Sales Manager Energizes Sales Meetings

“I hate sales meetings,” Steve complained. As we talked further, he voiced his disappointment with his staff, “It seems they find reasons to be late. Or, they can’t wait to get to the meeting to complain. This brings the whole sales team down. It’s de-energizing for me. It’s got to be depressing for the sales team also.”

I suggested that he start doing three things:

1. Start every meeting with a public praising, recognizing at least one person on the staff for something they contributed to the company.
2. Start sharing success stories on a regular basis. Ask salespeople to share the greatest success for the week.
3. Start going off-line with non-productive conversations that will be irresolvable during the meeting. Group meetings are for making decisions, not complaining.

As a result of implementing the new format, the meetings turned out to be energizers. While the good salespeople couldn’t wait for their share of the limelight, the struggling ones got great ideas from the successful reps. Fortunately, the complainers had to wait until after the meeting.

Utilize meetings as a chance to laud efforts of your people and build positive energy. People tend to dread sales meetings when they are poorly planned and run. Make sales meetings an opportunity to give salespeople the recognition they deserve. Salespeople go to great lengths to accomplish a goal when you give them credit, preferably in public.

Point: Use your sales meetings to pump-up, not deflate your staff

For additional insights into running good meetings, I also pull principles from Chapter 6: Mastering the Daily and Weekly Executive Meeting from Mastering the Rockefellar Habits by Verne Harnish.

What are you doing to keep your sales meetings energized?