Sales meetings often have a bad reputation for being tedious and time-consuming — but they don’t have to be. According to three local Colorado sales leaders, daily or weekly sessions are key for productive and engaging meetings for the whole team.
At information technology company Matillion, Sales Director Nick Tierney found that holding a regular cadence of shorter meetings — three a week — leads to more productive sessions.
Security software company Envysion also holds multiple weekly meetings to encourage productivity. Vice President of Sales Dawn Lampert said that she holds two meetings a week, one for business and industry updates and one for representatives to share deal updates.
At HomeAdvisor, a digital marketplace that connects homeowners and industry professionals, ensuring productivity means holding daily meetings. Sales Director Laura Nord said these daily morning meetings help promote a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among team members.
Built In Colorado caught up with Nord, Tierney and Lampert to learn more about how they keep sales meetings productive, engaging and worthwhile for the whole team.
In order to promote a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among sales managers, HomeAdvisor Sales Director Laura Nord holds daily meetings. During the meetings, sales managers and representatives are encouraged to share best practices and communicate company initiatives or policy changes.
How often do you hold sales meetings with your team and what are the key objectives of those meetings?
I hold sales meetings with my team every morning at 8:00 a.m. The key objectives of these meetings are to promote a sense of teamwork and camraderie among my managers. They are also used to share best practices and to communicate company initiatives and/or any policy changes. I make sure to celebrate at least one accomplishment of the team or of an individual member during every meeting.
The key objectives of these meetings are to promote a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among my managers.”
What actions do you take before or during those meetings to ensure they’re productive, useful and engaging?
I take notes before each meeting on topics to discuss and record any specific statistics that I will be sharing with the group. To ensure my meetings are productive and engaging, I require every participant to have their video enabled and distractions minimized since we are currently fully remote due to the pandemic. I ask that everyone pay attention to the screen and that their Zoom app be fully maximized so no one is tempted to check email throughout.
What role do your salespeople play in shaping the conversations and/or decisions that take place in those meetings?
When I propose a question to the group I always expect contributions from at least three to four people before moving on. I am really consistent with this so my team knows that it is an expectation and they are usually quick to volunteer their thoughts or feedback. I am intentional about leaving the last 10 minutes of the meeting open for discussion or for questions that the team may have.
At Matillion, the goal of each sales meeting is for representatives to align on changing priorities, learn any new market changes or product announcements, and hear from the field on what’s working and what can be improved, Sales Director Nick Tierney said.
How often do you hold sales meetings with your team and what are the key objectives of those meetings?
Transitioning to a remote working culture has given us the opportunity to have a lot more regular sales meetings. As a team, we do three informal sessions a week, as well as more formal monthly review meetings.
In any of these meetings, the goal is always the same: to align on changing priorities of the business and what we need to be focused on as a team, educate the team on new market changes or product announcements, and to hear from the field on what is going well and what can be improved.
I have found that keeping a more regular cadence of shorter meetings leads to more productive sessions.”
What actions do you take before or during those meetings to ensure they're productive, useful and engaging?
I try to make sure we are not trying to accomplish too much in any individual meeting — any meeting that goes too long runs the risk of losing engagement. I have found that keeping a more regular cadence of shorter meetings leads to more productive sessions.
We also try to keep the content relevant for the whole group. An in-depth pipeline review of an individual rep’s business has its place, but shouldn’t be the focus of a regular team cadence. Highlighting wins, sharing knowledge and new ideas are what resonate with the entire team.
What role do your salespeople play in shaping the conversations and/or decisions that take place in those meetings?
It’s important in formal sales meetings that every rep has a voice. We have incorporated a section in our monthly pipeline reviews and quarterly business reviews where reps can present their top priorities to management and potential solutions to those challenges. This balances the request from management for comprehensive pipeline and deal reviews, with an expectation that management is going to take the feedback from the field seriously.
At Envysion, sales meetings are held twice a week. According to Dawn Lampert, vice president of sales, the purpose of the first meeting is to update the team on key topics. The purpose of the second meeting — dubbed the “revenue call” — is for account executives to share status updates on their weekly activities.
How often do you hold sales meetings with your team and what are the key objectives of those meetings?
We hold two sales meetings a week. The objective of the first is to update the sales team on key topics — business and product updates, organizational changes, system developments, etc. We also often use the time to include guest speakers who educate on various industry-related topics. Our team’s goal is to be trusted advisors to our prospects and customers, thus we need to stay “in the know.” Education is key.
We also host a weekly revenue call. The goal of that session is to have each account executive share their activity for the week, as well as their progress on deals (focusing on both the month and quarter), what have they closed, what are they committing to deliver in the month and what opportunities can they pull down into a win for the month and quarter. This is the broad forum to state what internal help is needed to convert opportunities to wins. In addition to the sales team, participants of the revenue call include our executives, customer success, project management, marketing and finance teams.
What actions do you take before or during those meetings to ensure they're productive, useful and engaging?
As my boss, our Chief Revenue Officer Scott Tubbs, always says, “The key to any good meeting is to over prepare!”
Our sales team meeting includes at least a dozen people and for the revenue call, nearly 40. That is a huge investment in time, and we need to make the most of it! In our post-COVID world, we meet via video and ask that participants share their video to ensure engagement and active participation.
Our team’s goal is to be trusted advisors to our prospects and customers, thus we need to stay ‘in the know.’”
What role do your salespeople play in shaping the conversations and/or decisions that take place in those meetings?
My team members understand the goals of our weekly meetings. In doing so, they often contribute content, questions and ideas that they want to learn about or expand on. If it’s helpful to one of our team members, it’s likely helpful to others, thus, we all benefit!
