Archive for the ‘meetings’ Category
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
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Create Better Buying Experiences
Stop for a moment and think about the experience your customers have purchasing from you and your company. Do you make it easy and enjoyable or does the work just begin when they say “yes”. The Meeting to Win agenda that went out on Friday is Creating Better Buying Experiences and it leads sales teams through exercises to eliminate bad experiences and create better experiences. We think so often about selling that sometimes we don’t stop to think about what it’s like to buy.
I was sitting with my colleague while she was booking hotel rooms for our team for an upcoming trip. The website she was using limited her to two reservations and she needed three. To get three, you had to call. Well, we were in an office building with poor cell reception and limited time so, what did she do? She went to our second choice and booked three $400/night hotel rooms at the competition. The first choice will never know they missed out on that business, but one buying experience cost them $2,000 that week.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes by calling your own customer service, reviewing invoices, visiting your website and ordering your own products and services. Talk to customers about each interaction they have with your company to learn where they experience frustrations. Get your marketing team in on the project. If you can improve the customer’s buying experience, you can increase sales.
FREE Sales Team Meeting Idea:
As a team, walk through the exercises in this complimentary sales team meeting agenda, Creating Better Buying Experiences. To get agendas like this every week, simply join other successful Sales Managers and subscribe to Meeting to Win.
Tags: motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
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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 »
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
I always love to share great meeting advice I come across in my reading. Here is some sound advice from Salesopedia’s newsletter this week.
13 Ideas to Run Engaging Meetings
Enjoy!
Tags: energize sales team, meetings, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, communication, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, sales management, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics | 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 »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
I’ve had many conversations lately about movement in the marketplace. Personally, I’ve been taking calls all week from business leaders moving forward on initiatives they’ve been sitting on for months. Customers are making moves, looking for solutions and ready to move forward. I love it! I can feel it in the air.
This week our focus has been on treating our existing customers like the gold that they are. Salespeople need to be proactive to ensure they stay part of the customer team as they forge ahead. One way to do that is to be visibly accountable. This means that salespeople need to proactively manage themselves so the client doesn’t have to. There are a few ways to do this.
First of all, set up a process for regular business reviews. I believe these should be conducted quarterly and formally. This means there should be a formal agenda that covers:
- A review of the original scope of work.
- The actual scope of work – what’s changed (something always does!) and what adjustments have been made. This topic ensures everyone is on the same page with the way the partnership has evolved.
- The successes and shortfalls. How to make the most of the successes and how to adjust to fix the shortfalls.
- An updated Needs Analysis. Find out what has changed in their business, priorities, etc. Uncover new opportunities.
- Next steps/Action Items
Customers should leave these business reviews feeling great about their investment with you. They don’t need to micromanage the partnership, you are doing that for them.
Secondly, get to know new people in the account regularly. Ask to speak to people who are impacted by or work with your solutions. Find out what they like, what they don’t, etc. Make sure they have your contact information. You are probably the only one talking to all involved! You will have an amazing perspective and be able to bring useful ideas to the table based on these relationships. Not to mention, your name will be mentioned in many conversations as if you are part of the team!
Then, provide regular emailed updates to senior decision makers. Often, once an account is won, the more senior decision makers move on to the next priority leaving functional people to manage the relationship. Often, the salesperson’s relationship with the real decision makers is harder to maintain and grow. To keep developing that relationship, send an update once a month or every 6 weeks hitting the highlights of recent events and successes. (You may be amazed at the places these emails will get forwarded.) They will appreciate it, feel informed and see you as a true partner and you’ll keep developing this important relationship.
Another way to stay visibly accountable is to put your bosses in front of the client regularly. Bring them to quarterly business reviews or other meetings. Make sure the client sees that your senior leadership team is aware of the work your companies do together. They will feel supported and important when they see the team behind you.
Demonstrate to your clients how important they are by holding yourself accountable in plain sight. They will see you as a valuable team member who takes initiative and ownership of results. You’ll be a dream employee they won’t want to see go.
To get sales team meeting agendas designed to develop your sales team and accelerate sales performance, visit Meeting to Win (http://www.meetingtowin.com/) and subscribe for weekly agendas. We love to work with Sales Managers who see the value of investing in their teams!
Tags: CRM, energize sales team, motivate sales team, new customers, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in Account Management, CRM, agenda ideas, customer meeting, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, meetings, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
(This Friday the Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agenda, 10 Things You Don’t Know, will be delivered to all our subscribers. We are focused on treating prospective customers AND existing customers like prospective customers. Get a new Sales Team Meeting Agenda EVERY Friday by subscribing to Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agendas today.)
Most sales reps get to enjoy some long-term customer relationships. Too often sales reps take these customers for granted and settle into an account management mode. Account management can mean many positive things, but in this case, we’ll call it account maintenance. It is not enough to just maintain an account. Your customer signed on for more than that. This week’s Meeting to Win theme is treating existing customers like prospective customers by helping them identify and secure solutions to their problems and tools to get them results.
In our 10 Things You Don’t Know article, we suggested several ways to treat these existing customers like hot prospects. Here is another way.
Get a Fresh Set of Eyes on an Existing Account
Ask a team mate to coffee. Ask them to review your clients’ website before meeting with you. Ask them to pretend this client was a target account that they were trying to acquire as a client. Then get together with them for coffee and ask their initial ideas for pursuing this client. Then, tell them everything you know about the account, who you know at the account, your theories on what you don’t know and your history with them. Now, ask them what you are missing. Find out how they would move forward to help this client.
Guaranteed you’ll walk away with a fresh perspective on an old account. You and your client win when you take a fresh look at their business.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- In your next sales team meeting, choose 1 existing account on the team that could use a fresh perspective. (Send an email to the team and ask them to nomimate their own accounts.)
- Choose one and let the team know the account name.
- Ask the team to research the account before the meeting.
- Ask the account owner to send a one-page overview of the account – what they know, who they know, history, etc.
- During the meeting, ask the Account Owner to share a 5 minute overview of the account that was not included in the pre-work.
- Ask the team to be the “fresh eyes” and share new ideas and perspective on the account.
- At the end of the hour, get a list of all the new ideas for the Account Owner.
- Account Owner should share what they will try from the list of new ideas.
Fieldwork Idea:
- Choose teams of 3 and, over the course of the next 3 weeks, each team should spend one hour per rep on one account per rep doing the same thing.
- Choose one rep’s account each week and get together for coffee, if possible. If not, do this on the phone.
- Each person on the team should end up with a list of fresh ideas and perspectives on one exisiting account.
- Get back together during a sales team meeting conference call and each rep should share the outcomes of gaining a fresh perspective on their exisiting account.
- What lessons did the team learn?
Enjoy the Fresh Eyes exercise. Join Meeting to Win to get interactive sales team meeting agendas for your sales team every week. We’d love to work with you!
Tags: CRM, existing customer, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in Account Management, CRM, New account, agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, sales activity, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
(This week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda is called 10 Things You Don’t Know. To join us and get new sales team meeting agendas weekly, visit us at Meeting to Win.)
Salespeople are wise to focus on their existing customer base to impact success during economic recovery. Competitors are getting creative and aggressive and existing relationships could be up for grabs … unless…you treat your existing clients like new customers. Think about how you treat new customers.
During economic recovery, treat your customers like new customers by trying the following things:
- Conduct a thorough needs-analysis with them to make sure your solutions still are solutions. Their business has likely changed like the rest of the world.
- Find out where they need help and deliver.
- Figure out how your company can better service them – clear billing, better response on customer service issues, etc.
- Bring senior leaders to face-to-face meetings to thank them for their business and show how valuable they are to your company.
- Sincerely thank them for their business.
- Share new ways to solve old and new problems.
- Share industry expertise. Help them be innovative.
- Help them help their customers succeed.
- Learn everything you can about their business – you’ll recognize ways to help them the more you know their business.
- Be attentive, present and part of the team.
- Commit to quarterly business reviews to hold yourself accountable to the results you promised.
- Make sure they know all that you can do for them. (Exercise: Think of 10 things your top customers may not know about your offering that may help them.) Figure out how to share all your services without giving a sales pitch. Your competitors are sharing this information. It’s best to share this information in response to a business need they have.
- Be someone they can’t live without.
Competitors are gunning for your clients. Treat your existing customers like the gold that they are.
(To get sales team meeting agendas with exercises and role plays on topics like 10 Things You Don’t Know and other great selling topics, join the Meeting to Win community by subscribing today.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, customer meeting success, existing customer, new customers, recession, sales team agenda.
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, communication, customer meeting, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, new managers, performance, recession, sales activity, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tough economy | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
“Micromanagement” is a 4-letter word to most sales professionals. Most sales reps strive to get to the point where their bosses “leave them alone as long as they get the job done”. There are times when micromanagement is actually helpful. Two of those times are (1) during the first month on the job or (2) when a sales rep is underperforming.
During these two time periods, Sales Managers have the responsibility to help their team members succeed. One “micromanagement” activity that I have seen work over and over during these two time periods in a sales career is the AM/PM Check-In Meeting.
Each morning and afternoon for one month at the beginning of the sales day and at the end of the sales day, set a time for the sales rep to call the sales manager. This should a 5-10 minute call with a set agenda. This is less than an hour a week a Sales Manager and sales rep can invest in the success of a territory. The AM Agenda should include the rep’s plan for the day and the PM Agenda should include an update on the activity they planned and executed. This AM/PM Meeting provides needed, regular guidance and accountability as a rep is building their business.
Invest in success with the AM/PM Check-In Meeting and watch the territory grow!
Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Subscribe and get a new sales team meeting agenda packed with skill-building, sales-producing topics every week.
Tags: CRM, energize sales team, micromanagement, new hire, new sales rep, on-boarding, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agendas, underperforming sales rep
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, best practice, communication, discipline, free sales team meeting topics, meetings, sales management, sales manager tips, 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 | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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Sales Meeting Agenda Idea – Dust Off the Sales Training Manuals
Enjoy a sales meeting agenda idea for your next sales meeting.
Ask your team to dust off (literally) the sales training manual from your latest sales training session. Assign each person on the team one section and ask them to lead the team in the exercises, role plays and discussions from the training session over the course of the next few sales team meetings. This will reinforce the training you’ve already received and give the team a chance to practice the new skills.
Start each meeting with an update from each person regarding how they used the previous week’s lesson in the field and the outcome of that effort.
Enjoy your sales meetings while building your sales skills.
(To get new sales meeting agendas each week, join Meeting to Win. We provide energizing, fun sales team meeting agendas for motivating sales meetings.)
Tags: sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, 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 »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
We at Meeting to Win are big fans of Paul Castain and his work. During our 3-week Sales Team Meeting Agenda series on Maximizing Customer Meetings we thought you may enjoy Paul’s thougths on starting your meetings with impact.
Starting Your Meetings with Impact
by Paul Castain of Sales Playbook
OK, pop quiz. How long does it take to make an impression on someone? 30 seconds? 10? Less? …
Here’s something that you can do in your very next client/prospect meeting …
Read the rest here.
Tags: cusotmer meeting success, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agendas, sales teams
Posted in free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, maximize tools, meetings, sales activity, sales manager tips, sales meetings, sales tips, tips for meetings | No Comments »
