Sales meeting: Effective tips for modern sales teams

Being a sales manager, you have already walked into the sales rep’s shoes. You have attended many sales meetings in the past. You might have even had negative experiences where the meetings were uninteresting, long, and not at all motivating.

Don’t be like those managers who walk into the meeting room, provide a series of updates, speak about their expectations, and walk out after two hours.

You would want to empower your team and lead them in the right direction so that they keep hitting their sales numbers. To achieve the sales team’s goals, every sales rep in the team must achieve their individual sales quota. For that, proper guidance and feedback are required. 

Running an effective sales meeting can help boost growth, improve efficiency, and increase the sales team’s productivity. 

“Leaders become great not because of their power but because of their ability to empower others. – John Maxwell

Tips for running successful sales meetings

Every year, businesses waste $37 billion on ineffective meeting 

Companies rely on the sales team to bring in new customers and contribute to the business revenue. Every minute of a sales representative is precious. The one or two hours that they spend on the meeting could be used for prospecting or nurturing a deal. So, if the team is investing their time in a meeting, as the head of the team, you need to make sure it doesn’t go in vain. The sales meeting should help them improve their performance and sales results. 

Here are the things you need to do before and during a sales meeting. 

Things to do before the sales meeting 

Make sure you plan and prepare for your sales team meeting to ensure you don’t end up wasting your sales reps’ time. Here are two things you must consider doing before a sales team meeting. 

Sales meeting tip 1 – Analyze sales reports and track progress 

• Are your sales reps hitting their targets?
• What issues is your team facing while closing a deal?
• Where are your sales reps spending their time?

You need to find out answers to these and many more questions before convening your team for the next sales meeting. 

Create sales reports to analyze the performance of each member of your team. 

A sales CRM software can be a great tool to track your team’s performance and see the status of the deals. Using such a smart sales tool, you can spot the performance gap and problem area that needs immediate attention. 

Sales meeting tip 2 – Set agenda and time limit  for the meeting 

Based on the analysis, create an agenda for the meeting. The agenda should be clearly defined to ensure all the necessary points are covered. Set a time limit for your meeting. Keep it to an hour max. If you can cover every point in 30 minutes, then it is advisable. 

Attention begins to drop off rapidly after thirty minutes, with an average of 84% of attendees paying attention at the thirty-minute mark, falling to 64% at the forty-five-minute mark.

To avoid wasting time, break that 30 to 40 minutes meeting into various parts. 

• For instance, in the first five minutes, you can appreciate the efforts of the sales rep who has performed exceptionally well in the previous month. 
• In the next ten minutes, everybody can share their achievements for the month.
• The next ten minutes can be dedicated to discussing the key issue. 
• The last ten minutes can be spent on discussing the solution and the next step. 

Things to do during the meeting 

Effective meetings can change the sales game and make your sales team more efficient. Here are things you must consider to move your sales meetings to the next level. 

Sales meeting tip 3- Acknowledge performance 

Salespeople love recognition. It motivates them to work harder. Even if you’ve sent an appreciation email to the top sales performer, you must speak about their achievements during the sales meeting. 

Give them the praises they deserve in public. Such recognition even encourages other members of the team to walk that extra mile. 

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put into words is all that is necessary.” – Margaret Cousins

Sales meeting tip 4 –  Focus on one key issue

Do not try to discuss a lot of issues in one meeting.

It is better to speak about one issue in detail than discuss a lot of things in just a few minutes. By focusing on a single issue, you’ll be able to address it in a better way. You can find the root cause and a way to resolve the problem. 

Sales meeting tip 5 –  Allow everyone to share their success and improvements 

Give everyone a few minutes to speak about their improvements and achievements since the last meeting. It doesn’t necessarily need to be about closing a deal. They can speak about the positive feedback they’ve received from a prospect or about increasing their appointment setting rate.

The point here is to motivate them to reflect and think positively about what they’ve done since the last meeting. They get a chance to ponder over their improvements and achievements. This helps in creating an environment of optimism. 

Besides, sales reps will put in more effort, as they cannot stay mum when others are speaking about their improvements.

Sales meeting tip 6 –  Make your meeting engaging

You shouldn’t be the only one speaking during the meeting. Try to make the sales meeting engaging and interactive. Give everybody a chance to suggest a new sales strategy or share their views and ideas to overcome a problem.

You can even have a quick mock call session to show how to address a specific sales challenge that most sales reps in the team are facing. 

Sales meeting tip 7 – Share the next steps 

Don’t leave things hanging; the meeting should lead to some action. Define the next steps before ending the meeting so that everyone is clear on what is expected of them. You want to see improvements, so you need to be sure if the sales reps have understood things you tried to convey during the sales meeting. Have a quick recap and end the meeting on a positive note. 

Conclusion 

Purpose-driven sales meetings always lead to lucrative results. Change the notion that sales meetings are a waste of time. Sales meetings can help improve sales performance. However, make sure you invest a little time in planning before the meeting. Clearly outline your objective for the meeting. Ensure the sales meeting starts and ends on time to avoid wasting working hours. Make sure the focal point of your meeting encourages back-and-forth communication. Do not forget to define the next steps before stepping out of the meeting room. 

Continuously track the progress of your sales reps. Use the right sales tool to do that. Smart software like Salesmate CRM can help you in keeping a tab on your sales reps’ performance. With a clear pipeline view, you can see the progress of the deals. You can make smart decisions and provide real-time feedback with insightful reports. The reports can be customized as per your unique business requirements. Besides creating reports, you can track emails, manage deals, streamline the sales process, and do a lot more with the intuitive sales tool. Salesmate CRM is an all in sales solution designed for sales teams of all sizes.