Create Better Buying Experiences.)
Tags: CRM, energize sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in Account Management, agenda ideas, best practice, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, gatekeeper, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
(This week’s Meeting to Win focus is on Playing to Win instead of Playing to NOT Lose. Meeting to Win provides a new, fresh sales team meeting agenda every week for our Subscribers. Start having productive sales team meetings that result in superior sales performance with Meeting to Win.)
For some reason, there is often a sense of comfort when a prospective client asks us to do or provide something – see a demo, send me information, etc. We believe we have a solution that may meet their needs and we take their request as a sign that they may also believe that. As sales reps, happy to stay engaged with this prospect, we march off to provide the requested information. This prospective client may very well want this information and have a real plan to evaluate our solution and actually make a go/no-go decision on purchasing from us or not.
On the other hand, they may be making this request for any number of other reasons – and we may be playing along for any number of reasons. Those reasons can include:
- They are too nice to tell you that have no intention of spending a dime with you.
- They are busy and the fastest way to get rid of you is to send you on an errand.
- They are really good at kicking the tires, but have no history of actually buying.
- They stay in the eternal sales cycle never actually moving forward on anything. Professional window shoppers exist in every company.
- They are afraid if they tell you “no” that you will keep trying to sell them. No one enjoys being on the receiving end of this tactic.
- Your pursuit makes them feel important (ugly truth alert!).
- They think they have some power to make this decision. Meanwhile, someone else is actually making the decision at some other level.
- We feel “safe” to simply stay engaged in the sales cycle. We have something to report on our activity tracker, in our pipelines and during our team meeting updates. We’ve bought another week of activity.
- You look so happy when they ask you for something.
Those just a few of the reasons sales reps are asked to run these errands. How do sales reps stop being gophers? One way is to lay out the next few steps or commitments on both sides. Next time you are asked to run an errand, ask what decision they plan to make once you provide the requested information and by when. For example, if they ask to see a demo of your software. Find out what they hope to gain from the demo (the demo may not be what they even need) and what decision they plan to make upon seeing the demo (no-go, take the next step, involve other decision makers, etc) and by when they plan to make the decision (is there even a timeline?).
It feels “safe” to stay engaged and really….it’s a collosal waste of time. Stop playing it “safe” and start helping your clients make decisions that will ultimately help their businesses succeed. Get commitments before you run the errand – everyone wins when you have an efficient process.
(This week’s Meeting to Win focus is on Playing to Win instead of Playing to NOT Lose. Meeting to Win provides a new, fresh sales team meeting agenda every week for our Subscribers. Start having productive sales team meetings that result in superior sales performance with Meeting to Win.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, customer meeting success, energize sales team, sales leadership, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in CRM, customer meeting, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, tips for meetings | No Comments »
