4 Pieces Of Advice To Improve Sales Meeting Effectiveness

March 26, 2014

Measuring the production of salespeople depends on the use of metrics and KPIs to determine overall volume, amount of return business and other factors.

Giving employees the tools to meet and exceed their goals is vitally important but can be viewed as more of a behind-the-scenes endeavor. One way that managers and supervisors in the sales division of companies can help their talent develop is by holding meetings on a daily, weekly or other regularly scheduled basis. By presenting sales strategies, tactics and other tools for improvement,  leaders can increase the effectiveness of their teams and improve the financial bottom line of their departments.

Here are four easy-to-digest concepts that can focus efforts during these meetings help them fulfill their goals:

1. Have a specific topic and task
Sales meetings can be useful learning experiences if there is a clear focus and plan for each gathering. Entrepreneur Magazine recommends, after a specific topic is chosen, to have a skill-building exercise in place. The task should focus on developing employee skills – be it product knowledge, keeping clients engaged or a host of other concepts – and be related to the topic at hand.

2. Set a schedule
Inc. Magazine suggests having developmental meetings on the calendar ahead of time, giving attendees and presenters time to prepare and focus on the topic at hand. A last-minute sales meeting will likely result in employees being upset that their plans for the day have been interrupted and may not focus on the information at hand. This is a very simple yet important component to having a successful team-building meeting.

3. Provide a reward
While it doesn’t have to be always be a financial motivator, some sort of dangling carrot for sales staff can have impressive results. Along with recognizing hard work and demonstrable results in terms of sales metrics, offering a small perk or reward for the top performer over the course of the following week or month can tap into most sales workers’ competitive nature and encourage production. The bonus can range from a free lunch to first pick from a list of warm leads.

4. Keep it focused
Leaders need to remember that time in a meeting is time away from working with clients and prospects. Gatherings that provide value will likely be recognized by staff members as useful, but meetings that don’t have a clear-cut goal or continue on after a natural conclusion is reached will likely generate resentment.