Archive for the ‘sales team meeting agenda’ Category
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
The pre-work for this week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda includes two articles by S. Anthony Iannarino of The Sales Blog.
Mr. Iannarino writes an insightful blog and was kind enough to let us use his insights into the bottom 80% of sales performers. Read the articles, add to the list and decide where you want to rank.
To get a sales team meeting agenda that leads your team through this valuable exercise, subscribe before Friday! The agenda goes out at 6am ET. Hope you can join us in the TOP 20%.
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team meeting agenda
Posted in best practice, free sales team meeting topics, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda | No Comments »
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 »
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 »
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
Most sales team have a “sales process”. This is a set of steps they take to help the customer make a good decision about their products and services. It typically goes from suspect stage to close stage of the sales cycle. Often these sales processes are written in a very salesperson focused way. They seem to have the goal of “closing” the customer and the worksheets and notes associated with each step are carefully guarded and most certainly never shown to the prospective customer.
In this approach, a sales process is something done TO the customer instead of WITH the customer.
What if salespeople took a different approach and invited their prospective customer into the process? What if salespeople re-wrote the sales cycle steps with the goal of helping the customer make the best possible decision for them? Maybe it is called a Decision Process instead of a sales process?
When a company hires a consulting firm, the consulting firm typically has a process they use on each engagement to understand the customer and then suggest and execute solutions to meet their clients needs. These solutions are typically repeatable based on the diagnosis. This is much of what salespeople do, but salespeople differ in the fact that they try to keep their process a secret.
Having a tried-and-true, repeatable process builds confidence in customers. Salespeople might want to consider sharing their process and invite the customer to take each step with them. They could share their reports and forms along the way. Along the way, making sure to stay true to their promise of helping them make good decisions and then, together, document and demonstrate it throughout the process. This builds confidence and trust in the salesperson and the process.
To build trust, move an opportunity along a decision process with your customer. They will get on the offense with you instead of on the defense against you.
Sales Managers , To get sales team meeting agendas on this topic and many others, subscribe to Meeting to Win. We’d love to work with you and your team!
Tags: CRM, customer meeting success, customer meetings, move deals, sales process, transparency
Posted in Account Management, CRM, best practice, customer meeting, efficient, opportunity, performance, sales consulting, 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 »
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
(This week’s Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agenda is Price vs.Value. How do you learn what your client VALUES when all they seem to care about is PRICE? Join our Subscribers and get a 60-minute Sales Team Meeting Agenda that teaches your team to move past PRICE and onto VALUE.)
I’ve had and witnessed this sales experience countless times. The most recent was yesterday as I witnessed a salesperson field an inquiry from a prospective customer who said “I’m calling to find out how much your _____ run.” In this case it was real estate. Well, for anyone who has ever rented an apartment, bought a house or rented an office, you know that there are about a million variables affecting the price of real estate. And, now, the variable of the economy takes the logic out of any assumption a buyer may have entering into that conversation. So, the challenge is answering this short, seemingly simple question in a way that will encourage more conversation instead of a “thanks, that’s all I needed”. “Click.”
I’ve learned from experience as a customer and as a sales rep that not answering this question is just annoying and immediately puts the salesperson into the category of, well, a salesperson. The question must be answered. Next time you get a price inquiry, try something new… answer the question. In most cases, you will need to do some qualification to determine what solution, service level, etc they will need to meet their needs. Once you’ve gathered this information , it is great to start with “Thanks for sharing that information. That will help me give you a more accurate price range that you could expect from us.”
Then you could begin to intrigue them by introducing your solutions with, “It also sounds like, based on what you’ve shared, that we might be a good fit for you. Based on this brief conversation, it seems you could expect to invest in the range of $ _____ to $ ______.”
It is important to share this range unapologetically. Don’t end your sentence with because we offer this and that, etc. It sounds like you are apologizing for your price. To keep the conversation going in a productive direction, you can ask something like, “Is that within your expectations?”
Depending on their answer which is often something like “I wasn’t really sure what to expect” or “That’s about what I’ve been hearing from others” you can proceed to the next step with them turning this price inquiry into a value conversation. The price issue is out of the way leaving room for much more productive conversations.
To keep the conversation progressing toward value, a next move would be to suggest a next step. “Based on what you’ve shared so far, it seems we might be a great fit for you. To make sure you have the information you need on our solutions, I suggest we spend an hour together getting a little more detail on your needs and then I’ll be able to show you specifically how our solution might meet your needs. We can also get more specific on price after that conversation and you’ll have the information you need to make the decision.”
Now, just get your calendars out and set the date for your meeting.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- Before your next sales meeting, each rep should call a few service companies to ask about price for services they may need - pest control, lawn service, etc.
- Each team member should document their experiences and determine what answers made them feel respected, informed and even intrigued.
- Document which of these companies would they want to work with based on the way they handled the price inquiry.
- During the sales team meeting, dicuss these experiences and determine how you can use these lessons in your own price inquiries.
- For more indepth discussion, exercises and practice on topics like this and many others, join Meeting to Win by subscribing for your own weekly 60-minute sales team meeting exercises, discussion topics and practice activities.
Tags: disounting, price inquiries, price vs. value
Posted in Summer Selling Season, handling objections, price inquiries, price questions, price vs. value, sales meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
It’s a busy selling season for most sales professionals. Right around the corner could be a tougher selling environment as everyone’s kids are getting out of school and the summer vacation pace kicks in. Sales reps have about 60 selling days this summer and, with all the vacations, etc, it’s probably more like 45. 45 little days to make some sales! Last week, we shared some ideas to proactively sell more during the summer months. That was directed at sales people. THIS is directed at their Sales Managers.
Sales Managers, drop everything you are doing right now. Make it top priority to remove any barriers to selling your salespeople are facing. What is your company asking them to do that is hindering them from seeing customers? What are their “selling hours”? Is everyone clear they are not to be disturbed during those hours? What is being asked of them beyond winning business? Examine each and every one of those activities to determine how they benefit the customers and the sales reps. If the benefits don’t outweigh the loss of sales time, get it off their to-do lists.
Make it clear to sales people that their #1 job is to sell. Not to fill out reports or train other sales people or put together marketing brochures or babysit implementation or learn their new CRM or join every internal conference call they are invited to or return internal calls during selling hours or, or, or… the list goes on.
You’ll see from the activities I listed above that there are many useful, valuable activities a sales rep could be doing. Even positive activities, such as training a new sales rep, get in the way of their selling time.
The advice here? Be vigilant in regards to selling time. Protect it fiercely. It won’t matter what else you could be doing if your team doesn’t have the sales numbers.
If you need some visual help to protect selling time, Just Sell has some great Sales Day Calendars. Visit them here.
Join Meeting to Win for the Summer of Momentum. Deal Makers Series begins June 4th. Subscribe now and we’ll lead your team on an exciting 5-week adventure. 5 Weeks, 8 Deals, Unlimited Momentum! Subscribe here.
Tags: protect selling time, sales hours, sales management, selling hours, summer
Posted in sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
I had the privilege (I can say that now) of inheriting a toxic, dysfunctional, under-performing, miserable inside sales team a few years ago. I mean this group was bad off! Everyone was too busy to stop and actually do anything about this small group so the problems just got worse and worse until they were a sales AND HR nightmare. It was time to do something. So, lucky me, I was the chosen one to take this team and it’s troubles on. This team was turned around within 30-60 days and became a model for other teams like it around the country. I thought it might be nice to share how we made this u-turn in case their are other managers struggling with the quicksand of a team with low morale and low performance.
First, I met with the Sales Manager to hear her side of the story. The problems were blatantly obviously and I quickly realized that her team ruled the roost and she had little control. It was like my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Jackson (I won’t even go there!). She had no control and the team took advantage of her weakness.
I worked with this dedicated (most would have run screaming from this mess by now) Manager to help her gain some control and respect and quickly realized this was beyond her abilities and definitely beyond her comfort. I was able to work with my leadership and find her another more suitable role in the company where she thrives today.
I replaced her with a lady from another territory who wasn’t even currently in management. She was in a sales role and demonstrated amazing leadership skills with her customers and internal team. She was process oriented, genuinely cared about her team and customers and made smart decisions about creating solutions that were good for everyone. And – she never got run over by her team mates or customers. In fact, she had successful run and sold a business during her lifetime. I had a gut feeling about her and, man, was I right! The rest of the credit goes to her.
The rest of this success story belongs to this new manager. She immediately did the following things:
- First, this Manager just spent a week observing and getting to know the team.
- At the end of her first week, she met with the team and acknowledged what everyone already knew. It maybe hadn’t been said out loud, but this new manager said it. No one had confidence in this group, no one respected this group and they didn’t operate like a successful team.
- She didn’t necessarily make it personal. There are characteristics of successful teams across organizations and this team did not have most of those characteristics – sales process, goals, work time expectations, etc. She simply pointed this out.
- She regularly spent one-on-one time with each team member to find out their frustrations, personal goals, skills and motivations.
- She partnered with me and HR along the way as she began to enforce company policies (tardiness, dress code, etc) and implement performance plans.
- She quickly identified a troublemaker on the team, gave her a chance to turn things around and, in the end, fired her. That was the only loss on her team. (A good example for the rest, too!)
- She very clearly communicated her own performance and conduct expectations as the Manager of this team.
- She stood up for her team when needed. This team had done so many things wrong that even when something wasn’t necessarily their fault, the blame still landed there. This Manager put a stop to that right away.
- She started a communication plan with the departments her team regularly worked with. They all became great partners with their extended teams instead of a thorn in one anothers’ sides as they had been.
- She had confidence in her team’s ability to contribute positive sales results to the organization. She had charts and posters posted all over the office showing them on the way to or at goals they had never come close to achieving. They were becoming confident and proud of their contributions.
- She shared these reports with me so I could “brag” on this team to senior leadership, also. It was a PR campaign and everyone began to see this team in a different light. They actually began to figure out ways to utilize their services more because it meant success to them.
- She stayed very close to the quality and workload of the team and added to the team as they got busier and busier. She made this a place to work and she had the pick of candidates from an internal pool. NO ONE wanted to work there even 6 months prior.
- We paraded senior leaders through there when they came to town to visit and asked our local senior leaders to make this department a regular stop. We realized this was highly motivating for them as they had been ignored and, quite honestly, avoided during the troubled times. They were really proud of their environment and loved showing it off.
- In the end, there were a successful team with clear sales activity and professional expectations, they were accountable to activity and sales goals, followed a repeatable sales process, executed a consistent internal and external communication plan, celebrated wins, examined losses and are enjoying successful careers today.
Being part of this team could have been a huge setback in the young careers of these inside sales people. Instead it was an experience that launched many great careers. The key throughout each of our steps was communication. We communicated daily and sometimes hourly in the first 30 days. It was so bad we actually considered shutting the doors and starting over. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my career. If you are faced with a toxic team, partner with your boss and HR team and get them turned around this month. It takes a lot of energy, heart and even tears, but it is so worth it. That team isn’t happy being miserable either – they just don’t know how to fix it. Step in and improve the lives of each and every one of them – including you.
Good luck!
This post brought to you by Meeting to Win. Have positive weekly sales team meetings by subscribing to Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agendas. Coming soon – The Summer of Momentum.
Tags: toxic sales team, underperforming sales team
Posted in Summer Selling Season, discipline, management tips, performance, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting | No Comments »
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
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 »
