Turning Your Sales Meetings Into Rallies
Raise your hand if your sales team looks forward to your regularly scheduled sales meeting. And what about you, do you look forward to the planning and preparation? Be honest. No, not so much? Then I’d like to share some sales coaching best practices to help make this a reality for both you and your team.
I’ve heard sales professionals joke in the past about how the word “meeting” rhymes with “beating” because that’s how their past sales meetings left them feeling. And, instead of being motivated and inspired when they headed back to their sales centers, they only felt bruised and battered. Stop the abuse and show your team some love! First off, consider a simple name change. Going forward, let’s refer to sales meetings as sales rallies. It sets a different tone, yes? Sales rallies are for developing and motivating our teams to give our customers their very best.
Over the course of my career, I’ve seen plenty of well-intended sales rallies get blown up due to sales minutiae, so be intentional when planning. What is your desired outcome and what do you want your salespeople to walk away with? Identify this, and you’ll be able to structure your agenda from there. Be mindful and exclude as many housekeeping items as possible. Not only is this a time-suck, but often these are items that can easily be discussed and accomplished via phone call, email, text, etc. Rally time with your people should almost be viewed as sacred time. Make every minute meaningful.
Another thing to consider before jumping into the ideas below is to make sure you’re inviting the entire sales team to your rallies. Many of us now have online sales consultants who work with our customers for at least part of their journey. It’s important that they understand the sales process as well, as they will likely be called upon to implement much of the same skills that our sales agents use.
Keep It Positive
As their fearless leader, you set the tone for the entire sales rally so be sure to start strong! Play upbeat music and take the time for a victory lap. Go ahead and celebrate the team’s wins – no matter how large or small, personal or professional, since your last rally. Perhaps run a fun, short, team-building exercise to build the energy in the room and set a positive vibe that will carry you through till the end.
Provide Value
Professional selling is all about creating and providing value, right? We expect our sales teams to do this for our customers, so it’s only natural that they should be expecting the same from us.
One of the most valuable resources we can provide our sales pros is training and coaching. Not only should training and coaching be a part of every sales rally, but it should be near, or at, the very top of the agenda. Doing so will ensure that it receives the time and attention it deserves (versus getting dropped altogether because of time constraints). Set the right expectations for your team by always having a planned, predetermined training topic that is shared well in advance. This may encourage some pre-rally practice! And, to develop your team even further, empower various members to present and conduct the training. Let them shine, get everyone practicing, and join in! Participate and observe. It’s another opportunity to gauge how well they understand the concepts and if further one-on-one coaching will be required.
Finding Training Opportunities
You are probably tracking with me so far, but maybe asking yourself, “How will I identify the best training topics?” I’m so glad you asked. The best way to uncover areas for training is by actually being in the field with your people. This will provide you with first-hand experience of how your sales professionals are interacting with customers.
Let’s face it, in a time when our buyers are feeling less confident because their fear is elevating, it’s more important than ever that our sales pros have confidence in themselves and their skills. This confidence can be instilled through practice and repetition, and by a sales leader who reinforces these things. Confidence is contagious.
Bottom line: Let’s be purposeful and consistent with the sales training aspect of our rallies. Promote buy-in by being actively engaged and willing to participate. Lead by example.
The Fine Line of Reviewing Metrics
Most of the organizations we work for have revenue goals in place. As a sales leader, of course, it’s one of the KPIs (key performance indicators) by which our performance is measured. It’s important that you and your team are aware of these goals and are striving to achieve and exceed them when possible. With so many different scenarios in today’s market, these metrics may vary drastically. Many sales pros don’t have any inventory to sell right now while others look like rock stars because they do. As leaders, we should always be looking to reward behavior over results. If the behaviors are solid the results will be there when possible.
Be sure to talk through any obstacles or challenges the team is facing in relation to goal achievement. Ask them what they need from you to be successful in achieving their goals and work together to develop an action plan for success.
Finish Strong
When we combine all of these ideas and execute them, we’ll have sales rallies that everyone can look forward to. Your team will come ready to learn and grow, and will leave motivated with a renewed sense of confidence, ready to change people’s worlds!
