Sales Meetings that Work

Sales meetings differ from training sessions. To be effective you must understand what their purpose is. Simply put, it is to start the day, tell your people about a new promotion, new product, contests or refocus their attention.

Set the Ground Rules
This is not the time to single out poor performance. If you need to discuss these issues with your people do it one on one and in private. This meeting should be positive and enthusiastic. YOU set the mood for the entire day by the energy you create.

What is Your Meeting About?
Let's assume you want to let everyone know that you will be having a "RED TAG" promotion. You can do it the wrong way by assembling the troops and announcing the date. You can even make the mistake easier, just send out a memo or office e-mail and tell everyone.

Or you can do it the effective way.

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH, INVOLVE THE PEOPLE YOU NEED TO INVOLVE AND PREPARE.

We will use your red tag event to illustrate.

You’ve made the decision to have a sale. Congratulations.

Have you bothered to see if you have enough red tags?
Have you scheduled when to place the tags on the merchandise?
How about when to take them off?. If your promotion does not have an ending date how can you create urgency?
If you have an event that requires information you do not normally use does your staff understand the information or where to find it?
Is everyone aware you are having the event? The office staff, the credit department, shipping and receiving. If you get everyone involved you can insure better results.
Do you need help in controlling the traffic, registering them, etc? (You do expect to bring in lots of customers.)
Get your salespeople excited. Treat it like an ordinary event and you will get ordinary results.

Whew, finally done!

NOT QUITE...
ARE YOU READY FOR THE RESULTS?


Is your inventory ready?
Are you ready?
Are your support people ready?
Do you have a way to measure the effectiveness of your ad?
Is the phone operator or receptionist prepared?
Is your sales staff prepared?


Is there anything that would be a hindrance to the success of your sale?

It may seem like a lot to do for one meeting. Here is the point...


Use this format. It gets everyone on the same page, leaves no room for doubt and it gets results!