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:

1. There is no process or structure set out for them to follow.
2. They have not had an experience that has allowed them to learn from a role model.
3. 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.

Contact me if you want to talk more about The 5 Principles of Sales Excellence & about how I can help your company “sell more“.