Sales meetings are extremely important for every business, regardless of the industry. 

In these meetings, the sales department finds ways to improve its operations to reach the company’s goals. Managers generally use these meetings to ensure that the whole team is on the same page and that reps have all the tools they need to reach their quota. 

However, sales team meetings often lack direction and purpose. They are usually scheduled at bad times and take too much time away from what sales reps should be focusing on - finding new prospects, meeting with clients and closing deals. 

Therefore, it is really important for sales managers to make these meetings as productive and relevant as possible. Read on to find out all the ingredients that make sales team meetings successful:

Elements of a successful sales team meeting

There are the essential elements that any successful sales team meeting must have:

Standardized agendas

Sales reps should know what to expect from their team meetings and here’s where standardized agendas come into play. Sales managers should have a template to create agendas for their team’s meetings. This way reps are better equipped for team meetings and can prepare any topics that will be discussed, which will eventually make meetings much more productive.

Value

Sales reps want to close more deals and earn more commissions - and so do the companies they work for - so sales meetings should focus on empowering them to increase their close rate. Sales managers should make sure they have something valuable to give to the reps before setting up a meeting. It could be feedback from clients or even sales training that will help them close more deals.

Participation

To be productive, sales meetings need to be engaging. When everyone participates in a discussion, it is easier to find solutions to problems. This also increases motivation among sales reps and it gets them excited about future sales team meetings. 

For example, brainstorming sessions and Q&As are great tactics to encourage participation in your sales teams meetings.

Consistency

The schedule for the sales team meeting should be consistent so as to make them more productive. When the reps know when the next team meeting will be, they will come prepared and this will make the meetings more valuable. Meetings will start on time since the members knew beforehand the venue and time for the meeting.

The agenda for your team sales meetings

Here are the main topics you should always include in your meeting’s agenda:

Celebrate accomplishments

Start your meeting on a positive note that will set the tone of the entire session. Take some time to highlight the progress the company has made on its sales targets and talk about new potential deals on the pipeline. Celebrate all the milestones that have been achieved and give proper recognition to the members of the team that helped achieve those results.

Get updates from sales reps

Every member of the sales team should give their updates on how they are advancing with their individual goals. This will keep them accountable and at the same time it’ll help spot issues that the organization needs to work on to make it easy for reps to meet their sales targets.

Uncover bottlenecks

Your reps could be facing challenges that are making it difficult to reach prospects effectively. A regular sales meeting is the best time to explain what the company is doing to solve those problems. 

Reps could need better tools for their sales activities and managers need to share the organization’s position on the requests made by reps. 

Some of these issues may have been raised in previous meetings and managers should use the meeting to give updates on them.

Share insights on prospects

From their interactions with prospects, reps have probably gathered valuable insights that will help the entire sales process going forward. This would be a good time to discuss those issues and streamline the organization’s sales process.

Share metrics

Check and analyze your monthly KPIs to see how you the team is performing. Focus on the most important ones, like closed deals, and compare current numbers with the results from the previous period.

Talk about competitors

You can also use the sales team meetings to discuss the tactics your competitors are using to pursue their deals. You can use this information to realign your current sales strategies to ensure that you perform better than your competition.

Conclusion

Having regular sales team meetings is a great way to keep your team aligned and increase sales productivity. However, if your meetings are not valuable nor relevant for your team, your team is going to consider them a waste of time. A precious time they could have spent in the field closing more deals.

Make sure you create value in every meeting and you’ll have a happier and much more efficient sales team.

About the Author: Herbert Sward is a digital marketing specialist and copywriter. He is interested in online retail, entrepreneurship, and modern technologies, and regularly contributes to various blogs and online magazines. Herbert also has a passion for sports and runs the blog SteroidSalesGuide, where he shares helpful tips on workout and fitness.

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