10 years ago
January 5, 2015

Sales Team Meetings Do’s and Don’ts

Following these “dos” and “don’ts” will help ensure that your sales team meetings stay focused, on topic, and useful.

Rhys Metler

Sales team meetings should be about tracking progress, identifying opportunities, and uncovering any obstacles to sales success. Often, these goals get sidetracked by people who use sales team meetings as an opportunity to shift blame or air personal grievances. Once sales team meetings go off-track, they lose any usefulness they may have had for the sales team as a whole. To make sales team meetings as beneficial as possible, it’s important for everyone to follow some basic rules of decorum. Following these “dos” and “don’ts” will help ensure that your sales team meetings stay focused, on topic, and useful.

Do: Prepare for the Meeting

If everyone shows up to hear what other people have to say, then nobody will have anything to say. Takes some notes on issues that are having a positive or negative affect on your sales team. Identify some opportunities you believe would be beneficial, along with some opportunities you believe may need rethinking. A sales team meeting should be a collaborative effort to improve sales-bring something to contribute.

Don’t: Bring Personal Baggage

Sales team meetings aren’t the time or place for individual issues-especially if they involve other employees. If an individual is affecting your performance, that’s a conversation that you should have, in private, with a manager. The meeting is about finding group solutions to group problems. If you single someone out for personal criticism, the only thing it will accomplish is hurting their feelings and making everyone else in the meeting feel uncomfortable.

Do: KISS

Keep It Short and Simple. When it’s your turn to speak, get to the point quickly. You don’t need to provide every detail and a lengthy backstory for people to get the gist of what you’re saying. Make your point, explain why it’s an asset or liability, and wait for feedback. The longer you take to make your point, the less time people will have to address it.

Don’t: Interrupt Others

If you’re over the age of five, this one should go without saying. Unfortunately, many adults forget their basic manners from time to time. The more a person is interrupted, the longer it will take them to make their point, and the less clear that point is likely to be. If you have questions or comments while they’re talking, jot them down on a notepad for later.

Do: Pay Attention

There may be times, especially during large sales team meetings, when people from other departments are speaking. You may be tempted to tune out, especially if you don’t deal with them directly. What if you have the solution to their problem, but don’t pay attention to what the problem is? What if they have some advice that could benefit your department, but you don’t hear it? Sales team meetings are about sharing information and getting different points of view. If you tune out every time somebody outside of your department speaks, you’re missing a lot of opportunities to learn.

Don’t: Sidetrack the Conversation

If another individual raises and issue that you would like to discuss in more detail, consider finding them after the meeting and scheduling a one-on-one conversation. Unless the issue affects the entire sales team, a sales team meeting isn’t the right place to pursue it farther.

Getting the Most out of Meetings

Approach sales team meetings an opportunity to learn, and to teach. As long as the meeting stays on-track, it can be a good opportunity to get a variety of perspectives on issues that are affecting the sales team. To stay on-track, all of the participants must leave their individual needs at the door, and focus on the good of the entire team. If everyone can do that, then sales team meetings can be a valuable tool for improving sales figures.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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