The Monday Morning Sales Team Meeting is a critically important hour in the week of a salesperson.  Executing these sales team meetings poorly can leave your team unmotivated, desperate and, as we’ll address today, overwhelmed.  Because I am guessing you want to do none of these things to your sales team first thing on a Monday morning,  I am sharing the Meeting to Win  Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter one trouble at a time.  Thanks for joining us.  As they say, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.  With a small amount of attention, your meetings can be the exceptions to poorly executed sales team meetings that plague sales teams the world over.

Solve your sales meeting problems with The Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter.

Problem: 

You, the Sales Manager, want to have inspiring, interactive and energizing sales team meetings.  Afterall, you have been a sales rep before and have endured countless horrible, motivation-robbing sales meetings.  And, yet, you find yourself leading those very meetings. 

The problem is that you barely have enough time to cover the volumes of information your boss, home office, marketing team, product team, HR team and Collections teams demand that you cover with your sales team.  Have you ever noticed that everyone wants a piece of the sales team?  HR wants to reorganize them, Finance wants to count their sales, Operations wants to get along with them, Marketing wants to promote underperforming products, Product teams want to promote their products and the Executives want to sell more.  The sales team is the vehicle for all these departments and they all want to communicate – often.  This leaves your sales team meetings full of powerpoint decks and, ultimately, turn your meetings into Data Dumps.  And, no one is paying attention unless the particular topic happens to affect something they are currently working on.  So, boring sales meeting?  Check.

Solution:

• To begin with, I happen to believe that, if done appropriately and in the best interest of sales and the customers, it is OK to push back on some of these requests.  At the very least, ask that they be reprioritized and spread out.  It’s worth a shot… I did have a VP of Sales who set up barriers around the sales teams Tues-Fri to protect selling time.  Great move!
• The reality is that companies feel that it is necessary to dump this data and aside from respectful push-backs and reprioritization, ultimately, it’s going to have to be…dumped.  So, as a team, acknowledge that this information needs to be shared and, hopefully, in many cases it is actually helpful.  Then, figure out a better way to share it so you can reserve Monday mornings for sales-generating sales and customer topics.
  • Some ideas:
    • If you have an intranet, carve out a team page and post any information that can simply be posted.  As a team, set a standard for reading updates once per week or whatever makes sense.  Last time I checked, we are all adults and can be trusted to keep ourselves updated.  Expect that.
    • Since Monday mornings are the worst time to dump, set aside one hour (outside of selling time) to Data Dump.  Call it what it is and dump away.  Everyone can come prepared for an administrative meeting.
    • Share information on a recorded webinar.  Send your team a note when there is a new webinar so they can access it when it is more convenient for them.  They can call you with any questions.
    • Create a team newsletter.  Once per week or less frequently, update the newsletter with necessary data dumps.  Again, set a team standard that this needs to be read regularly. 
    • Send this information in e-mails with clear subject lines.  I’ve seen coding systems used, too.  “A” meant read/take action within 24 hours (everyone hates fire drills); “B” meant “read/take action within the next week”; “C” meant “FYI/good info to save”.  With a good system, the team members can prioritize and manage their time around all the information coming at them. 
      • The inbox can be the most overwhelming place!  Teach everyone to use Outlook most efficiently.  E-mails can be coded and filed as they come in.  They can set aside informational e-mails to read outside of selling time.  Color code emails from important people (customers!). The best thing I did was differentiate between e-mails sent to just me and those sent to a distribution list that just included me with a code in Outlook.  Guess which one got filed in “read later”?

So, Sales Managers, be the filter and manager of all the information your team needs to be successful.  As we suggest on almost every selling challenge.  Discuss this challenge as a team, throw around ideas and come up with a solution that the team agrees on.  Then, execute effectively.  Dump your data, just do it in the least disruptive way possible.  Your team will feel more motivated and less overwhelmed.

Stay tuned to the Meeting to Win blog for solutions to all your sales meeting troubles as we continue adding to The Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter.  To get new sales team meeting topics every week, complete with a 60 minute agenda,  join Meeting to Win.  We’d love to work with you and your team!

 To see solutions to other sales team meeting problems, visit other articles in this series:

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: The Dominator

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Chirp…Chirp…

Sales Team Meeting Troubleshooter – Problem: Latecomers

For a list of ideas for your upcoming sales meeting, visit Sales Team Meeting Ideas You Can Use Today.