Empowering your sales force

If you take a look at the various sales teams within an organisation you will find that there are teams that are not performing at all, and then there are those teams that are just flying. The difference between a sales team who flies and a sales team that falls is usually a result of the sales managers ability to lead, develop and inspire his or her people. The sales meeting is the heart of the driving force of your sales team. The most important thing about a sales meeting is that everyone walks out of that meeting, feeling that something valuable has come out if it. The following few tips will give you a good idea of what you can to make your sales meetings more exciting and productive:

1. Everyone gets a chance

I have read about it in many books, and I have seen it work in practice. Not only in my business, but also in my personal relationships with my friends and my marriage.
Treat someone as if they already reached their full potential, and you will help them become the best they can be. Appoint a different sales person to take charge of the sales meetings. As the sales manager you can cover a few topics and announcements, and then hand the meeting over to the appointed sales person responsible for leading the meeting.

2. A change is as good as a holiday

Some people might not realise it, but part of their frustration and depression at work can be ascribed to the monotonous, automated routines. Some people take a different route to work every once in a while just to break the "auto pilot syndrome".
The same principal applies for sales meetings, especially brain-storming meetings.
By changing the venue regularly you remove people from their pre-programmed routines and ways of thinking. You put them in a different environment, and in the process created a feeling of "we are not at work now" where everyone can give input and contribute to the meeting at hand. As a sales manager you will show the sales team that you really care, and that these meetings are in fact important to you. This Will be at least one meeting a month no one dares to miss.

3. Visit other sales meetings

As a sales manager you have many associates who also conduct sales meetings. With a little practise you might be able to convince one or two of them allow one of your sales people to attend their sales meeting. The main idea is to get ideas from other sale meeting you can use in your own meetings. It is easy to bring back a bag full of negative feedback. if this is the case you missed the point of the whole exercise. Bring back positive ideas you can use in your own sales meetings.

4. Quick tools and tips

At beginning of each sales meeting you should focus on one good "sales tool" or "skill of the week". By doing this you are constantly reinforcing winning principles.

5. "I shopped at the competition"

Get three or four of you sales people to pay a visit to your competitors once a month. To avoid any suspicion you need to rotate the sales people that visit the competition, or at least provide some incentive to strangers to pay a visit to them and give you feedback afterwards. The report or feedback should be focused on the "good things" about the competition. If you can't visit the competition physically you can use the telephone to make a few enquiries. Use the feedback to improve on your own services, and identify areas where you can take advantage of the information you collected.

6. "We got shopped"

As a sales manager you are in an authoritative position. You sales people will always perform their best in your presence, do and say things to impress you. Therefore, it could be a good idea to get someone once in a while to "shop" at your business. You could keep it a secret and not tell your staff about it, or you can "warn" you staff in advance, without telling them who it will be or when "the shopper" will be there.
As the sales manager you can also implement an incentive program for the sales team. The incentive will depend on the performance of one staff member. If "the shopper" feels that the staff member made the grade, everyone in the sales team will get the incentive. If that single staff member fails the test no one will get the incentive.

7. The client's opinion is very important

Get a client to attend one of your sales meeting once in a while. Ask the client for his or her input in the sales meeting. The focus should be on the client's experience, likes, dislikes, suggestions and opportunities he / she identifies.

8. Invite a valued guest

Make a list of valued people you sales people would like to listen to at your sales meetings. The list could include tax specialists, industrial psychologists, motivation speakers, your suppliers, etc. You can also focus on people who have no relevance to your core business. For example: you can invite celebrities, people who have exceptional knowledge and skill in another type of business, government officials, health officials, etc.

9. products and services quiz

Pick a product or service you would like to focus on and compile a list of relevant questions about it. You can then present the product or service to the sales people in the meeting and give them the questionnaire.
You can build an incentive for the level of knowledge about the product / service / concept, the customer's perspective of the product, industry knowledge, sales skills, value added tactics and strategies, etc.

10. Become a VIP

Make sure that you and your team take full advantage of upcoming events. Dress up and become a VIP. Go to business shows, conferences, exhibitions, sport events, entertainment events, book a sports box, go to a premier, etc.
Setup an events board and rotate the responsibility to keep it updated three months in advance.

10. Special days

Setup a board with special dates. These dates include everything from birthdays, wedding anniversaries, business anniversaries, valentines, Halloween, religious days, etc. It doesn't all have to be serious. Perhaps you can get creative and throw in a few of your own. Use this board the same as the VIP events board, and keep it updated at least three months in advance.

11. Brainstorm important topics

Brainstorm with your sales team on important topics they would like to see covered in the next 90 days and prioritize them.
Start your brainstorming tradition with a meeting on setting rules and objectives for meetings. It is always a good idea to have a 'code of conduct for meetings" everyone agrees on. Print a poster and put it on the wall. You can always refer back to the poster to keep your meetings on track.