Archive for the ‘sales team meeting agenda’ Category
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!
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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
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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 »
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
I’ve had the privilege as you probably have, too, to meet some very successful salespeople and business owners. Those people that seem to have a magic touch and deliver consistently strong performance and value to their customers. A key to their success was getting to the table in the first place to have the conversations that lead to these strong relationships with customers. They somehow earn their way into the hearts and minds of these customers. How do they do it?
As I have examined and interviewed these people, here are two things that I have found.
First, if you ask them how they do it, they think they know and often they don’t. They very often say “I just build strong relationships” or “I’m not afraid to tell it like it is” or “I kept after them for years”, etc. All things that certainly could contribute.
Now, when I observe these people over years what I really find is that they do something brilliant. They often don’t even realize it’s brilliant and yet it seems to be the trigger for great relationships.
Three examples:
I know one business owner who shares his Decision Grid with his customers and they fill it out together. This one action makes his process transparent to the customer and in one meeting helps this business owner determine if there actually is a decision process and, therefore, a real opportunity. This one 30 minute conversation with a customer early in the sales cycle helps him build trust and pursue real opportunities. Brilliant!
Another sales leader I observe was winning the big contracts left and right in his company. What did he do differently? He had the fastest turnaround time vs. his competitors. Brilliant! He left the customer meeting with his action items and they were done that day. He was a master at coordinating internal resources to meet the needs of the customer. He made everyone work at his pact. Brilliant! He didn’t let time kill any of his deals. His deals flew through the pipeline all because he set the pace for his team and the customer team.
One last example. I know a sales leader whose team has consistently led the company in sales, innovation, top customers and many other categories for over 20 years. What does he do? No matter what the company is doing, he picks one solution to sell. Brilliant! They offer about 40 programs and he and his team put all their focus and efforts around one solution they feel is the most relevant and useful to their customer and they spend all their resources there. Risky? Maybe, but it’s been working.
So, observe the top performers you come in contact with and don’t simply ask them what they do differently, watch them. Figure out what they are doing differently. It is often one brilliant thing that you could repeat in your territory. Go be BRILLIANT!
Meeting to Win recently sent out the Best Practices of Top Performers sales team meeting agenda. Sales teams around the world worked through an exercise to list the brilliant things top performers in their own companies are doing. Right now, those brilliant actions are being replicated across organizations. To experience similar momentum, subscribe to Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas and elevate your teams to top performer status.
Tags: brilliant, CRM, customer meeting success, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., winning in sales
Posted in Account Management, CRM, best practice, customer meeting, down economy, maximize tools, performance, sales managers, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics | 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 »
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
It seems that when some make the transition from revenue-producing sales rep to sales leader, they forget some very important realities. They no longer want to hear about the realities of the field. They want to call those “excuses”. I admit, I like to look at everything and determine the worst case scenario. This does not bum me out, it actually makes me feel better to have a game plan should the worst case scenario play out. It never does and it still feels good to be prepared.
The reality is that things happen that are disruptive. Some of these things the reps’ own companies do to them, some are economy driven, some are customer driven. Yet, leadership still expects the reps to turn in 8% revenue growth. If you kick a marathon runner in the knee at mile 13, that runner may not beat his previous finishing time. That’s a reality. I don’t believe that sales reps like to “make excuses”. I believe they really want to explain their performance, good or bad. Being able to explain why something happens is a key ingredient in duplicating the good results and avoiding the poor results.
So, I challenge sales leaders to face reality. Among other things, the following is a list of things that ARE disruptive:
- Moving territory lines.
- Adding or taking away accounts.
- Pulling them out of the field for training.
- Asking them to complete a whole new set of reports.
- Introducing a new CRM.
- Giving them a new product to sell.
- Reorganizing your sales team.
- Changing compensation.
And the list goes on. I challenge sales leaders to face the reality of disruptions instead of pretending like they won’t be disruptions. It’s delusional to think the sales team won’t be distracted. They are human beings, not machines.
Instead, look 30-90 days out and figure out what is coming down the line that could possibly cause distraction for your sales team. Figure out the worst case scenario in terms of how this disruption may impact your sales results. You can’t see everything coming so at least get out in front of what you can see. Get your team together and face reality together. Expect to be distracted and proactively figure out how to sell through it. You’ll reduce distraction and your team will have fewer “excuses”.
Face reality and your reality will be much brighter.
Posted in CRM, discipline, management tips, performance, recession, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, 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
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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 »
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
I am getting ready to play my first tennis match in over a year and a half. As I look forward to the match, I am reminded of something my father said to me during one of our matches years ago. Something that I have thought about during every match since when I feel like I am on defense more than I’d like to be. He looked frustrated and said “You’re not playing to win. You’re playing to NOT lose.” He described exactly what I was doing. I was back running down shots, going right where he wanted me to go, just getting the ball in play to live for another point. He was in charge, setting the pace and … having more fun than me. During that match and countless others since then, I have had to change my mindset mid-match and play to win instead of play to NOT lose. For me that means, charge the net, put some shots away, get on the offense, control the pace of the game and, in many of those cases (still not against my Dad…), win. Even when I didn’t win, I walked away knowing I did everything I could and was proud of my game, effort and attitude. There was no risk I hadn’t taken and, therefore, no “what ifs”.
I took my Dad’s insightful observation into my sales life, too, and, man, did life get more fun. Instead of sitting back following the process, chasing the RFP, settling for meeting with non-decision makers, wondering what the competitors were doing, giving discounts and sounding like 80% of other reps out there, I made a clear effort to “charge the net”.
How do you know if you are playing to win or playing to not lose?
Are you:
- Following the buying process blindly without challenging steps that don’t help your cusotmers make good decisions?
- Meeting with people who can’t make decisions?
- More worried about your activity report volume than the quality of your activities?
- Spending time on RFPs that restrict your ability to sell by limiting your ability to diagnose and share solutions?
- Constantly running off to fetch the next thing your prospective customer needs with no commitments from them (”send me a proposal”, “do an assessment”, “send me a brochure”, “come do a demo”, etc)?
- Coming in second or third place?
- Getting surprised late in sales cycles?
Or are you:
- Creating opportunities by shining light on problems prospective customers didn’t know they had?
- Challenging dysfunctional buying processes that hinder your customer from getting the best possible solution?
- Sharing solutions your clients didn’t know existed to problems they didn’t know they had?
- Bringing new ideas, industry expertise and innovative solutions to the table?
- Getting full price for the value of service you provide?
- Getting creative on negotiations?
- Risking offending non-decision makers to get to the actual decision makers?
- Addressing sales cycle slow downs head-on and honestly?
- Not afraid to walk away?
- Not afraid to say and do the right thing no matter the outcome?
It is so much more exciting to play to win. It takes more energy and guts, but it is so worth it. Charge the net this week!
Sales team meeting idea:
- At your next sales team meeting, ask each team member to bring their current pipeline.
- Ask each person to examine their pipeline for opportunities to “charge the net”.
- Each rep should pick one deal and take a well-planned risk. Get to decision makers, challenge a bad decision, ask about the competition, exit an RFP opportunity, etc. As long as the risk will ultimately help you help your customer make a better decision (even if it’s not you), then take the risk.
- Each rep should walk away with one risk to take within the next week.
- Plan to report back on the outcomes of the team’s risk-taking. Not all will go well – that’s why we call it a “risk”. So be it…
Play to win. Charge the net. Have more fun.
(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers who want to take their team to the next level. Play to Win, Not to NOT Lose is the April 2, 2010 Agenda Topic. To get a new sales team meeting topic each week, visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/ to subscribe.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, leadership, losing in sales, sales leadership, sales performance, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales teams, winning in sales
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, agendas, customer meeting, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, maximize tools, performance, sales activity, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting | 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 »
