Sales meetings should help your team close more deals. It's not a place to discuss what your team already knows, share status updates, or cover administrative issues.
What should a sales meeting be about?
It should enable your reps to receive feedback, explore new ideas to try, acquire product knowledge, understand how to accelerate deals in the pipeline and feel energized and confident to meet their quota.
It's more straightforward than it sounds. All you need is a meeting agenda that addresses your team's primary concerns and goals. As Jeffrey Gitomer, a renowned sales leader, puts it, to have a great sales meeting, set an agenda that works.
Need help? You've come to the right place. We'll help you understand how to design a meeting agenda for your sales meetings, explore some examples, and introduce tools to make your job easier.
Alright, let's get started.
While every sales team is different, there are some topics that you can include to improve your agenda.
Introduce a "Celebrate Wins" session to start your meeting with energy and enthusiasm. Recognize achievements such as closed deals or surpassing monthly sales targets, as this boosts team morale and sets the tone for an engaging session.
Encourage the reps to share why they believe they were able to surpass targets and close larger deals compared to others.
"Let's all give a big shout-out to Sarah for nailing her sales target this month and closing a 6-figure deal! Sarah, could you take a minute to share what helped you succeed and give some tips for others to do the same?"
Discuss and share essential sales metrics and performance updates. Ideally, present them on a customizable dashboard (we'll cover this later). Data empowers the team with valuable insights to improve their sales strategies.
Here are some example metrics to share.
Before moving on to new ideas, take a moment to review the outcomes of previous initiatives. Explore successful tactics and those that didn't quite meet the mark. Learning from achievements and setbacks nurtures a culture of growth and ongoing improvement.
"In our last meeting, we introduced a new follow-up email strategy, which led to a 20% increase in customer responses. But our LinkedIn outreach needs some work, so let's think together and develop better ideas to make it work."
Encourage open discussions about the challenges the team is facing. Work together through role-playing exercises to come up with effective solutions. Overcoming challenges as a team strengthens unity and equips everyone with the skills to handle similar situations in the future.
"Many of you mentioned encountering objections related to price. Let's collaborate and develop responses that showcase value to our customers."
Help your team succeed in the long run by investing in their professional growth. Take a moment to share and talk about a recent industry report, competitive analysis, or an example of an outstanding email. This practical approach empowers your team with the tools they need to thrive in their roles.
"Vendr recently published a buyer insight report with interesting data on product categories buyers are interested in, average ACV, and more. Let's spend 5 minutes discussing my key takeaways and what we can learn from it."
It's important to dedicate 10-15 minutes of your meetings to showcase recent product updates and understand how they solve customers' pain points. Consider bringing in a product marketer or project manager to lead this session. Additionally, remember to share updated enablement assets that can help your team close deals faster.
"Our product team has released a new app in the HubSpot App Marketplace. Let's take 10 minutes to understand its benefits for our customers, the language we should use to describe them, and how we can upsell using this integration."
Before wrapping up the meeting; it's important to align on the next steps to ensure everyone knows what they need to do. Alignment ensures that all team members are on the same page and can work towards the same goals. Some key questions to consider when aligning on the next steps include:
This discussion helps avoid confusion and ensures everyone works towards the same goals.
"So, our next steps are to update our sales collateral with the new app information and schedule a follow-up call with our top prospects next week. Sally will update the sales collateral, and John will schedule the follow-up calls. Let's aim to complete these tasks by Friday and we'll report back on progress in our next meeting."
As the meeting ends, it's important to end on a positive and motivating note. A positive remark help boost team morale and create a sense of excitement and momentum around the work ahead of them.
Some ways to end on a high note include:
"Before we wrap up, I want to take a moment to recognize all of the hard work over the past month. We've seen great progress, and I'm proud of what we've accomplished as a team. Keep up the good work and aim even higher for next month's meeting."
Platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, or Pipedrive offer in-depth analytics on key sales metrics, allowing you to track individual and team performance over time.
Example: "Let's use Salesforce to review our sales pipeline and identify which stage needs more focus to ensure we meet our quarterly targets."
Elevate your sales presentations with interactive software like Prezi, Pitch, or Google Slides. These tools allow you to create engaging and dynamic presentations that keep your team attentive and interested throughout the meeting.
Example: "Let's use Prezi to showcase our new product's features and benefits, including customer testimonials and interactive product demos."
Motivate and engage your team with sales gamification platforms like Ambition or Hoopla. These tools introduce gamified elements, such as leaderboards, badges, and rewards, to encourage healthy competition and drive performance.
Example: "Starting this month, we'll have a leaderboard competition, and the top three performers will receive special incentives to keep the excitement high!"
Consider using AI sales meeting automation platforms like Grain.
Grain automatically records, transcribes, and organizes sales calls in a video library. It’s easier than ever to access and review calls. You can use the “People” filter to review calls related to specific opportunities, customers, or reps.
Understand your reps' talk-listen ratio, stitch together the best examples and insights into a playlist, and navigate through sales calls easily using speaker timelines.
Example: "Let's analyze the sales calls from the lost deal to identify areas for improvement and determine the necessary product improvement to close deals with enterprise companies successfully."
Date: [Insert Date] | Time: [Insert Time]
Celebrating Wins (5 minutes)
Reviewing Sales Metrics (10 minutes)
Sales Strategy Updates (10 minutes)
Address Roadblocks (15 mins)
Customer Insights (5 minutes)
Upcoming Goals and Action Items (10 minutes)
Closing Thoughts and Motivation (5 minutes)
Date: [Insert Date] | Time: [Insert Time]
Performance Highlights (10 minutes)
Sales Metrics Overview (15 minutes)
Deal Progress Review (20 minutes)
Customer Feedback Analysis (15 minutes)
Goal Setting and Action Plan (20 minutes)
Sales Team Feedback (10 minutes)
Date: [Insert Date] | Time: [Insert Time]
Quarterly Performance Recap (15 minutes)
Competitor Analysis (20 minutes)
Sales Goal Progress (15 minutes)
New Product/Service Launch (30 minutes)
Sales Process Improvement (20 minutes)
Customer Success Stories (15 minutes)
Sales Team Feedback and Input (10 minutes)
Quarterly Sales Plan (15 minutes)
Meeting Date: [Date] Meeting Time: [Time]
Build Rapport (5 minutes)
Achievements and Success Stories (5 minutes)
Performance Review and Feedback (10 minutes)
Addressing Challenges and Obstacles (10 minutes)
Personal and Professional Development (5 minutes)
Goal Setting and Action Planning (5 minutes)
Sales Strategy Alignment (5 minutes)
Recognition and Appreciation (5 minutes)
Action Items and Follow-Up (5 minutes)
Closing and Motivation (5 minutes)
As a sales manager, you're in the driver's seat for making your sales meetings impactful and successful. Here are some practical tips to help you run productive sales meetings that keep your team engaged and motivated.
Be Prepared and On Time: Start your sales meetings on time, and come prepared with a clear agenda and all the necessary materials.
Stay Focused and Stay on Track: Stick to the agenda to avoid going off-topic and losing valuable time. During your sales meeting, prioritize key sales-related topics, such as potential leads, recent customer feedback, and upcoming deals.
Get Everyone Involved: Create a collaborative environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts. Encourage your team to provide input and suggestions, like brainstorming ideas for a new sales campaign.
Sharpen Skills Together: Allocate time during sales meetings for skill-building activities. Conduct role-playing exercises where team members take turns playing the customer and the sales representative to hone their sales pitches and objection-handling skills.
Constructive Feedback is Key: Provide constructive feedback to your team, both individually and as a group. Use specific examples to praise colleagues for excellent approaches or offer guidance on improving specific aspects.
Set Clear Goals and Action Plans: End each meeting with clear action items and goals. Define specific steps to achieve targets, such as increasing prospecting efforts or enhancing customer retention strategies.
Foster a Culture of Improvement: Create a culture of continuous improvement within your team. Encourage open discussions on sales techniques and share success stories from team members, highlighting their achievements.
Be Respectful of Time: Keep your sales meetings concise and impactful. While camaraderie is important, be mindful of everyone's time. Guide discussions back to the agenda if they veer off-topic.
Seek Input and Encourage Growth: Regularly seek feedback from your team about the meeting format, content, and overall effectiveness. Act on their suggestions to improve future meetings. Additionally, support individual growth by identifying areas where team members can benefit from additional training or coaching.
To sum up, having a successful sales meeting agenda is crucial to help your team reach its goals. To achieve this, take the time to plan the agenda carefully, use appropriate tools, and seek feedback to make improvements.
We’ll end with a simple idea from Mike Weinberg: “I have one very simple litmus test for sales team meetings. Do your people leave the meeting more aligned, more energized to sell, and better equipped to do their jobs? If the answer is no, then it’s time to make significant adjustments. I’d go as far as saying that until you get that figured out, I would suggest you stop meeting.”
Ask yourself this question: "Will the sales meeting help my team improve and close more deals?" Keep refining your agenda until you can confidently answer "YES!".