I was 22 and a young pup when I started going to sales calls and started facing executives. I had no coach and mentor. All I had was courage to accept rejections and courage to enter into conference rooms while shaking heavily. It was a great experience. However, I know things can be fast-tracked if salespeople are well coached and managed.
It’s Monday once again, and Mondays are our sales meeting day. I am not formally trained to be a sales manager, but as the leader of a growing software company, it’s inevitable to lead a young promising sales team.
I usually start meetings by talking to them of then one-by-one. I am result-oriented hence I begin traditionally by discussing their results. How many new opportunities are converted into “Warm” or “Hot” or how many were booked last week? If I see a few results, that’s the only time I dive into details, such as their activities and planned itinerary for mentoring.
The exciting part for me is the team meetings. Below are some creative topics when facilitating sales team meetings:
Success stories – while one-on-one sessions are for open discussions about each area for improvement, team meetings are for celebration and success stories. It’s exciting to discuss stories on how a salesperson closed the deal.
Personal update – it’s interesting to discuss what’s happening to each member’s own life. It gives a sense of being a family at work thus motivates them to work as a team.
Product training – I always like to note special cases who have unique requirements. Brainstorming on how to configure our product and providing a solution to fit into client’s needs is one of the things that excite me. Product updates, FAQs and probing techniques are also good topics to discuss.
Business plan – lead generation is one of the challenges in being a salesperson. Discussion on each one’s business plan is a healthy way to motivate them to drive results.
Grievances – From time to time, it’s healthy to discuss feedback about company policies, systems, and obstacles. Having an open-door policy is one of our cultures in the company to promote innovation and improvement.
Book or blog review – Assign a member to search and read a blog or a chapter of a book related to the industry, product or sales techniques.
Discuss takeaways – key takeaways every after sales team meetings are a good indication if the conference is a success or not.
However you do your meetings, make sure things meetings are run efficiently, so the sales team keep their momentum, and they do not feel like they wasted their 3-4 hours instead of chasing sales.