The weekly sales meeting is the hub of the Part-Time Sales Management System. Most salespeople love to talk, so when you engage your sales team by facilitating a discussion among the team members in a weekly meeting is much more…
What are the body posture and faces of your sales team telling you during your sales-team meetings? How willing are they to engage into discussions you initiate? I hope they’re engaged, but let’s face it weekly sales-team meetings can become routine and easily fall into a rut. When that happens at a small business the meetings usually stop taking place. If you ask the team if they want to keep having the meetings, they’ll be polite and tell the boss, “If you want to.” But what they want to say is, “These meetings are boring.” There’s no one else to blame but us, the sales leader. What can we do about it? Let me give you some ideas on how to keep your sales-team meetings interesting.
When I’m making a purchase I want the most out of the money I spend. Sometimes I’ll buy the most expensive choice and other times the least. But in either case I’m looking for the greatest value for what I spend. When it’s time to provide sales training for your sales team you’ll be faced with a wide range of costs and programs to evaluate. Ian Altman, in his article How Much Does Sales Training Cost written for Forbes/ Leadership presents figures of $500 – $5000 (per sales) rep for public trainings and $3500 – $25,000 (per team) for private training. Within that range of training choices lies an incredible value that’s worth every dollar you’ll spend. But in this blog, I won’t be addressing those choices. Instead, I want to share how a low cost sales training through a team book study can possibly be the value your looking for at a cost of $15-$200 per sales rep. I’ve been leading these book studies with great results for years and so can you, if you follow some simple steps.
Dear Salesperson,
I’ve seen the hard work you put in all day. I see you making calls, doing research, sending emails and making more calls. You put in this effort to produce selling meetings required throughout your sales process. You then prepare for your meetings and engage. May I ask, “Are you really prepared as well as you should be for each meeting you enter?”
Selling meetings are where decisions are influenced and made. In most cases it’s during these meetings where we have the greatest impact on the outcome of a sale. If selling meetings carry this much opportunity shouldn’t we ask ourselves, “Are we really prepared for our next meeting?”
Have you ever heard sales people complain about attending sales meetings? You might hear comments like, “What’s the sales meeting for?”, “Do you know how long it’s going to be?” or “Do I need to be here?” Does your company have sales meetings? I’ve checked back with some former clients and asked how their sales meetings are going, and to my dismay I hear, “We haven’t had one for awhile.” Let’s be honest. Meetings can be overdone and a waste of time, but they don’t have to be. You can have Money-Making Sales Meetings and here’s how.
More quality sales conversations equate to more sales. So how do you create a steady flow of sales meetings on your calendar? If you have a consistent flow of people calling you to do business each week then I say, bravo. If not, and your pipeline’s a little weak, how easy is it for you to know who you should be calling today and why? Is it more common for days to go by before you make your intended calls? Is your list in your memory, scattered or buried in paper or a simple address book? If you answered yes to any of these questions you have a motivational drain associated with poor contact and list management. An organized and categorized sales list can get you excited and ready to call so your calendar remains full and your sales are consistent.