How to Lead a Successful Sales Meeting
Sales meetings are an important process to organizing and motivating staff in order to increase sales and maintain business relationships. Ideally these meetings should be productive and inspirational. However, they can also easily veer off-course, lose focus and in turn, discourage employees. Following a few of these tips will help to improve the productivity of your future sales training events and meetings.
A small but important part of leading a sales meeting is starting it on the right foot. Beginning on time and having a positive outlook for the meeting are key drivers in helping to ensure you set the right tone. Make sure that employees know what topics to expect in the meeting so they can come adequately prepared and in the right frame of mind. Also, set a strict amount of time for the meeting and stick to that. Your sales people are busy and have many clients waiting to hear from them on a daily basis, so a meeting that goes over time can be quite frustrating and leave employees annoyed.
You would never leave for a road trip without a map or GPS, and you should never walk into a meeting without a plan or set direction. Have a good idea of what you want to cover, and stay on track with these landmarks. It is easy to get distracted or stuck on one topic, so it is important to continue on and complete every subject. Let everyone in the meeting know what you plan on covering before starting and stick to that. Here is an example of a good sales meeting agenda:
- Report on goal achievement
- Inspiration and motivation
- Information updates
- Impart knowledge and skills
- Goal setting
Hold your team’s attention, and make sure to keep their respect. If you feel as if your meeting is going too long, you will quickly lose the focus of your audience and your meeting will not be productive. It is important to listen to the ideas and questions of employees while maintaining control of the meeting. This can be a tricky balancing act, but an important skill to possess. By exuding confidence and clearly communicating your talking points, you will help to remain in control of this meeting.
Successfully leading a sales meeting can be a tricky task that can take years or even decades to perfect. If you feel as though you need extra help, make sure to take advantage of leadership training opportunities provided by your given employer. Most importantly, having a plan and confidence are the best tricks for facilitating a good sales meeting.
