Sales Meetings and Other Time-Wasters

I once saw a comic strip that showed a bunch of people glumly leaving a conference room. The caption showed what someone behind the group was shouting: "And we’ll keep having meetings like this until we find out why nothing gets done around here!”

Consider the sales meeting.

In theory, sales meetings have a solid and important purpose. But done wrong they can be demotivating, momentum – killing opportunities for a manager’s ego to run amuck over the course of way too many minutes which could have been spent doing the thing the manager was trying to get the reps to do: Sell.

Alternatively, a sales meeting can be a motivational shot in the arm, education-filled, team-building calendar event salespeople actually look forward to.

Here's how:

1. Start on time. Do not reward late–arrivers by waiting for them. Make a promise to the reps: You arrive on time and the meeting will end on time.

2. Have a set agenda you follow each week. This requires preparation and, along with the next suggestion, helps short attention span sales reps know how long they must be attentive

3. Announce how long the meeting will be at the onset.

4. Stick to that time promise.

Anything that keeps a sales rep from selling is counterproductive to the job description and requirements of a sales rep. That includes the sales meeting. The more a manager can do to create and run a tight agenda, on time and in time meeting, the better chance everyone has of benefiting from it.

In conclusion, I encourage you to follow the advice of my father’s former boss, the Episcopal Bishop of Western, Massachusetts Alexander Stewart: "A great sermon has a strong beginning, a thoughtful ending, and as a little space in between those two things as possible.”

Find ideas, inspiration, and grow your sales with The Sales Vault, a subscription-based website for sales reps and selling owners in the graphic arts. Go to SalesVault.pro or call Bill Farquharson at 781-934-7036.