How to hold a great sales meeting
Sales Meetings are something that a lot of us do as part of our job every day. When you hold sales meetings frequently, it is easy to forget some of the basics and as a result, your sales meetings become boring at best, and completely ineffective at worst!
So today, I am taking you through some key steps to ensure your sales meetings are purposeful and engaging.
Have a purpose
You should never be having a sales meeting ‘just because’. Having frequent sales meetings can make you and others become complacent. Set a topic of discussion for every sales meeting. This will not only help you with coming up with an agenda, but also sets expectations for the meeting.
Agenda
When in a meeting, it is really to lose track and go off topic, and before you know it, the meeting has ends you didn’t cover half of the points you wanted to! Having an agenda prior to the meeting ensures that you get the best out of the time you have together by cutting down questions and preventing you going off on tangents. Make a list of talking points and decisions that need to be made, along with anything information that needs to be collated and brought to the meeting and by whom. Let people know the agenda beforehand, so they can also prepare.
Engage Others & Active Listening
Meetings should not be one-sided. Whilst you may have points to get across, if you just start reeling off information without engaging the attendees, the likelihood is they will switch off. So, engage people in your meeting. Ask them questions, ask for their opinions and ideas. Most importantly, when they share their thoughts with you, listen to them and acknowledge them, ask them questions back! This may seem like I’m teaching you to suck eggs, but people talking at others during meetings is more common than you think.
Agree actions at the end of your meeting.
All sales meetings should result in some form of action or agreed next steps.
Everyone involved in the meeting should walk away with an understanding of what they need to do moving forward.
During your meeting, make detailed notes and then do a quick recap of the key points discussed, along with any agreed next steps and who has accountability for ensuring they are completed and when they need to be completed by.
When a meeting has a purpose and agreed actions, you can ensure your goals are being achieved.
If you want to learn more about increasing the effectiveness of your sales process, get in touch on [email protected]