Run an Effective Sales Team Meeting (+Agenda Template)

What is a Sales Team Meeting?

Did you know that salespeople spend 12% of their average day attending sales meetings? That comes to around 19 hours a month. These meetings are essential to the sales operations and contribute to the team's success.

A sales meeting is an internal check-in of sales leaders and representatives to track goals, current sales performance, and the team’s next priorities. Moreover, it allows the reps to address each other's challenges and come up with possible solutions. 

Whether it is a weekly sales meeting, a monthly kick-off, or a quarterly sales gathering, your sales discussions will be more productive if you have a meeting agenda. According to a study, 67% of people believe that having a clear meeting agenda makes a meeting effective. Having a well-defined agenda helps the representatives prepare well and ensures that critical issues are covered.

Read on to learn more about how to prepare the sales team meeting agenda that yields productive insights and keeps your team motivated.

7 Items to Include in a Sales Meeting Agenda

A well-crafted sales meeting agenda gives everyone the time to prepare and keeps them focused on the topics rather than drifting into side discussions. Here are a few important topics that you can cover in your next sales team meeting.

Brief the team [5 minutes]

When you are all together in a sales meeting, it is good to start by updating the team on recent developments. 

So, provide information regarding any changes in the pricing of the products and services, sales forecasting updates, transition in leadership, or any other crucial information that can influence the way you sell.

Team updates and obstacles [15 minutes]

Give every sale rep a chance to share what they are working on currently. It is important to get the following updates regarding the sales pipeline:

• New leads or prospects

• Demo

• Proposal

• The number of deals closed recently

• Follow-ups with cold leads

Team members should also take this time to discuss their hurdles. For instance, your reps may find it challenging to build trust with clients in a virtual environment or are struggling with productivity and lack of motivation. Whatever the challenge may be, as a manager, you should be aware of it so that you can work with the team members to find innovative solutions.

Key wins [5 minutes]

Celebrating the small and big wins go a long way in making your employees feel valued and recognized. Research indicates that 66% of people are likely to quit their jobs if they are not appreciated. If the team member has closed a significant deal, or if the team is all set to hit their targets early this quarter, it is time to acknowledge and celebrate their victory.

The feeling of winning a significant deal is unparalleled. Creating a culture of celebration in the meetings also helps meet people’s need for inclusion and appreciation.

Prospect feedback 

No one can provide you with direct information about your products and services more than your customers. So, share their feedback in the meeting, whether good or bad, as it is an excellent way to gauge the efficacy of your sales process. It gives you an exact reason why someone chose or rejected your product or service.

Successful organizations have a feedback loop where they utilize the insights from customers to understand how things can be improved.

"Your sales teams have first-hand access to how your brand, business and product are received by the marketplace. As a leader, it's your job to figure out the best way to harvest and share that information."

-- Kevin Snow, Entrepreneur

Success story sharing

Success stories are an essential tool for keeping your sales team motivated and making improvements. With rapid changes in the global scenario, these stories with happy endings are much required to keep the team’s momentum going.

Encourage the top performers in turn to share their personal success stories and winning strategies to foster a great learning environment. It also provides insights into how the given solution was used and how it worked for the customer’s business. Moreover, sharing fosters a culture of collaboration and openness that trickles down to the other team members, who also start winning!

Competitor updates

Sales is a highly competitive field, and to stay ahead of the game; you constantly need to know the latest market trends and what the competitors are doing. As a leader, it is your job to inform the team if there are any updates regarding your competitor’s product features, pricing, market share, marketing efforts, and any other differentiators.

You should have a competitive research matrix, a spreadsheet that helps track your competitors and their offerings.

All these can help you improve sales strategies and come up with campaigns in response to the competitor’s initiatives. 

Next steps

The team needs clarity regarding the next steps before they leave the meeting. So, reiterate the action items and the person responsible for following up on each task. 

Every team member needs to pursue their respective customers and prospects. For instance, the action item for a rep could be to get their client to the proposal stage or to book a demo. Making a team member accountable for these tasks will ensure they are accomplished on time. 

Pro tip: Airgram does not only enable meeting agenda creation, but you can also use it to add action items and track them across meetings.

Also, inform the team regarding any updates they are expected to provide in the next meeting. 

How to Prepare and Run a Successful Sales Meeting?

If you are looking forward to taking your sales meeting to the next level, here are some practical tips to take the first step.

Set a clear agenda and goal

Having an agenda for the meeting keeps the conversations on track and saves time. 

Create a meeting agenda that outlines the topics clearly -  you can save time and effort by using the sales team meeting agenda template by the Airgram team and tailoring it to your needs.

It is also important to mention whether the meeting will be virtual or in-person and allot an estimated time for each topic. All these details help the attendees prepare for the meeting.

After drafting up the agenda, you should share it with team members in advance so they can modify it if required to address their queries and questions. Also, sometimes there may be some gaps in the agenda, and providing access to it before the meeting helps people identify them and make suggestions accordingly. 

Decide on the right cadence

A meeting cadence implies a rhythmic sequence for communication between the sales leader and the team. Regularly engaging with your team helps keep a tab on everyone’s progress, discuss pressing issues, brainstorm effective solutions, and communicate the expectations from team members. 

A consistent weekly meeting schedule is preferred for several reasons:

• The market often changes rapidly, and so many teams WFH due to the pandemic, so gathering regularly is all the more important to stay motivated and keep the momentum going. 

• The attendees can be more productive by prioritizing the tasks for the week ahead. Therefore, Monday mornings are the best time for your weekly sales meeting. 

It is good to reserve 45 minutes to an hour for a sales team meeting.

Gather the necessary data in advance

Searching for essential files and data during the meeting will consume everyone’s time. So, if the topics in your agenda require a presentation, you should gather the data in advance. 

It is a good practice to share the standard presentation deck with the attendees and ask them to add information at least a day before the meeting so that everything is ready.

Keep the team motivated

Salespeople have to deal with a lot of negativity on a day-to-day basis. They have to face hostile prospects and make hundreds of calls before anyone is interested in the product or service. So, one of the most important reasons to hold a sales meeting is to keep the reps motivated. 

A rep will rarely come up to you and mention that they lack motivation and do not feel like meeting the targets. It is crucial to gauge the team's morale and accordingly give them a pep talk and keep these interactions fun.

“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.”

                                                             - Norman Ralph Augustine

Share any incentive programs

The weekly sales meeting is an excellent place to inform the team about any upcoming incentive programs that help foster collaboration among team members. You can employ cash bonuses or set up a commission structure to keep the team members engaged. However, you need to mention the rules and discourage unhealthy competition

Reserve time for learning

The top sales performers are excellent communicators and have personalization, engagement, and technology expertise. However, to excel in sales, it is also important to stay updated on the features of the products and services and constantly improve selling skills. Set aside time for a hands-on activity so everyone can have a fun learning experience. 

Moreover, not everyone has the time to go through all the materials provided by the marketing team. So, every week a person can be assigned to share takeaways from a webinar, an e-book, or a blog post that they came across recently.