Every week, all over the world, salespeople are subjected to a ‘rant and rave’ from a sales manager who runs a meeting with no direction, no agenda, no concept of time, and generally over-run by members of the ‘we know it all’ brigade.
Besides lacking agenda and strict time limits, the weakness of many sales meetings is agreement.
Every time I work with teams, I like to set up some agreements, some guidelines on how I run my event, team talk, or presentation.
I use this process at the beginning of every meeting, with sales people.
Some examples of group agreements
- Participate 100%
- Be on time
- No such thing as a stupid question
- No missiles / no mobile phones!
- Have fun!
Participate 100%
This rule is paramount within any sales meeting. If you are asked to my meetings, you contribute- and if you don’t I will ask you not to come again. Sniggering and laughing down the back of the room was not tolerated in my meetings, period! Who is running your team, you or them?
Be on Time
My Dad used to say to me “Being on time is being early”.
If you have an agenda (which I advise) then there’s a start time for the meeting clearly advertised.
If I had sales people that arrived late, they were not allowed into the sales meeting.
Simple as that. I even, on one occasion, locked the door. Not very pleasant for them, if that happens!
No Such Thing as a stupid question.
If a question is asked in a meeting, there is nothing worse, than people sniggering or actually saying “Argh that’s a stupid question!”.
This is not school, people, it’s a business meeting. Everyone has the right to ask a question in my meeting, particularly if they are not sure.
It’s granted as much credence as anything. If you shut the negativity down, then you get input.
As a sales manager, you do not know all the answers. They do, the people in your team. Trust them.
No missiles / no mobile phones!
No Missiles – I cannot stand when a person asks a question and are made to feel small because someone on the team says a negative remark. (Missile)
What that person says is true to them at that moment. They do not need another team member undermining them. That’s a form of bullying.
Please just listen to the contribution and who knows, one might even learn something.
No Mobile Phones- I know it might be hard for some people, but phones are either muted, or turned off.
If you want, bring in a ‘fine’ process. A dollar for every phone on, looked at, or played with. No phones means no phones.
Have fun!
I think that’s the key rule of any sales meeting game. Do things differently, meet somewhere new, have a breakfast meeting, dress up, and have themes.
Don’t recreate the same environment, over and over again.
However, do stay firm and be in control. Believe it or not, it’s your team’s expectation that you do so.
Have a great week selling your stuff.
Mike
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!