7 Biggest Sales Meeting Blunders to Avoid – Part I

For the manager who meets with the team on a regular basis, understanding sales meeting pitfalls is essential if you want to create excitement, motivation and results for your sales force. Below you will find my top five sales meeting blunders to avoid if you’re in charge of delivering sales meetings for your organization:

1. Planning and attending your meeting without a map! Think about it, you wouldn’t head out on vacation without a road map, nor would you begin a long hike through the woods on an unknown trail unless you could visually see where you would end up at the conclusion of your walk, so why should your sales meetings be any different? Each sales meeting should be carefully thought out and planned with an outline (map) and your goals and objectives for the team gathering. Your map will help provide you direction for your meeting and allow you too quickly and easily make changes during the meeting if you should get off track. For example, if I wanted to talk about “Top Sales Blunders” with my team, I need to know how and where to begin the meeting, and where I wanted to end the meeting. By knowing these two principals (beginning and ending destinations) I can begin to formulate my meeting content and where and how we can get there.
   
2. Predictability! Probably the most often overlooked blunder that sales managers make regularly is that their meetings are so predictable. It’s almost like a church service where you can go down the order of events and everything must fall into its proper place to be considered perfect. Don’t get me wrong, structure and organization are needed in any program, church service and sales meeting, but doing things exactly the same way each and every time you meet can get old after awhile. Have fun with your meetings and strive to keep things different and fresh. Change the order in which you cover key points and allow others to participate or help. Don’t become predictable to your team, and always inject a new flavor or twist to keep your group wondering what’s new this week.
   
3. You’re a Hog! Well, not figuratively speaking, but when it comes to running the meeting you don’t let anyone else participate. I realize this is a double-edge sword, as there are those who if allowed to participate would ruin your meeting or take over the conversation, yet there are many good team players who have great ideas that need to participate and help with the meeting content. Believe it or not, I hear a lot of complaints from sales associates who want to participate but never allowed an opportunity from the manager or team leader. One key point to remember about adults and how they like to learn is that assisting in the problem solving process is critical. Adults love to participate and be a part of the learning process, and not allowing group participation can hinder the sales meeting and teaching environment. Encourage group participation and learn to deal with the “Chatty Cathy’s” so everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
   

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