Posts Tagged ‘sales team meeting agendas’
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
THE IMAGE TO WIN SERIES
I heard Tom Cruise on a talk show many years ago talking about the brand “Tom Cruise“. He is the product and the brand and everything he says, does, wears or is involved in adds or detracts from the Tom Cruise brand. This is the same for salespeople; just with a smaller audience in most cases.
Today’s installment of the Image to Win Series focuses on defining the brand of YOU. Tom Cruise knows what he wants his brand to be. What an important first step! Thinking about celebrities, you can assume that Madonna’s brand is very different from Barack Obama’s brand. Everything any of these public figures does sends a message and creates an image of their brand in the minds of the public. They know how to act, what to write, what to say, what to wear and where to be seen based on the image they want the public to have. They often have the advantage of publicists and managers who help guide them – let’s call them their VPs of Marketing.
Do you know the brand or image you want the world to see from you as a sales professional? Take a moment and write a list of 10 adjectives you want customers to use to describe your image or brand.
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Now, what actions would people have to see from you to create that image in their minds? Also, think about what they would see from you to detract from that image.
Tom Cruise jumped around on Oprah’s couch and severely detracted from the brand and image he spent 20+ years developing. I think I read he had also just fired his manager… Don’t leave your image to chance. Take the time to define your brand and what your brand stands for. Then, carefully choose your words, images, virtual presence and appearance to fit your brand.
We’ll continue with this Image to Win Series and dig into specifics on developing your brand. In the meantime, pay attention to brands you respect – Coke, Starbucks, Target, etc. Look at every action they take, where they show up, what messages they share, how their employees dress and every other detail of their brand. Should be a fun series!
Sales Managers, to take your team on an Image to Win journey, sign up for weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win. The Image to Win sales meeting series starts in October.
Tags: sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
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Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
This week’s Meeting to Win agenda (sent to subscribers every Friday morning) is focused on “news you can use“. To stay proactive and become more and more of a valuable resource to customers, it is important to understand the customers’ current events and how those current events impact the decisions they are making. Those decisions ultimately determine how they will engage the salesperson and their products and services in their business. Which, I don’t have to say it, impacts the success of the salesperson.
It is a powerful approach to understand the customers’ business and be able to suggest ways to help them address their current business needs before they ask – or worse yet, ask someone else. Whether they use the salesperson’s ideas or not, it is a powerful position to be in and makes the salesperson a partner in success instead of just another vendor.
Salespeople would be wise to dig into the customers’ news and figure out how that news should impact their decisions and, especially, their decisions in regards to the salesperson’s business. What should be suggested and expected in the next 30, 60 or 90 days? How does that impact the salesperson’s business in the next 30, 60, 90 days?
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- Ask each salesperson to bring news about their top client to the next sales meeting.
- Give a 2 minute overview of the current news.
- As a team, determine 3-5 decisions that customer may make because of this news.
- How might that impact your company’s business with that customer?
- What should you do about it?
- Continue this for each sales rep – 10 minutes per rep.
- Each rep should leave with one solid action item for an important customer.
Join Meeting to Win for weekly sales team meeting agenda topics like News You Can Use delivered directly to your inbox every Friday morning.
Tags: motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
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Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Summer is coming to a close, many kids are back in school and, if you follow business activity trends, you’ll notice that things are picking up heading into the next selling season. Right now in early August is the time to increase your sales activity so you can gain more market share as more and more purchases are made post-summer.
Get your team together early this month and pick a handful of activities that you need to be doing to win business during the next selling season, Sept- Nov. Set increased activity goals in those areas for the month of August. Watch Sept-Nov sales grow because your team is increasing activity in August instead of extending your summer by an extra month like your competitors are doing.
For an agenda to lead your team through an exercise to celebrate and learn from your summer’s success while planning for success in the next selling season, subscribe to Meeting to Win weekly sales team meeting agendas.
Join us for a great Fall Selling Season.
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team meeting agendas
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Saturday, July 24th, 2010
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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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Here is a link to the FREE e-book Paul promised and delivered. Enjoy! Thanks to Paul for mentioning Meeting to Win as a helpful resource for sales managers looking to have “meetings that rock“.
Tags: energize sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea
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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
It’s one of my goals to share great sales meeting ideas and resources with Sales & The City readers. In pursuit of that goal, I point you to Paul Castain’s two-part series, Sales Meetings That Rock.
Check it out here.
Tags: energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas
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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
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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
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Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
Sales cycles have typical steps. Customer like to take certain steps to make a decision and salespeople take certain steps to make a sale or help their customers make good decisions. Salespeople can accelerate the decision process by strategically examining the sales cycles for opportunities to add efficiencies. The benefits of doing this exist for both salesperson and customer. Customers need solutions and making efficient decisions on which solutions to purchase must be in their best interest. Salespeople benefit from getting to a go/no-go decision sooner, also. They either get to start helping a customer or, at least, realize they aren’t the right solution and can move on to the next one sooner. I am not suggesting that anyone rushes through an important decision process, I am simply suggesting a regular examination of the sales cycles to look for ways to improve the decision process and begin solving problems faster.
To do so, first list out all the steps a salesperson and a customer make to get to go/no-go on your solutions. Jot down the timeline and if there are pre-requisite steps for any of the steps.
Now, carefully examine if there is an opportunity to:
- Consolidate any two steps into one step.
- Eliminate an unnecessary step altogether.
- Simutaneously conduct two or more steps.
List out the benefits to the customer for making the decision with this new sales cycle. Then, make sure that you and the customer are clear on the steps both would like to take to help the customer make an informed yet timely decision. Stay two steps ahead with both understanding what the steps are, who should be involved and what decisions they should be able to make along the way.
The sales cycle is an important process where important decisions are made. Running it as effectively and efficiently as possible is in everyone’s best interest and a salesperson’s responsibility. Enjoy accelerated sales cycles with this simple exercise.
This week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda is Consolidate to Accelerate. Sales Manager who subscribe to the sales team meeting agenda service will receive a 60-Minute agenda that will lead their teams through an examination of their own sales cycles. Each participant will leave with a new plan for one live deal in their pipeline. Join our subscribers by signing up to get your weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win.
Tags: consolidate sales cycles, CRM, customer meetings, existing customer, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, winning in sales
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