Every time your reps walk out of a sales meeting, they should be feeling motivated and hungry to become top performers.
If your sales meetings aren’t accomplishing this goal, you need to do something about it—fast. While you’ll never get that previous week back, nailing your sales meeting agenda for the week ahead will help your salespeople to be their most productive selves.
Sales meetings aren’t just another meeting on your calendar. They’re real-time opportunities to get to know your sales team, teach the sales skills that can help shorten your sales cycle, understand their challenges, improve your overall sales strategy, keep them informed and focused on their goals, and motivate them to perform at their peak.
Want to build better sales meetings for your sales team? Let’s talk about how to properly prepare, set a successful sales meeting agenda, and run your meeting effectively, plus 6 bonus tips to level up your sales meetings and make them a team-building experience.
What is a Sales Meeting?
The purpose of sales meetings is to:
- Motivate your reps to perform their best
- Discuss current deals in the pipeline
In other words, don’t leave your team thinking, “That could’ve been an email.”
How to Prepare for a Successful Sales Meeting in 5 Steps
Preparation is the first step to making your sales meetings more valuable to your team. So, let’s dig into 5 steps you can take to prepare for your sales meetings.
Step 1: Make Sure a Sales Meeting is the Right Format for Discussion
When setting up a meeting for your whole sales team, you need to make sure this meeting is really necessary.
In today’s world of Zoom fatigue and mindless meetings, you don’t want to gather your team just for the sake of it. Each meeting should have a specific purpose and should be set up with a clear agenda to accomplish that purpose.
Think about these questions to decide if you really need to have a meeting:
- What’s the goal of this sales meeting?
- Can this goal be accomplished in an asynchronous format?
- How brief can I make this meeting?
- Who needs to be at this meeting?
- Should someone be taking meeting notes (or recording the call)?
- Is there a plan for scheduling the next sales meeting or is this a one-off?
As a sales manager, challenging yourself to ask these kinds of questions before you go ahead and throw another meeting on the calendar of your entire sales team, will help make for much more productive sales meetings (if you decide they’re worthy of having in the first place).
Step 2: Create a Standard Sales Meeting Agenda
Standardizing your sales meeting agenda allows everyone to know what they’re going to talk about going into the meeting.
Below, we’ll dive into what your sales meeting agenda could look like, but basically, there are three main sections that every sales meeting should include:
- Overall goal updates
- Individual goal updates
- Next steps
When each team member knows that these topics will be discussed at the meeting, they’ll come in more focused and ready to participate.
Best of all, creating a standard meeting agenda makes it easier for you as the sales leader to prepare and set up the call.
Step 3: Set a Clear Cadence (We Recommend Weekly Sales Meetings)
Smaller sales teams may meet daily for a quick sales huddle. Others feel a weekly sales meeting is more their style. Some large sales organizations split their teams into groups that meet together regularly.
However you choose to set your meeting cadence, the key factor is consistency.
If your team is coming into meetings with nothing to say or add, roll back your cadence. If it always feels like you’re constantly running out of time, try meeting more often. Keep testing until you find the right cadence for your team.
Step 4: Give Your Sales Team Ownership
While you as a sales leader are the main person in charge of this meeting, allowing your reps to have partial ownership will encourage participation and help them feel valuable in these meetings.
For example, you might assign a junior rep to talk about a deal for that week, or a senior rep to give an update on the sales pipeline. Or, you could ask each rep to mention one specific thing they learned about the market or about their customers during the week.
To facilitate group ownership of the sales meeting agenda, use a tool that allows your whole team to see and iterate on the current agenda. Even something as simple as a shared Google Doc can help the whole team take ownership of different parts of the sales meeting by including their thoughts, topics, and KPIs.
Step 5: Get the Sales Data You Need Before Your Meeting
Each team member has data or information you’ll need to provide a holistic update to the sales team. Make sure you have access to that information before the meeting starts. That way, you’ll avoid wasting time asking about specific KPIs and waiting for the person to find them.
7 Sales Meeting Topics You Should Include in Your Meeting or Presentation (for Sales Managers)
You wouldn’t start a one-on-one meeting with a direct report without reviewing their recent performance, would you? Well, the same applies to your broader team meetings. Never walk into a sales team meeting without a clear idea of what you’re going to talk about. Here are some topics that you might include in your weekly sales meeting.
1. Wins of the Week
Depending on the size of your sales team and the time you have, each sales rep (or one previously selected rep) can talk about their best wins of the week. And don’t limit it to the big wins! Small wins, like getting a C-level exec on the phone, pinning down a lead that wasn’t responsive, or moving a difficult deal to the next stage are all worthy wins for your team to share.
Why it matters: Sharing wins is a great way for your team to get motivated, and maybe stir up some friendly competition.
2. Current Sales Pipeline
While you may choose to have separate sales pipeline review meetings, your sales meetings with the whole team can include information about your current pipeline. Are there enough leads to keep filling your reps’ time? Are prospects getting bottlenecked at some point in the funnel? Are there any important deals that need an extra push to move forward?
Why it matters: Spending a few minutes talking about the pipeline as a whole gives your team context on what each other is working on, and allows them to brainstorm new ways to overcome hurdles and close more deals.
3. Upcoming Projects from Other Teams
The projects and achievements of other teams have a direct impact on your sales team. So, keep them looped in on what’s happening.
For example, is there a new marketing initiative that will bring in a high number of new leads from a specific source? Is the engineering team about to release a commonly asked-for feature in your product? How can the sales team support these efforts in their conversations with customers?
Why it matters: For a sales team to run smoothly and in alignment with the rest of the company, it’s important for them to have a clear understanding of what other teams are working on, and how that relates to sales.
4. Team Goals and Milestones
You may set the sales goals, but your team are the ones who have to execute on them. That’s why an effective sales meeting should touch on the current goals of the team, and their progress in hitting the milestones on the way to those goals.
Why it matters: Regularly reminding your team of the main objective they’re working towards and how their individual efforts contribute to a higher goal will help them stay focused and motivated.
5. Sales Training
As a sales leader, you must ensure your team is properly equipped to close deals and accomplish their goals. So, introduce training into your sales meetings. When discussing a difficult deal, open the floor to see how different reps might decide to handle the situation. Use roleplaying to get the whole team practicing their scripts and talk tracks. Watch sales training videos together and discuss them.
Why it matters: Consistent training, even in short snippets of time, has a much greater impact on your team than sporadic training, even if it’s in longer blocks of time. Spend time regularly training your team on your CRM, with mock calling sessions, outreach critiques, bring in an occasional guest speaker, and you’ll see gradual—yet consistent—results.
6. New Sales Tactics or Processes
Introducing a new sales pitch for your team? Adding something new to the product demo process? Want your reps to try a new form of sales, such as social media?
Dive into these new tactics and processes during your sales team. Let everyone speak up about what they think or how they plan to use the new tactics. Get feedback from your team and improve.
Why it matters: Including your team in these kinds of changes and letting them develop their skills together helps adoption of new tactics or changes in the sales process.
7. Customer Insights
Your reps talk to customers every day. So, what are they learning? What patterns are they seeing? Is there anything that you can share with other departments that may help improve their work? Maybe you’ll be surprised to hear that some of your sales reps are having success with LinkedIn to make their initial outreach touchpoints. Or perhaps you’ll hear consistent feedback that your pricing is confusing qualified leads during the final stages of your sales process.
Why it matters: Discussing conversations with customers and general sentiment can help the whole team have greater customer intimacy.
How to Run an Effective Sales Meeting (5 Easy Steps)
You’re about to walk into your sales meeting—let’s make it a great one. Oh, and did we mention how important it is to respect the meeting time? Always do your best to show up prepared and on time, regardless of how many salespeople will be attending your meeting.
Here are 5 tips to help you learn how to conduct an effective sales meeting.
1. Give an Update on the Sales Team’s Main Objective
Your team has a goal in front of them—whether that’s their quota, a revenue goal for the company, an activity-based goal, or something else. You’ve set these sales goals, but it’s your job to keep the whole team informed on their progress toward these goals.
So, at the beginning of your sales meeting, provide an update on the team’s progress toward their main objective. Help them see where they start, where the numbers are heading, and what that translates into for the next few days or weeks of work.
2. Share What Each Sales Team Member Has Accomplished
Now that the team is on the same page as to the main goals, it’s time to talk about individual achievements. What has everyone been working on this week? Which deals were they focused on? How did they work to complete the tasks assigned to them in the last meeting?
Don’t forget yourself in this update as well. It’s important for the team to have transparency on what you’re doing alongside the rest of your sales team as you all strive to reach the same goals. Consider sharing forecasting updates or the total number of closed deals across your team for the week so far. You could even create some time to role-play any challenges your sales reps are coming up against.
3. Encourage Participation from Your Sales Team
One important aspect of an effective sales meeting is to make sure you’re not the only one talking. Get your team to express their thoughts, ask questions, and speak up.
If your reps have already included points and ideas in the meeting agenda, invite them to share what they were thinking with the team. Before you move on to the next point, ask if anyone has any additional questions or thoughts. Always encourage your team to speak up, so they view meetings as a safe space to express their thoughts.
4. Set Clear Action Items for All Salespeople & Managers
If your team leaves the meeting without a clear idea of what they’re supposed to do next, then it wasn’t an effective meeting.
As you talk about goals and upcoming events in the pipeline, make sure each person on the team understands what their role is moving forward, and how their individual work contributes to the main goals of the team.
5. Make Sure You End Sales Meetings on Time
There is no excuse for a sales meeting to go overtime. If you feel your team is getting too in the weeds on a certain topic, schedule a separate time to discuss that particular issue. Always, always stick to the time you have scheduled for your meeting.
Sales Meeting Agenda (Free Template): What to Include in Every Sales Meeting
While each team’s sales meeting agenda will probably look a bit different, here’s a successful sales meeting agenda template you can swipe and use for running your own team meetings today:
Team Check-in (and Follow Ups)
Remember: your sales reps are people, and what’s happening in their lives will affect how they work. So check in with them to see how they’re doing, both personally and professionally.
Why it Matters: Especially for remote sales teams, this check-in can help foster a sense of community in your team.
Objective Update
What is the team’s main objective, and where are you in that process?
Why it Matters: This item gives everyone transparency and clarity when it comes to their primary sales goals, metrics, and KPIs.
Individual Salespeople Achievement Updates
Let each individual team member talk about the things they’ve accomplished during the week—whether that be growth in new sales, takeaways they’ve learned from a recent sales call, other milestones the team has achieved, or something else entirely. What’s crucial here, is that you allow your individual contributors to show how they’ve contributed to the main KPIs & metrics your sales team is tracking against.
Why it Matters: Gives your sales reps a space for their work to be recognized and helps motivate them.
Decide What’s Next for Your Sales Team Members
Set clear expectations and next steps for each team member.
Why it Matters: Each team member should walk away from the meeting with a clear understanding of what’s expected of them and the tasks they need to complete during the coming days.
While you may adjust and adapt this sales meeting agenda, these basic items form the foundation for a successful sales meeting.
Bonus: 6 Sales Meeting Ideas to Make Your Sessions Truly Valuable
Want to take your sessions to the next level? Here are more sales meeting ideas to take your events from Fyre Festival 👎 to Coachella 👍.
1. Invite Members of Other Teams
Your sales team is both dependent on and supporting the other teams in your company, including marketing, support, success, and others.
While it’s the responsibility of sales leadership to make sure these teams are aligned, you can also give the whole team transparency and insights by inviting members of these other teams to join you in your sales meetings.
Have them talk about how both teams are contributing to company goals or how the work of your sales team is benefiting other teams in the company.
2. Watch Training Videos
There are plenty of fantastic videos out there to help you train and coach your team. As a fun activity to break up the monotony of meetings, why not watch a sales video together and discuss it?
You could start with the Close Call Show, brought to you by Close:
3. Invite a Customer to Join Your Meeting
Sales reps are often dealing with prospects and potential customers, but very rarely do they have the chance to see what a successful customer looks like in real life. Have a good customer come in and talk about how they use your product, how it’s benefiting them, and which features they like best. This will help your reps see the end result of all their work, and how it affects people and their work.
4. Discuss Goal-Setting for Sales Careers
Where does your team want to progress? Where do they see themselves in their careers in five years? To help all of your reps benefit from each other’s experience, start a discussion about their sales career goals and how to achieve them.
5. Brainstorm on Challenges
While it’s important to celebrate your team’s wins, you also want them to be open and frank about the challenges they’re facing. As team members open up, they can share their knowledge and allow for peer-to-peer training in a more natural setting.
6. Analyze Your Competition
Your competition is always looking for an edge to take more of the market. So, talk to your sales team about the competition. Which competitors are they hearing about on sales calls? What’s the overall impression that prospects have about the competition? What sales tactics are they using successfully?
Analyzing the competition together can result in some great ideas as you all look for ways to outdo your main competitors.
Accomplish the Purpose of Successful Sales Meetings: Empower Your Sales Team to Close More Deals
With the tips above, you’ve learned how to prepare yourself and your team for a successful meeting, set a clear sales meeting agenda, and bring even more value to your sales representatives every time.
Want to grow your sales management skills to the next level? Download our Sales Management Toolkit, complete with onboarding schedules, scripts, templates, call review checklists, and more!
