One for the Sales Managers

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.

Many sales managers see the weekly sales meetings as a great way to get the team together and find out what’s going on; they see it as “their” meeting, a way to communicate stuff to the group.

Problem is, most of the sales team aren’t fans.

Fact: 63% say that the sales meeting demotivates them and has no impact on their ability to generate leads, make appointments and close more sales! Isn’t a sales meeting supposed to facilitate sales not demotivate sales people?

Most sales meetings are simply a call out of people’s activity and their pipeline and that’s why 27% see the meeting as an “admin exercise”.

Third fact: Only 14% of sales managers use the sales meeting to upskill their team. That means the vast majority are doing something else!

Source: Sales ITV

Effective sales meetings

Great sales meetings start with the organiser, the sales manager, you. Be prepared and have a clear objective of what you want to achieve. Think about your approach, because that has a direct result on how your salespeople prepare and go into the field.

Here are 7 ideas:

  1. Start and finish the meeting on time. It shows respect to your team and puts a value on their time.
  2. Send out an agenda the day prior. A clear demonstration of organisational ability.
  3. Recognise performance. Not just the most sales but allow strong sales metrics to be highlighted.
  4. Focus on one subject or issue. Don’t try to cover everything every week – dig into the one most important subject. Allow discussion time.
  5. Include a short session on skill improvement and training. Use an outside speaker, share best-practice or role play.
  6. Build team culture. Make sure they leave with a positive state of mind – the meeting is for their benefit, not yours.
  7. Find a way to include some fun. Sales and selling are tough – show a video, share a story or have the meeting somewhere unusual.

By the way, the meeting shouldn’t run any longer than 45-50 minutes.
 
The sales manager role

Here’s a terrific thought on the roles of salespeople and sales managers from my friend Dave Warawasalespeople sell, sales managers teach sales people to sell
I also suggest you have a look at his article on sales management “the top 10 things I learned as a sales manager

Until next week good selling.
 

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.

He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 

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