Sales Management: How do you run a successful sales meeting?

Great question! We've all been in good and bad weekly sales meetings. And since the stakes are usually high, these meetings are always educational, regardless of how good or bad the numbers are.

The tone and substance of the article is nicely even-handed and process-oriented. So I’ll go the other way, perhaps erring on the side of bluntness. So here are 8 tips (4 WORKS, 4 DOESN’T) for a good weekly sales meeting.

WORKS

1) Right audience. The weekly sales meeting needs to strike a balance between too few and too many participants. It can’t be a back-channel meeting exclusive to lobbyists and senators, but neither can it be an unruly town hall.

2) Solid routine. If every week’s meeting seems like bad Reality TV, there may be a lack of structure to the meeting. Call a side-meeting with the stakeholders where you propose a “time budget” for how the meeting will be run. Also get agreement on the specific reports and forecasts to be reviewed each week, and who presents them. Establishing familiarity allows people to focus on analyzing results and proposing improvements.

3) Meeting discipline. This is the weekly sales meeting -- a necessity for most companies. For those who need to attend, it needs to be treated with respect. It starts on time, and it ends on time. Habitual lateness and random absences are not tolerated. If you’re on the road and your schedule allows you to conference in, do it, even if you are not presenting. Usage of mobile devices during the meeting must, by definition, be more important than sales (which keeps the lights on and probably pays for, or subsidizes, your mobile device usage). So if you’re using your iCrackoid during the meeting, there must be a family emergency -- in which case you should excuse yourself -- or a sensitive corporate transaction that can’t wait till the meeting is over. Holster that nerd-gun for the next 60, sit up straight, and pay attention.

4) Facts vs. fiat. If we want to help drive sales, then color commentary must take a back seat to black-and-white truth. Because the functions that support sales (finance, marketing, operations) often resist quick changes without a logical justification. If they resist for a personal agenda, or no agenda, that’s a “sales prevention department” problem. But if they’re being good stewards of scarce resources (money, people, time), they should be able to review data, and collaborate on solutions. In the long run, builds a broader base of support for the sales team, which yields better results.

DOESN’T WORK

1) Hand-waving. If you present at this meeting, you must inspire confidence in your audience. For most of them (especially your CEO) this probably isn’t their first rodeo. They know it’s hard, and that’s why they hired a talented guy/gal like you to figure it out. So if you’re not yet performing to plan, show them how you’re getting closer to that goal. And ask for, and accept, help.

2) Learned helplessness. If you took an action last week to fix a problem, please be prepared to discuss either (a) how things are better now, or (b) how things will be better next week. This is especially true if you serve the sales team in a support role. But it’s also true for sales managers who enforce policy.

3) Needless sparring. Some bickering is inevitable when building cohesive teams. But frequent food fights not only waste time, they discourage contributions from smart people who prefer not to enter the Sales Thunderdome -- i.e., “two men enter, one man leaves."

4) Empty proclamations from the ivory tower. I’m talking to you, Marketing-executive-giving-the-monthly-update. We actually do care (a lot) about the focus group or web site usability study you recently conducted. And the Google Analytics reports showing the “engagement lift” from last month’s social media push are interesting (really). But unless you can discuss, numerically, how these projects grow revenue in the current quarter, let’s save it for later. This is the weekly sales meeting.

Having sat through hundreds of horrible sales meetings, I'm tempted to respond "the best sales meeting is the cancelled one!"

Actually, there have been some really outstanding suggestions. Some additional thoughts:

1. Everyone does their homework before the meeting. This includes the sales manager! So much time is wasted by hashing and rehashing old information or something that could have been obtained by reading a report, looking at the CRM system before coming into the meeting. 90% of the background stuff can be obtained outside the meeting, leaving the meeting to discuss critical issues. This also implies you have a prepublished agenda and set objectives for the meeting. Shame on anyone that conducts a meeting without this!
1a. If a person isn't prepared, invite them to leave the meeting and come back when they are prepared and won't waste people's time. It will only happen once, well maybe twice. But people will get it and get that meetings are to get things done. I saw the CEO of a Fortune 25 company do this with his senior staff meeting--very compelling and worked. Should work for sales meetings.
2. Don't inflict one person's pain and difficulty on the whole team. Sometimes, however inadvertently, the meeting becomes all about reviewing one person's deals, territory, funnel, whatever. It goes on and on, producing little value for the person and no value for all the bystanders secretly trying to do email rather than watch their colleague go through the scrutiny. Take these into one on one's.
3. Rotate responsibility for the meeting among the team members. People develop by presenting something new or trying to teach others. Let each person take responsibility for some learning aspect of the meeting. They'll learn a lot and are likely to focus on only what's critical to the meeting.
4. While this should go without saying, it never goes without saying. If your are going to be in the meeting, then be in the meeting. No multitasking, no blackberries hidden under the conference table, no purusing eBay or eMail on your laptop. Shut all that stuff off, "be in the meeting."
5. Schedule meetings as infrequently as possible. I'm always amazed about the weekly deal reviews. Unless you are in a business with very fast sales cycles, reviewing the same deals week after week is a waste of time. In long cycle, complex sales, each deal doesn't change every week, so why review them every week. Yet 60% of the deal reviews I have observed do just that. If you are going to have weekly meetings, use one meeting for a pipeline review, another for select deal reviews, use the next meeting for something else, and so on.
6. Meeting discipline, meeting discipline, meeting discipline. This starts with time. Meetings start on time and end on time. Even if you are the only one in the room, start the meeting, don't recap for those that are late--let them figure it out later and not waste your time. End on time, even if you walk out in the middle of your manager's critical point. It takes a few meetings, but people will get it, and meetings will get so much better.

Like David Brock and others I’ve participated in many weekly sales meetings that are nothing more than glorified forecast/financial reviews with little inspection (“is this still at 75%??”…”yes”… “ok let’s discuss the next deal) and even less positive performance impact.

Some general suggestions for effective weekly sales meetings:

1. If it’s about the forecast, use the opportunity to coach the team- ask questions that will help all deals fail or advance faster. Avoid the minutia that can be shared by spreadsheet, questioned by email or resolved 1:1 on a five minute call or instant message.

2. Don’t make it all about the forecast. Mix in training, best practice sharing, peer-to-peer win-loss stories (not hero stories but won-loss tales following some basic questions/format to ensure some key points are discussed) or ‘around the horn’ to discuss what’s working what’s not. This is an opportunity for leadership, team building and performance improvement. Use it!

3. Be clear about the purpose of the meeting: are you there to share information, learn something or make a decision. You may do all three in a good meeting. (‘Sharing information’ should be more clearly defined. Are you there to define a problem, solve a problem, generate some ideas..?)

4. Meeting discipline
 Distribute the agenda ahead of time
 Have a meeting objective(s)
 Start on time
 Keep it moving
 Review/debrief- e.g., have we been successful? what did you learn? what’s still confusing?

5. If you have nothing worth discussing, don’t have the meeting.

For some good additional ideas for sales meeting content and formats, go to Jill Myrick’s site, Meeting to Win (www.meetingtowin.com). Note: I have no affiliation with Jill Myrick or her site. I’ve never even met her. This is a sincere, independent third party suggestion.

Here are four best practices I learned from Jonathan Farrington that I like a lot:

Make sure that at least fifty per cent of the meeting is taken up with some kind of sales training. You can deliver this yourself or you might consider using specialists from outside of the company.

Insist on punctuality, for there is nothing which detracts from a meeting so much as people coming in late with lame excuses or returning late from a coffee break. Not only is this disruptive for the meeting but it is bad for group discipline as well and each time a manager allows this, they relinquish a little leadership capacity. Start the meeting on time to the minute. Do not wait for late arrivals and whatever you do, do not be late yourself.

Begin the meeting in the way you plan to carry on throughout - with a friendly smile and a dynamic greeting, do not commence in a flat uninspired monotone. Be informal, relax and encourage team members to do likewise. Do remember that a sales meeting is one of those few occasions where you can provide "collective motivation" so you need to be at your inspiring best.

Do not do all the talking yourself. Salespeople (and most other people) hate to be lectured at. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Ask for opinions, and always question the reason for a particular opinion. Do remember generally people comprehend:

11% of what they hear.
32% of what they see.
73% of what they see & hear.
90% of what they see, hear & discuss.

Just a few ideas
Have time to discuss win/loss events in the year. And have the people involved in the actual situation explained how and why and what can be done to either replicate or avoid. Everyone loses at one time or another, what is the lesson.
I have seen many people bond while working on something as a team. For example, have the teams actually do what they are selling, fix hardware or set up a network, buy shares, order an item. If you have new hardware let them do hands on. Software, how easy is the interface. This way they have oral, visual and touch to help them remember. And if you expect a customer to do it, sales people should know how too.
Many times the annual sales meeting is viewed as a party, not that there is anything wrong with a party. But trying to get out sales and customer information as well as strategy and direction when folks are in a party mood is counterproductive. Sales meetings/party is why there are huge hotels with all kinds of entertainment, food and drink. As mentioned there is nothing wrong with any of these. However confusing the objective and then claiming to not know why Sales does not understand goals and metrics is unfair.

My favorite topic!
Here are a few things (the short version is below) I posted on my website a few years ago in regards to "winning sales team meetings".

1.Send an agenda in advance.

2.Invite RELEVANT guest speakers.

3.Share ownership for a productive meeting with the entire team. It's everyone's responsibility to use this time wisely.

4.Assign pre-work.

5.Reinforce recent sales training.

6.Have fun. Celebrate successes!

7.Don't do a data dump.

8.Stick to the allotted time. Enough said?

9.Share Best Practices.

10.Surprise 'em!