Meetings can sometimes feel like a bit of a drag, but meetings are also an essential component of a smooth running business. Sales team meetings in particular are essential to the sharing of key information that helps the business to achieve its revenue targets. Team members need motivating to achieve their monthly KPIs and the sales manager needs to share information on strategic initiatives that could change how the sales team approaches its day-to-day tasks. On top of that there are new products and innovative techniques to share. But poorly run sales meetings can lead to team members becoming disenchanted, feeling like they are wasting time when they could be out selling and pulling in business instead.
Problems with sales meetings
Sales meetings can be kept engaging, but only if they are well planned. There is little that fills an employee with a greater sense of boredom and frustration than an unplanned meeting where time is used inefficiently and where the same topics are discussed over and over again with no clear outcomes. Sometimes tasks are assigned but they are forgotten and never followed up on. This leads to them getting covered again and again. This is not motivational for employees, who may dread attending meetings that are not well organized and time-efficient.
The need for a clear agenda that is interactive
A clear agenda sets the path for a well-run and organized meeting that keeps the sales team on its toes. Meetings where the manager simply offloads information onto employees are not enjoyable and when this happens, important information can be forgotten. With sales this is particularly important, as the team needs to understand which products they should be promoting and detailed information about new features or deals and discounts to focus on. A planned, thoughtful agenda can avoid this mental dump from happening, and can make the meeting a fun, interesting and interactive experience.
Organizing a meeting that keeps sales staff engaged
When planning a sales meeting agenda, consider how you can organize the meeting so that the sales team stays involved with the meeting at all times. You could start the meeting with an energizer, asking each person in the team to state something that they are happy went well since the last meeting. This gets people talking right from the start. After that you could discuss some of the nitty-gritty regarding targets and initiatives before getting back to a more interactive segment such as a brainstorm about what to do about a particular sales problem that the team has reported.
Keeping track of assigned tasks
During the sales meeting, tasks that need carrying out will likely arise throughout. This is particularly true of the more discursive and brainstorming sections of the meeting where lots of ideas come up that require some follow up. The sales manager cannot possibly take care of everything and needs to assign tasks to others in the team. This dividing up of tasks also helps everyone in the team to feel involved in, and a part of the team’s activities. These tasks that come out of meetings need to be kept track of and followed up so that everyone is using their time efficiently during the meeting. Failing to do this will leave team members feeling disenchanted and as if they are wasting their time.
Simple tools to structure meetings
MeetingKing can be a helpful tool for sales managers that want to keep on top of meetings and run their sales team meetings more effectively. The agenda tool can be used to plan an agenda that is both informative and engaging and you can even create your own sales meeting template. This can be sent to the sales team before the meeting so that everyone is well prepared. During the meeting you make short notes and assign tasks in one interface. Afterwards, meeting minutes can be sent that the team can refer back to so that everyone remembers what was covered and there are none of those horrible repeat meeting situations that can so often occur. Tasks are automatically emailed to the task owner and can even be added to the agenda of your next meeting, so nothing will be forgotten.
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