How to run an effective stand-up meeting

Many sales stand-up meetings lack purpose and focus. It is a meeting for the sake of meetings. You see this on the face of the salespeople when they leave the huddle – it sucks the energy.

The purpose of a daily stand-up meeting is to wake the entire sales team up, get all thinking the right way, and prepare them for a day of selling.

So, how do you get your whole team to think the right way? Follow these steps:

Read the entire article at Ultimate guide to sales stand-up meetings

Stand up

Start the meeting standing.

And get your team standing. Consider the types of discussions you have sitting down vs. standing up.

Standing increases energy. The quality of the sales stand-up increases. The discussion quality increases.

We get the team going. My people are ready.

Start with a topical discussion

You may start with a thought-provoking question, a challenge, action items, or something you see persist throughout the team.

You may say:

"We're having many issues and challenges with handling objection X.

"I've been watching recordings, and many of you guys are getting stumped on X."

Keep it topical and relevant so that it is helpful for your sales reps.?

Topical discussion client example?

One of my clients did a lot of work in Europe.?

When the war broke out with Ukraine, many of their deals started dying.

Their customers were worried about the political unrest. There was a lot of uncertainty. They were not sure they wanted to invest.

So, the sales leader addressed this at the sales stand-up, explicitly looking at solutions to those sales challenges.

For example, in that sales huddle, we said:

• "What are the five things clients say about Russia and Ukraine?"
• "How are we going to counteract that?"
• "Let's workshop it right now. Let's talk about it now."?
• "I've got some ideas." And you go back and forth with the team.?

The whole point is to get them moving their mouths and speaking, which brings me to my next point.

Roleplay

Workshopping is good because it gets your sales reps' mouths, bodies, and voices moving. You're warming them up.

Remember to try to increase the team's intensity.?

Roleplay makes the meeting more fluid and reduces roadblocks.?

Every industry has issues that arise. It is essential to bring hangups to the team's attention sooner, but the roleplay helps to develop a solution more quickly.?

Giving and rehearsing the talk track with your reps is more productive and keeps it fresh in mind on sales calls and client meetings.

Pipe check

Once you finish your training or action items, you need to know about the team's day-to-day business.

Many employees and sales representatives have to report to their senior leadership.

For example, they say:

• We're expecting $5,000 to come today.
• We're expecting $500,000 to come in today.
• I've got two calls with two different clients, and I'm hoping both of them are close.

Now the problem is that most leaders stop here. They don't poke further and stress-check the pipeline.

I'm typically seeing this:

Sales rep: "I've got three calls later today, and I'm hoping one of them will close."

Leader:?"Okay, cool. Let me know if you need anything."?

Then the leader moves on to the next guy.

See the problem??

Consider;??

• What if all three of them are bad?
• What if all three of them are great, but this person is lazy and lowballing it?
• Why can't they close all three of them? You better close all three.
• If you close the first one, do you hit your commitment and then fumble the bag?

Your job as a leader is to stress test each of the three and learn about them.

Your team may be shooting a bunch of shots that doesn't mean they're making them.

You don't want to know how the deal went at the next meeting. You want assurances now.?

Then you get this situation:?

Leader:?The phone call with the founder yesterday. You said it would close, but it hasn't.?

Sale rep:?I was hoping it would close, but it didn't.

Leader: Why did the deal die??

Sales rep:?The founder needed to talk to his co-founder, and I've never spoken to his co-founder before.

Leader:?So, that deal is not about to close? You pitched to 50% of the decision-making team.?

And now you're telling me he will update you on what he said to his co-founder.

That deal is a 5% chance of closing.

Sales rep:?...

I have watched this play out in many stand-up meetings. But, the problem is that the sales leader only asked the sales rep for a pipe check and didn't follow through with the stress check.?

?Stress check

The sales leaders' job is to pulse-check that activity in the pipeline.

You need to stress test all of their forecasts and all of their commitments.

You need to know if the sales representatives have gold or crap on the board.

I also don't want clients to verbally just say yes and not sign off. I want my sales team hunting for the signature.?

Ask your sales representatives these questions about their pipeline:?

• Why do you believe they're going to close??
• What has happened? What have you done? What have you not done??
• What was the last conversation? What expectation?
• What are you walking into this conversation with??
• Why are they going to buy it? Why are they going to say yes?
• Why are they going to sign on the dotted line?
• How are you going to force the signature?
• How are you going to make that happen?
• What are all the reasons why this deal would die??
• Have you looked at X? How will you ensure that isn't going to happen??

Stress Test Talk Track

Sales rep:?"I've got three calls later today, and I'm hoping one of them will close."

Sales leader: "Why do you believe they're going to close?"

Sales rep: "Because..."

Leader: Okay. But I need to make sure this doesn't happen to close it. How are you going to close your second deal?

Sales rep: ...

Leader: On the second one, you need to do this. And ensure that this doesn't kill your deal.?

And then do

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

And don't do this, or the deal will die.?

I expect three closes today. Don't give any lowball excuses. Don't let your sales reps underpromise and over-deliver.?

If you have a sales rep who is underpromising and overdelivering, it means they have no clue. People who underpromise and overdeliver have no measuring stick, understanding of their capabilities, or even a desire to commit to exerting any effort.?

Stressing your pipeline in the stand-up meeting will help determine your reps' capabilities, commitment, and perception of themselves.?

Read the entire article at Ultimate guide to sales stand-up meetings