Conducting Weekly Sales Meetings is a skill.
It’s a skill that is often incorrectly assumed to be second nature to any Sales Manager.
But like most assumptions it’s someway of the mark.
In Sales Excellence Principle 3 – Sales Leadership I take you through a set of behaviours, processes and learning modules to get your Weekly Sales Meetings firing on all cylinders.
I see gaps in this core discipline for three main reasons:
- There is no process or structure set out for them to follow.
- They have not had an experience that has allowed them to learn from a role model.
- They are put in the role and told to get the sales team to “sell more”.
There are 3 🔑’s that if followed the effectiveness of Weekly Sales Performance Meetings increase:
🔑 #1 – Focus on future activity as there is little point raking up the past. Take the learning for sure, but, 70% of the meeting should look forward & focus on setting the next week up for success.
🔑 #2 – Make them snappy and 30 mins duration per meeting is plenty. You have to create the boundaries for these meetings to ensure they are focused performance reviews & not chat shops.
🔑 #3 – Your job is to listen and ask probing questions as required to move the conversation & opportunity forward. This is a meeting for your sales professional to own so ask them to take notes & record action points.
But it cant stop there as the expectation of holding Weekly Sales Meetings is to create more sales.
So as an extra….
The 5 👣 that Sales Manager should take to create more sales by holding effective Weekly Sales Performance Meetings:
👣 Culture – Effective weekly sales performance meetings are one of the most critical activities required to sustain a sales culture. Specifically as they create, support and sustain growth.
👣 Support – reviewing pre call plans for the next week & post call reports from the prior week are ways to help you evaluate how effective your sales professionals are in executing the strategies & expectations you have set.
👣 Numbers – know your numbers as they give confidence & build trust. Use numbers to give a kick when it’s needed & use the numbers to reward and recognise successes. Sales Performance Meetings must be about the numbers & not the maybes, should’ve or could’ve.
👣 Motivation – for sales professionals peer pressure and competition are a very powerful form motivation. Leverage this motivation in Weekly Sales Performance Meetings. Why not use League Tables to keep this visible?
👣 Consistency – hold your sales performance meetings at the same time, on the same day of the week, every week & with an agenda that is the same every time. This will ensure your integrate this step into your sales DNA & sales process.
Follow all this advice and your sales outcomes will improve and your effectiveness in holding Weekly Sales Meetings will improve.
The 5 Principles of Sales Excellence are:
Business Strategy – Leadership has a genuine commitment to develop Sales Excellence.
Growth Management – Meaningful targets are set and the performance of the business is made visible.
Sales Leadership – Managers spend their time on business performance and people development.
Sales Execution – Sales standards are clear & consistency in Sales Execution is achieved.
Pipeline Management – Sales pipeline and lead management practices are in place and are effective.