Comments on: What Are You Talkin ‘Bout?

By: Mary Beth Smith

Mary Beth Smith — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Many years ago, I drove 90 miles every Monday morning through heavy commuter traffic to attend a mandatory 8:00 a.m. sales meeting, which was generally pointless. The morning that finally pushed me over the edge was the day that the sales manager pulled out a lengthy email that he had already sent us, and proceeded to read it out loud. That was the entire meeting. Then I had the pleasure of driving 90 miles BACK into my territory. Ridiculous waste of time and resources…

The next day I called and made the case that I was losing a great deal of time in the field on Mondays, and that it would be far more advantageous to let me call into the meeting on speaker phone unless there was actual training involved.

I find very few things more disrespectful than to pull a sales force (or anyone, actually) into a meeting that has no direct bearing on their performance.

As always, you are right on point, Paul!! mb

By: Bob Teague

Bob Teague — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:51:00 +0000

Having conducted and attended sales meetings for over 40 years, 99.9% of the time they are demoralizing and mostly useless. Managers are promoted to management under the Peter principle, and in general, have no meeting skills, and more importantly, few people skills. Managers have no agenda for these meetings and for the most part nothing to present to help their sales teams. I always think of two quotes when it comes to sales meetings, first,” if the only tool you have is a hammer then every problem begins to look like a nail” , and ” A camel is a horse designed in a sales meeting by a sales manager”. It’s a shame that the old adage never dawns on sales managers,” If you continue to do what you’ve always done you will continue to get what you’ve always gotten”.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Sad to say all we ever discuss is numbers, numbers, numbers. No postmortums, not a lot of substance or meaty information we can take to our clients. For the most part, the sales people need to come up with our own new ideas to take to prospects and clients. And even more unproductive is we have to be face to face in the room, it cannot be by conference call. Even worse is when they they need to say something to someone in particular but they say it to everyone, so the person they really need to say to doesn’t recognize that it’s directed to them.

By: Stephanie Stone

Stephanie Stone — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:40:00 +0000

Paul,

I recently moved from an outside sales position to a manager and trust me when I say I have been in plently of sales meetings where I walked away thinking my time could have been better utilized!
As a manager now, I hold weekly 20 minute reviews individually with my reps to discuss activities from the week, objectives and goal for the coming weeks, and strategies for opportunities/projects. Then I hold a monthly meeting which we breifly review financials from the previous month and some other admins stuff I ususally spend less than 30 minutes on these items, then we move on to more development topics, like equipment applications and technical questions with an expert within the company, local marketing/sales planning/initiatives, and competition review/study. These were the types of activities in sales meeting that were most helpful for me as a rep. Also, I continually ask my sales reps what they want from the sales meetings, so that I have their buy-in and full attention!

By: Paul Zicuis

Paul Zicuis — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:13:00 +0000

The other day I had a chance to go watch a NHL Team practice. The drills they went through and the skills they practiced were all related to getting better at the Game. A friend of mine said to me that everything they are practicing is what I see in the game. A very good point.
Getting better at each skill will change the outcome from a loss to a Win.
Remember, this is a game that the players have been playing for a very long time and have all reached the highest level of competition-So why would they be practicing the skills and drills that they most likely have mastered? Many reasons.Even professionals need to be reminded of what it takes to win. The most effective Team Sales meetings have always been interactive and challenging each person to get better at their skills. Ultimately, this will change the outcome from a lost deal to a deal that closes.

By: Mjohnston

Mjohnston — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:48:00 +0000

Paul, I’ve stalked this group for too long – it’s now time to participate. We have just adopted a simple weekly format: 1) who and how many prospecting calls did you make? 2) How many appointments did you have? 3) How many appointments for next week? This goes back to ‘it’s a numbers game’ and certainly makes you accountable.

By: paulcastain

paulcastain — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Thanks Jeff.

I would suggest a monthly meeting (face to face or a conference call)

The question now becomes “What should we talk about?”

I had sent you a 14 page PDF with all kinds of ideas and then realized that I should share it here for my readers as well http://yoursalesplaybook.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Sales-Meetings-That-Rock-Final.pdf

By: Jeff Lampert

Jeff Lampert — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:31:00 +0000

Paul,
Great topic! I do not have regularly scheduled sales meetings. I prefer to review monthly sales results with each rep individually. I am constantly e-mailing the team sales tips I pick up from you, Farquharson and others. I will schedule a sales meeting when PIA has a great sales training webinar. We watch the webinar then have a productive discussion after.

By: paulcastain

paulcastain — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Ha! And you really have to ask yourself “Do we ever see Bruce Willis and Paul at the same place at the same time?”

You’re on to me!

By: paulcastain

paulcastain — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:21:00 +0000

________________________________
From: Disqus
To: ctstrainer@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:17 AM
Subject: [yoursalesplaybook] Re: What Are You Talkin ‘Bout?

Disqus generic email template

NOTE: This comment is waiting for your approval. It is not yet published on your site. ======