Motivate Your Sales Team with Regularly Scheduled Meetings

Picture this: A group of sales reps are heading down the hall to the conference room for a meeting with their manager. They are definitely taking their time getting there. They stop for coffee, peek at their Blackberrys and seem to be pondering something silently in their heads. Wouldn’t you like to know what’s going on in their heads? We do, so we decided to find out. We asked two groups of sales reps “What reaction comes to mind when you hear there is going to be a sales meeting?” Group One was not looking forward to the meeting. Their responses included: • Uh oh. What are they going to make us do now? • Is this going to be another day we'll have to blitz because we haven't made numbers? • What did we do wrong? • What fire are we going to have to put out now? Group Two’s responses were very different: • Look forward to them. Always learn something. Starts my morning off good. • My manager always makes it interesting. We brainstorm and I learn something new. • I hope my manager doesn't go off on a tangent. It wastes my time. • I look forward it because it’s a time to hear success stories as well as some objections that each of us may hear throughout the week. We also get some tips and advice for overcoming objections as well as additional selling techniques. Why are the responses of these two groups so completely different? Because Group One’s manager does not have regular meetings while Group Two’s manager does. Which responses would you like from your sellers? Many would select Group Two. Yet the responses from Group Two aren’t all good either. As a sales manager, how do you get a positive reaction from your team when you ask for their time? One of the best ways to do this is to hold regularly scheduled meetings. With the availability of teleconference bridges, even remote teams should be brought together regularly. How often? That’s up to you. Weekly or once every other week works, quarterly is generally not often enough. The keys to making the meeting regular are to: • Decide on the dates/schedulern• Commit to the timern• Communicate your schedule including the expectation of participation (Yes, participation, not just attendance!) • Stick to the schedule How often does your sales team meet? Do you think their comments would be more in line with Group One or Two? If you are part of a sales team, let us know what you’re thinking as you’re heading toward that conference room.