Banish the Boring Sales Meeting!

Banish the Boring Sales MeetingBanish the Boring Sales MeetingBanish the Boring Sales Meeting Earle McLeod, author of Selling with Noble Purpose (Wiley, 2013)Sales meetings are a chance to inspire your team and reinforce why your noble schlussverkauf purpose (NSP) matters. Ive attended thousands of sales meetings and have witnessed countless mistakes.Following are among the fruchtwein common mistakes organizations makeSales numbers are emphasized without sharing customer stories. This is the biggest and most common error. Numbers without customer stories erode your NSP. A big rah-rah about sales numbers does not improve sales skills, nor does it build a tribe of true believers. It tells salespeople, All we care about is cash.Too many presentations are given by home office staff. Everyone wants to get in front of the sales force. As the sales meeting draws closer, more groups demand time on the agenda. The result is an endless information dump that doesnt improve sales performance one bit. Save these for Web-based presentations before or after the meeting.Speakers dont understand the sales reality. If your speaker doesnt know what type of customers your sales force calls on or how you differentiate yourself, that rolle shouldnt be speaking at your meeting. Every presenter internal or external should know your NSP and market conditions.The successes of only a few are celebrated. Watching the same people pick up bonus checks year after year does not motivate the masses. Sales awards are great, but dont neglect people who made a difference to customers, even if theyre not the top producers this year.Products are introduced without customer context. A lengthy presentation about product features that neglects to describe how the product or products impact customers does more harm than good. Present new products to the sales force the way you want them to present them to customers, with clear links to the customers critical goals and challenges.Team-building exercis es that alienate people are used. Imagine trying to hoist yourself over a rock-climbing wall if youre overweight. Now imagine having to do it in front of your boss. Unless youre the Navy Seals, team-building exercises that spotlight peoples physical inadequacies have a chilling effect on employee morale. Stick to team building that emphasizes NSP skills such as communicating and connecting.There is no opportunity for skills practice. If, by the time your salespeople leave the meeting, they are expected to sell a new product or initiative, then they should practice doing it while theyre in the meeting.There is no opportunity for salespeople to interact with one another. Sitting in a darkened room watching PowerPoint slides is like standing on a street corner watching a ballabwehr next to stranger you might ooh and ahh over a fancy float, but youre not going to call each other up afterward to discuss float-building tips. Meaningful interaction builds shared commitment, trust, and conf idence.If the preceding list describes your last sales conference, here are five things you can do that will make your next meeting more effective1.Tell NSP customer stories. Imagine kicking off your national sales meeting with a dramatic story about how you made a difference to a customer. What does that tell your sales force? If its a big meeting, its worth bringing in an actual customer. If its a small meeting, have a salesperson or senior leader do it. When a senior leader describes how you made a difference to a customer, it tells your sales force, Our work matters.2.Celebrate the success of your sales force and your customers. When you announce your sales figures, include how many customers you helped. Instead of saying, We closed this many deals, say, We helped this many customers. Instead of saying, We generated this much revenue, say, We drove this much revenue for our company, and we helped our customers drive this much revenue for their organizations.3.Emphasize NSP in sa les awards. When you give out sales awards, describe how the big sales affected the customers. Also, consider giving out NSP awards to the people who assisted, the home office staff, and those salespeople who missed the big prize but still delivered solid results.4.Introduce products in the context of customer goals. Use the NSP model customer goals first, then product features. Before you describe the product features, describe the customer goals and challenges that the product addresses.5.Give your sales force the chance to interact. A structured activity like sharing your best win with your peers builds teamwork and morale. Golf is nice, but youll improve shared commitment with an exercise that pulls NSP front and center.Sales meetings are your chance to celebrate, teach, and reinforce what matters to your organization. When you focus on your NSP, you improve morale, camaraderie, and sales performance.Excerpted with permission of the publisher, Wiley, from Selling with Noble Purp ose How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud by Lisa Earle McLeod. Copyright (c) 2013 by Lisa Earle McLeod. This book is available at all bookstores and online booksellers.Author BioLisa Earle McLeod, author of Selling with Noble Purpose How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud is a sales leadership consultant who has worked with clients like Apple, Kimberly-Clark and Pfizer to create passionate, purpose-driven sales organizations. A sought-after keynote speaker, McLeod has spent over 10,000 hours coaching salespeople and leaders and has conducted over 500 workshops and keynotes. McLeod writes leadership commentary for Forbes.com andhas been quoted in major news outlets such as Fortune, the New York Times and others. Go to NobleSalesPurpose.com for free videos and training.Read more from Lisa McLeod Sales Put Noble Sales Purpose Before ProfitsRead more about sales in the Resource CenterSales Recruiters How toHire Top Sales PeopleHow High-Performing Staffing Companies Drive Sales MotivationBeyond Sales Recruitment Help Managers Get More from the Sales Team