How to conduct a Sales Review Meeting for future success

Gabriel is an entrepreneur and founder of an IT & Networking company.

The sales of his company have been falling steadily of late, so he thought of holding a sales review meeting for his teams.

As soon as the meeting started, Gabriel couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted at his team, “I want an answer right now! Why are the sales figures so low? Also, what are you all doing in office when you should be out on the field getting business?!” Gabriel’s face was red with fury. He was looking at everyone in the eye and waiting for a response.

Finally, one of his executives responded, “The market has been bad recently, how do we increase sales?”

Another one of them said, “Our competitors have lowered their prices, how do we compete?”

Others complained about the weather, problems with getting appointments, and so on.

Hearing all of these complaints at the sales review meeting, Gabriel got up and left the conference room in frustration.

Gabriel was upset when he left work. He arrived home and quickly decided to call up his business coach, Morpheus Zion, who was introduced to him by his close friend at an IT Conference. Gabriel had recently signed up for a business coaching session with him.

As soon as the Skype call started, Morpheus sensed that something was wrong and thought to check with Gabriel what was going on.

“Hey Gabriel, is everything alright? It sounds as if you’ve had a challenging day?”

“Yes, you’re right, Morpheus. Today was a bad day. Sales have been declining and I’ve been very worried.” Gabriel proceeded to give him a run-down of the events in the office.

Morpheus listened carefully then asked, “How many times did you go with your teams for a call and examine the sales process, whom they meet, and how the meeting is going?” Gabriel was quiet.

“Also, after the meeting, what are the reflections from the sales teams?”

“Honestly, Morpheus, I’ve hardly ever accompanied the sales team on the field. I’ve always been busy with implementation, accounts work and other things.” Gabriel looked pensive.

“Well, Gabriel if you don’t get any sales, you won’t have anything to implement and nothing to account for in the future.” Morpheus paused patiently to let the message sink in.

“What should I do now?” Gabriel asked.

“The first thing I recommend is for you to go along with your sales team for their sales calls and give them a chance to prepare and conduct the entire presentation. Only if required will you add your inputs to the presentation, otherwise just listen and support your sales manager during the call.”

Morpheus continued, “After the call, take a few minutes to discuss with the sales team:

What went well?

What did not go well?

And what could have been done better?

Remember, while the sales team is sharing their responses one by one, do not interrupt but let them finish. If they start with a response to the second question first, redirect them to answer the first question and then the second one. There certainly would be something which went well, maybe the meeting started on time, or we were able to meet the IT Head of the Bank, or the presentation of the products went well.” Morpheus’s voice was clear and strong.

Morpheus then told him that after the team completes their responses to the 3 questions, Gabriel should then share his perspective on these 3 questions.

“Make it a learning session for your sales team rather than pulling them down. Once you do this a couple of times, they will be able to reflect on how they could do the meetings better the next time. Probably, they would decide to have more meetings or have a meeting with the decision-maker, maybe send a calendar request before the meeting and study the profile of the IT Head. They could also connect with him on LinkedIn, send him a small introductory message about the company, then a brief company presentation and a link for client testimonials. You can coach them to go properly groomed, confidently give a presentation, ask a lot of questions – rather than just starting the presentations, summarize the discussions, plan of action, then send the minutes of the meeting and also the proposal within 24 to 48 hours, and of course follow up, follow up, follow up, and follow up!”

For Gabriel, all of this information was new – he had never thought of having a detailed discussion like this with his sales team. He only asked them whether they got the deal and if they achieved the sales numbers. If the responses were negative, then he used to give them a piece of his mind.

Gabriel promised Morpheus that from the next time onwards he would use this new feedback methodology with his teams before and during a sales review meeting and ended the call.

A few minutes later, Gabriel’s daughter Natalie walked in. She shared a few small stories about her day in school then she informed him that she was chosen by her teacher to give a presentation on ‘Tetraethyl Lead’ within a few days.

Gabriel thought this would be a good opportunity for him to implement his new learning. He asked Natalie to give a ‘mock’ presentation to him right away.

As she was presenting, he quickly remembered all the coaching tips Morpheus had given him. He listened attentively to his daughter, occasionally raised his eyebrows and smiled at times.

After Natalie finished her presentation, Gabriel congratulated her. “Great job, Natalie. Now let’s reflect on:

What went well during the presentation?

What did not go well?

What do you think needs to be done better at the school function?”

Natalie paused then said, “Do I have to say anything?”

“Of course,” Gabriel responded with a laugh.

After a few moments of reflection, she started, “I stuttered a little and…”

Gabriel asked her to pause then got up from his chair and said, “Let’s follow the order of the format, start with ‘what went well’, and then focus on ‘what did not go well’.

Natalie again reflected then said, “I completed the entire presentation without any support and secondly, I was confident.”

“Great!” said Gabriel proudly. “Is there anything that did not go well?”

“Yes,” said Natalie. “I stuttered a bit and I also think that I have to read more about the topic.”

“Anything you think you could have done differently?” Gabriel probed.

“I think I could have spoken more clearly and slowed down my pace.” Natalie said softly.

“Excellent!” Gabriel was very happy that he had just implemented Morpheus’s tool successfully. He continued, “Let me share my perspectives on this.

What went well – Your energy level was very good, you have memorized the presentation well and you needed no support.

What did not go well – You seemed stuck in one place and did not use facial expressions or hand gestures to create excitement and to prove or reinforce a point.

What can you do differently – You could move a bit, make sure to look at different people when making eye contact, use facial expressions, wherever required, modulate your voice by varying your pitch, pause at times and then emphasize on certain words while using some hand gestures.”

Natalie was very happy about the feedback she received from her father and Gabriel was just glad that he was able to help her by sharing his feedback, using the new tool he learned.

Gabriel thought to himself, “If I had used this approach before with my sales team and at the sales review meeting, the situation today would have probably been different.”

With hope in his heart, he promised himself and virtually to Morpheus, that he would immediately begin using the feedback techniques he learned to get his business back on track.