Step 8 - Run Impactful Sales Meetings

Professional meetings build wins!

Sitting through and participating in a rep firm’s first annual sales meeting yielded many conclusions that can be very helpful to all agencies and their principals.

At the top level the value of the sales meeting cannot be overstated. The meeting forces the rep firm to look at what is going on and what is really important to communicate to all members of the sales team.

Professional Meetings Set Records

From the principal’s point of view when their reps are getting together to review the past year and plan the next, the principal is a prime beneficiary. The meeting gives the principal an opportunity to communicate with the rep firm.

Whenever possible the principal should promote the idea of having one or more people from the manufacturer’s team participate in the meeting.

If the rep firm says, “Yes, join us and provide input to our people about your company and your plans for the next year” — it is a win-win!

The Manufacturer’s Checklist

When a principal has an opportunity to participate in the meeting, he or she should try to do several things:

1. Provide an update on the company’s results for the past year.
2. Provide a review of the company’s activities, expansion plans, and capital expenditures.
3. Provide a review of the company’s approach to working with the reps and how the company is going to be doing things to make business better for the reps.
4. Provide a review of activity the company has planned for the next year to help the reps increase sales and commissions.

The primary concern is that the person or persons from the manufacturer who are speaking are good speakers and that they are very well-organized and worth listening to.

Awards and Rewards

In addition, the factory people should bring along any awards or rewards they have for individuals in the rep firm or for the rep company as a whole. A “Rep of the Year” award is a great tool for arousing enthusiasm from the reps in attendance.

Future Plans

The most important thing is for the manufacturer to layout their plans for the next year clearly and concisely. The manufacturer has an opportunity to get the reps involved in promotions and special activities early by using the rep’s sales meeting as a tool to get the calendar implanted with the rep.

The Calendar

The calendar also provides an opportunity for advance scheduling with the rep firm. When does the manufacturer plan training at their facilities? When does the manufacturer want to travel in the territory with the rep? Are there new product introductions that the reps should be ready for in the coming months? By thoroughly discussing the calendar for the new year the manufacturer gets their reps to be not only aware but set up for specific activity during the coming months. Being one of the first manufacturers to notify the reps of specific responsibilities puts the manufacturer in a good position to get full-on support and backing for its programs.

Meetings Build Spirit and Support

Just getting people together for a couple of days of meetings followed by drinks and dinner generates energy. The rep firm personnel are not together that often and they are often totally business focused. Getting the rep firm personnel together builds rapport and communications between field personnel and management and inside support personnel who do not know the salespeople well and often do not understand their jobs and responsibilities.

Internal Focus — Stressing Strength of the Rep Firm

The sales meeting is a major opportunity for the ownership/management to reinforce the strength of the rep firm and build the individual personnel as a part of the team.

By putting on a truly professional meeting, the ownership shows its strength and leadership. By making sure that every detail is covered, the ownership lets the team know how important they feel the individual employees are and how very important the team is to the future success of the rep firm.

Although the sales meeting only happens once a year in a big structured way, pulling it off in a totally professional big-company way is vital to the future success of the business.

The sales meeting is a great opportunity for the leaders to work on the business rather than work in the business.

The sales meeting provides a valuable opportunity for leadership to be demonstrated and for the leaders to show why they are successful and among the best in their business.

The Sales Meeting Provides a Huge Backselling Opportunity

The fact that the rep firm is spending time and serious money putting on a professional sales meeting is a major selling point to the firm’s manufacturers.

The after-meeting newsletter or follow-up mailing to all of the principals provides a great opportunity to showcase the meeting and the firm’s major effort to set up future success.

The follow-up materials provide a great opportunity to say thank you to those who participated and to invite other manufacturers to step up and provide materials and information on the coming year.

The goal of the sales meeting is to set up future success. It only happens when management/leadership does the job 100 percent.

Good luck and good selling.

Oops! Got a sales meeting coming up in two weeks, better get ready for it. Let’s see, what should we do? I’ll go over last month’s numbers, that’ll take a half hour. Then…I know! The credit manager has been complaining about the state of receivables lately. I’ll have him come in and complain directly to the sales guys. That’ll take about an hour. Now what…?

Does that scenario sound familiar? All too often that’s how we plan our sales meetings. The focus is on how to fill the time, what information we want to transmit, and who we want to present it. When the focus is on the agenda, it’s easy to wander off, to fill the time with needless details, and to end up with a boring and non-productive meeting. With a meeting like that it’s no wonder that most salespeople would rather be in the field, doing their jobs, than killing time at a sales meeting.

Here is a powerful strategy guaranteed to make sales meetings more meaningful for your salespeople, and more valuable for you.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a range of new prices on some of your current products. You are planning to spend an hour presenting them and answering questions. That sounds good. Who could object to that?

So, your sales meeting agenda looks like this:

1. Present new prices.

Let’s dig through it to come up with the end. Why are you presenting the new prices? You might say, “So the salespeople will know them and understand why we are changing prices.”

OK, why do you want that?

“So they will be able to convey them to the customers.”

Why do you want to do that?

“So the customer will accept the new prices without too much objection.”

What you really want, then, is the customer to accept the new prices without raising too much of ruckus about them?

“Yes.”

And you want salespeople to convey the prices in a way that accomplishes that?

“Yes.”

Making Commitments to Customers

Okay, so let’s start there. In order to get what you want, the salespeople will need to make some commitments with deadlines as to when they will present the new prices, and then they’ll need to be trained in the best way to present them.

The question now becomes: What can you do in the sales meeting that will ensure that your salespeople will convey the new prices to their customers in a way that will be acceptable to the customer?

At this point, if it were me, I’d start at the end — having the salespeople make specific commitments to deliver the prices to the appropriate customers. That’s the behavior you want. But, you’ll also need to equip them to do that — that’s the training piece. So, It’s about ending up with the salespeople filling out a document as to when they’ll convey those prices to the impacted customers.

In order to ensure that they knew how to do that well, I’d think about doing some role-plays so the salespeople could practice conveying the prices. The role-plays would also allow them to identify some common objections, and practice responding to them.

Before I could do the role-plays, I’d have to demonstrate to them some of the best practices for communicating the price increases. And before that, I’d have to describe the price increases, the rationale, and the best way to communicate them. Now, I have my agenda:

1. Describe the rationale for the price increases.
2. Describe the best way of communicating them.
3. Demonstrate the best way to communicate them.
4. Organize a role-play so everyone can practice.
5. Discuss what they learned in the role-play.
6. Repeat the role-play.
7. Have each salesperson create a list of which customers need to have the new prices.
8. Have each salesperson identify a date by which he or she will have communicated the new prices.
9. Ask each to report, by a certain date, on how well it went.

Look at the difference in the two agendas. The first is unfocused, and emphasizes the time and general subject matter. The second is precisely focused on an end result, incorporates interactive exercises, and is very practical.

The difference was where you started. Start at the end.

One important observation. If you are disciplined about this, you’ll soon discover that the end of every sales meeting is almost always expressed in some behavior that you want from the customer, and therefore some behavior that you want from the sales force. In other words, you want the salespeople to stop doing something, to start doing something (like in the example), or to do something better.

Every sales meeting, and every item on every sales meeting agenda, ought to be designed to bring about some specific change in the salesperson’s behavior.

Let’s test this with some common sales meeting agenda items. Let’s say you are going to present a new product. Why?

“So the salespeople will sell it.”

The change is in the behavior of the salespeople selling something they have never sold before. Start there and work backwards.

Or, you are going to have the president (VP, CFO, etc.) come in and present the new strategic plan for the company. Why?

“So the salespeople will know what our plans are.”

“Why?”

“So they will feel good about where the company is going.”

“Why is that important?”

“So, they will be more committed to the company.”

“What will they do differently if they are more committed?”

“I suppose they will be less likely to leave for another job.”

“So, what you really want is for the salespeople to not look for another job while they are working for you.”

“I guess.”

OK, start there and work backward. You can still have the president talk, but now he has a focus on his presentation, will be much less likely to digress, and will speak to the practical needs of the sales force.

Here, then, is the secret for making every sales meeting practical, meaningful and worthwhile: Start at the end, with a description of the change in behavior that you want in the sales force, and work backwards from there.

It will make all the difference.

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