Want to increase the value of your sales meetings?  INCLUDE your sellers in the meeting and make it about them!

Just like selling, when we INCLUDE them, they pay closer attention, participate at higher levels, see a higher perceived value and are recharged to go out and sell more!  Many sellers put up with sales meetings rather than participate in them. Why?  They aren’t INCLUDED!  Or don’t see the most important focus - What’s in it for them!!

Salespeople have social needs.  Most spend a lot of time on their own as they call on prospects and complete paperwork (hopefully lots of orders and proposals!).  When sales meetings give them opportunities to connect with each other and have attention paid to them, it recharges their batteries AND does wonders for their commitment and sales after the meeting.

To engage your sellers at the highest level, make sure your meeting includes healthy doses of interaction and inclusion!  How?  Use these easy tips to include your VIS’s (very important sellers):

1.    Ask! For their input, ideas, energy, or help!  Think of the experiences your sellers have with your customers, at former employers, or from life!  Why not tap into all of that expertise to solve problems, plan for an opportunity or just to help each other out?
Sometimes managers are afraid that discussions might go negative or that ideas will come out that are unrealistic.  Here’s one way to get in front of that: give guidelines or parameters first!  Example:

“We are introducing xyz product next month.  The pricing has been determined to be $$$.  Let’s put our heads together on how we are going to approach our customers with this.  And like any challenge, there are parameters or boundaries that we need to find a solution within.  The timing for launch is Month/Date.  The resources we have available are xxx.  The non-negotiables are xxx. Marketing is going to provide xxx.  So, we will find what we can do within those boundaries."

Think of the challenge that can provide!

2.    Invite Participation! Style differences, not wanting to sound stupid, etc. prevent people from jumping right in.  To combat this break your larger group into smaller teams or partners to debate, discuss, share or brainstorm specific topics.  To ensure they stay on track, let them know someone in their group will need to “report out” the highlights of their discussion.  Once they get started, you will feel the energy explode in the room!

3.    Share best practices. Identify areas your team is struggling with – gaining referrals, closing, lead generation, etc.  Then use a round robin approach, with sellers sharing what DOES work for them in those areas.  Ask for a scribe to take notes and then have the notes typed and distributed after the fact.

4.    Help them continue to learn and develop. Find (or ask them for suggestions of) blog posts, articles, books, etc. that speak to a specific relevant topic. Share it with your team and then prepare 3-5 questions about the information for the sellers to debate and discuss.  Ramp it up by asking them to commit to one action they will take based on the information!

5.    Ask your sellers to plan, prepare and deliver an interactive lesson or topic to the rest of the team!  Which sellers have been asking for more responsibility or shown an interest in promotion opportunities? Have them be the first presenters!  Give guidelines on length of time they can use, dollars they can spend, etc.  You may even want them to run their plan by you for final approval.  This takes the pressure off you for a meeting and gives them an opportunity to hone some new skills.

A client of ours, Kalmbach Publishing, set an annual schedule with sellers individually responsible for planning and facilitating a sales meeting for the rest of their team.  For quality control they run the format and concept through a leader, but they have flexibility in how they plan to work with the team. 

Engaging your sellers pays such high dividends that the investment is worth it.  Want to increase sales, retention and teamwork?  Give your sellers more value by INCLUDING them!

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