Sales meetings with your team are an important way to connect with your sales people, share new information and ideas, and increase the level of enthusiasm that your sales people take to the field. Relying solely on pre-written presentations to use up the time scheduled for a sales meeting, though, may just be making your sales team feel as though meeting time could be better spent elsewhere. Improve sales meeting tactics by using the following tips in your next sales meeting.

Improve Sales Meeting Tactic #1: Use the Minimum Time Required

Sales meetings should never be rushed, but to improve sales meeting results it is important not to let meetings take longer than necessary. If you are trying to impart too much information in a single sales meeting you are ensuring that by the time the information you wanted to cover is imparted there is no time left for sales people to truly consider that information and ask questions. Keep sales meetings short by scheduling more frequent, shorter meetings and giving the most weight to the items discussed first, so that items of lesser importance can be discussed at a future meeting or even over email.

Improve Sales Meeting Tactic #2: Keep the Sales Team Involved

If you hold a sales meeting that does not involve your sales people in a dialogue, you are essentially giving your sales people a hard sell through presentation. Though for major sales meetings such an approach is sometimes necessary, for routine items this format will not work for you, your sales people, or the ultimate goals of the sales meeting. Improve sales meeting engagement by tailoring information and examples to be relevant to the sales team and consistently asking for the sales team’s feedback with leading questions.

Improve Sales Meeting Tactic #3: Always Have an Agenda

Having an agenda is helpful for any meeting that you have, not just for you but for those attending. If you distribute an agenda with your key points prior to a sales meeting whenever possible you can improve sales meeting perception and preparedness among the sales team. For longer meetings, include a scheduled break on the agenda for sales people to check email and make any pressing phone calls. This will ensure their attention is on the meeting and reduce the apprehension of being taken away from the office for an extended period.

Improve Sales Meeting Tactic #4: End on a High Note

It is traditional for organizations to schedule sales meetings for any new program or update, but in some cases these secondary meetings would have a bigger impact if introduced at the end of a regular sales meeting. Strong quarterly results resulting in a team bonus or a new incentive program are two great examples of items that might be covered in a separate sales meeting that could do more to rouse enthusiasm and interest if used as a cap to a regular meeting. By ending on a high note, positive attitudes and interest in material covered during the meeting will usually last longer and drive better results overall. Look to improve sales meeting results by finishing with a positive whenever possible.

Improve Sales Meeting Tactic #5: Follow Up on Actions

Failing to follow up with the sales team after meetings to ensure that the information shared is being applied makes it more likely that sales meetings won’t provide results. Even if the key action that sales people need to take out of a meeting is updating their sales materials, sales managers and leaders need to make sure that such actions are happening with follow up. This could be as simple as sending out an email with deadlines or as involved as asking sales people to come up with their own action plan, but no matter how it is done, the follow up is critical to sales meeting success.