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If sales meetings feel more like necessary evils than productive meetings of the mind, you may have an issue with management. It is up to you to breathe new life into your weekly sales meetings. It is possible to get more from your meetings and make them more enjoyable for your team. All it takes is a little advice on how to run a meeting, and a few top-shelf sales meeting ideas. Use these tips to achieve more effective sales meetings at your enterprise.

Prepare Talking Points

As a sales meeting leader, it is your job to use the allotted time wisely. One of the most time-consuming issues many meetings encounter is lack of direction. Without clear leadership for the meeting on your part, your salespeople will lose focus and the whole meeting may run off track. This means more wasted time calling your team to order and figuring out what to discuss next. Preparation is key for a strong, productive sales meeting.

Create an agenda to make the most of your meeting time. Your agenda should be as detailed as possible, creating a step-by-step guideline you can use to walk your team through the meeting. The more you prepare for a meeting, the easier it will be to stick to your most important talking points. Prioritize your agenda in order from most important to least important. That way, if you run out of time, your team will at least have gotten the most critical points you needed to make.

Send a copy of the agenda to all reps who will be attending. That way, your salespeople can peruse the items on the list, prepare questions ahead of time, and be ready to dive right into the topics when they arrive in the conference room. This can eliminate wasted time reading over lists during the actual meeting, as well as give your team more time to come up with value-driven questions.

Ask the Right Questions

Productive sales meetings ask the right questions. The goal of a sales meeting is to answer important questions, come up with new marketing ideas, and to increase sales in the future. Write down a list of questions prior to the meeting so you can come prepared. Before you plan your meeting, ask yourself questions such as:

• What is the purpose of this meeting?
• What challenges are we facing today?
• How long will this meeting need to last?
• Who is in charge?
• What actions do we need to take next?

Answering these questions will give your meeting greater direction and purpose. Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start giving your sales meeting agenda shape. The amount of time you’ll have, for example, can dictate how many topics you’ll have time to sufficiently cover.

Focus on One Key Issue

Another common problem with sales meetings is an overambitious leader. You may have a long list of things you wish to discuss with your team, but laying them all out at once might not be the most efficient way to run a meeting. Tackling too many talking points results in the inability to dive into the most important issues. Instead of covering more ground, you’ll really be taking a step backward.

Your meeting will run smoother and be more productive if you control the agenda by choosing one main item to discuss per meeting. This is why weekly sales meetings are often necessary – to cover a wider range of topics without stuffing too many discussions into a single conference. Your team will benefit from the ability to review one topic in-depth, with ample time to take notes and ask questions, more than several topics briefly discussed.

Think About Your Team’s Interests

The most effective sales meetings are the ones in which everyone feels encouraged to contribute to the conversation. Sharing ideas and bouncing ideas off one another can help you keep everyone engaged and review a topic more thoroughly. Generate a steady stream of sales ideas during a meeting with a bit of motivation:

• Give incentives for good ideas
• Build a more creative meeting environment
• Be transparent with business goals
• Ask your team questions and listen to their answers
• Encourage “no bad questions” and mistakes
• Provide positive reinforcement for idea-makers

Making your sales meeting more relevant for the reps attending can spark innovations, motivate salespeople to do better, build better workplace culture, and keep everyone on the same page for the duration of the meeting. It can show your reps you appreciate their hard work and loyalty, and make them want to show you the same kind of respect during meetings.

Start on a Positive Note

Most salespeople do not look forward to sales meetings. Yet if they know there is a chance a higher-up will recognize them for outstanding performance that week, they may have more of a reason to anticipate a meeting in a positive light. Start each sales meeting by recognizing performance. Consider giving incentives to top performers during each meeting. Put it at the start of the meeting to begin on a positive note, and to make sure you always have time to get to it. This can help your team look forward to attending each week.

Stick to Your Time Frame

Never host an open-ended sales meeting. This not only can allow your meeting to run on for an indeterminate amount of time, but it can also make your salespeople dread future meetings, since they do not know how long they may last. Your reps will benefit from having some expectation of meeting timeline and structure. Decide how long your sales meeting will last and stick to this time frame as much as you can.

Announce to your salespeople the exact start and finish times of your sales meeting. That way, they will know exactly how much time they will have to discuss a topic and ask their questions. A strict deadline to finish the meeting can create healthy pressure for everyone to focus, stay on topic, and use the time wisely. It can also help eliminate dawdling, chatting, and getting off-topic for an overall more productive meeting.

Come Away With Specific Action Steps

One of the most important aspects of any great sales meeting is how it will shape the future of the company. Sales meetings should not only review past performance and check in on where salespeople are now – it should set them up for success post-meeting. As the leader of a sales meeting, make sure to come away with specific action steps and a timeline for completing them. You should at least have the next step to continue moving the process forward. The next step may include:

• Sending follow-up emails or calls to prospects
• Initiating a new idea for better sales
• Writing or rehearsing sales scripts
• Developing new sales skills
• Scheduling sales training sessions

Give your sales reps a clear next step post-meeting, for better direction and a more productive workplace. Show your reps that sales meetings are more than just a monotonous necessity, but a way to motivate real change and improvements in marketing. Giving actionable steps and advice for what to do after a meeting can give your employees a purpose and boost productivity.

Revisit Sales Training

Curious about how to make your sales meetings even more effective? Invest in corporate sales training for fresh sales meeting ideas, total meeting overhauls, or coaching on how to run a meeting. Sales meetings can make a real difference for your organization. Contact us for more information about sales training today. Your team – and your bottom line – will thank you.

As a salesperson, you always want to improve your sales techniques, volume, and practices. There’s always room for improvement in the fast-paced sales world. Our experts at Shapiro Negotiation designed our Corporate Sales Training Program to equip you with cutting-edge tools, habits, and techniques to increase your sales efficiency. Using our six-step approach to sales techniques, you’ll be able to close deals and sniff out prospects in an effective manner.

Here are a few tips that you can utilize to improve your sales efficiency today.

Keep Track of Prospects

Prospecting is a mindset and a practice that should be applied everywhere you go. Always think about where your next sale is or who your next lead will be when going about your daily sales operations. In addition, keep track of your best prospecting practices for reference.

Keeping a running document of prospecting tips can help you perform at peak efficiency. Record your best opening lines from emails, cold calling scripts, and LinkedIn practices that have won clients over. Refer to this document and keep adding to it to create a comprehensive prospect guide.

Know How to Qualify a Lead

Lead qualification is an important skill that all salespeople should master. This process helps you determine how to approach a potential client with your sales pitch. Knowing what their needs are can help you connect a potential lead with your company’s goods and services.

Always analyze the following key factors to determine if you should pursue a lead:

• Budget: Can the lead afford your product?
• Need: Does the lead have a need for your product and how can your product satisfy that need?
• Interest: Has the lead expressed interest in a similar product before?
• Role: Does the contact person for that lead have the authority to purchase your product? If not, can you reach the person with that authority?
• Timing: Does the lead need your product within a certain timeframe? Can you and your company satisfy that time frame?

Prepare Questions

You want your leads to feel connected to you and your company. This will encourage them to purchase your product. To establish credibility with your potential client, make sure to adequately research and prepare materials before meeting with them.

A great way to establish a relationship with your client is to ask them engaging questions. What is their current experience without your product like? How can you help solve their problems? What do they wish they could have to make their job easier? All of these questions create a connection between you and your client. In addition, good preparation signals to the client that you care about their experience with your company.

Provide Options and a Safety Net

Presenting your potential client with one product option can put a lot of pressure on the client. They might become hesitant and refrain from committing to a purchase. To alleviate this risk, make sure to present your client with at least three product options so they feel in control of the sales situation.

In addition, you should also provide a safety net in case they don’t enjoy your product. This could be a free trial, a money back guarantee, or a product pilot. These techniques will ease your client into a sense of security when it’s time to close the deal.

Focus on Trustworthiness

A client will not commit to a purchase if they don’t trust you. It is up to you as the salesperson to build a trustworthy rapport with the client by integrating credibility, integrity, and reliability into your sales calls.

Before your meeting, research beforehand and make sure you prepare questions and sales points. This signals to the client that you are credible and knowledgeable. Always keep your client’s best interest in mind when negotiating a deal. In addition, always deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. In fact, you should over-deliver whenever possible. These actions combined will allow a client to feel at ease and develop a sense of trust.

Interested in gaining in-depth knowledge and interactive practice with these sales techniques? Shapiro Negotiation’s Corporate Sales Training Program uses this curriculum to provide sales professionals with the habits, tools, and practices they need for optimal sales success. Our workshops offer an integrated and systematic approach and expert design to the corporate sales world.

Contact Shapiro Negotiations to schedule a training session for your team today.

If you are a leader of a corporate sales team, you are constantly searching for ways to boost sales volume and flow. Effectively marketing products and services to potential clients is more difficult than it seems – a fact that you and your team know well. The key to effective sales goal attainment lies in strong leadership, close communication, and personal motivation.

How do you implement measures to encourage these factors among your sales team and achieve your target sales? There are certain behaviors and initiatives that you can begin practicing around the office. By encouraging team building, knowledge, and positivity, your team will have the tools and confidence they need to enter difficult sales situations.

1. Set Clear Goals

Your sales reps need to know the exact set of goals they need to attain in order to reach peak sales performance. They need to know the number of leads they must obtain, the prospects they need to contact, and the total revenue the company wants to bring in. Often, corporate operations unintentionally shroud these goals from salespeople on the ground.

Keeping the details of your sales goals a mystery isn’t useful for your sales team. Communicate your goals clearly and regularly to your team. Send out an email with the goal for that week to everyone on the team. Write each week’s goal on a whiteboard and display it in the office. Encourage your team to ask questions about the sales goals if they need clarification. This practice encourages open communication between higher ups and the people who drive sales volume.

2. Take Advantage of Technology

In today’s modern world, we’re constantly connected to vast amounts of data at our fingertips. Why don’t we take advantage of this technology to drive our sales volume? When your salespeople are out in the field, they may need to contact another sales rep or look up information on a product.

Developing an app that lists product specifications can help your salespeople have instant access to product knowledge, boosting your company’s credibility among your consumer base. Consider using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to further connect your salespeople to their potential clients.

3. Encourage Mentorship

When new salespeople join your team, they are at a disadvantage when compared to your more senior sales reps. A seniority divide can alienate your younger sales reps and decrease their confidence in the field, which can hurt your sales goal attainment. Instead of encouraging competition between your older and younger salespeople, encourage mentorship between the two groups.

You can formally pair a new salesperson with a more senior level employee to help orient them to your company. The older employee can discuss their experience in the position and offer coaching for the new rep’s first sales call or field day. When every team member is on the same level of achievement, the whole company will succeed.

4. Fail as a Team

It’s easy to place blame on an individual salesperson for the loss of a contract or important lead. However, public shaming can alienate that rep, further weakening your company’s potential for sales goal attainment. Avoid singling out any weak links and encourage your team to examine the failure as a team effort.

If a salesperson believes that he or she is to blame for a sales goal failure, this could lead them to focus only on their individual performance. This leads to less focus on strengthening the team as a whole. You want to develop a team mindset. Always examine failures as a team effort – and make sure to celebrate your successes as a team as well.

5. Celebrate Accomplishments

While you should focus on team interactions to encourage sales team growth, you shouldn’t shy away from rewarding individuals who deserve it. Don’t be afraid to congratulate a colleague for landing a major deal or for increasing the team’s sales volume by 5%. Not only will this leave that salesperson with pride, they will be excited to continue contributing to the team effort. In addition, your other salespeople will want to work at peak performance so that they can receive recognition as well.

However, always treat the success of an individual as a success for the team as well. This helps you practice individual praise with team building.

6. Listen to Feedback

The best leaders understand that they can always improve. Feedback is a crucial part of figuring out if your leadership and team management style is effective for your salespeople. If you’re doing something that isn’t helpful, you’ll want to catch it before it affects your sales goals.

To combat this, consider administering a monthly or quarterly survey to collect employee feedback. Ask questions about the workplace environment, about specific practices and trainings, and what you could do to improve the quality of their job experience. You should keep this survey anonymous for optimal honesty. Review survey responses carefully and incorporate changes into your daily leadership practice.

7. Avoid Internal Competition

Similar to pitting older and younger salespeople against each other, you should always avoid internal competition among your team. It has been a common practice to split a sales team into factions and encourage each faction to beat the others in sales volume. This is not an effective way to encourage long-term sales goal attainment.

Always emphasize teamwork and collaboration within your sales team. Friendly internal competition can take place against other departments, but save any inter-team conflict for the company picnic.

8. Utilize Your Company’s Mission

Your sales team wants to feel like they’re part of attaining a larger goal or ultimate mission through their work. Working with a purpose will make reaching target sales feel like even more of an accomplishment. In addition, your sales team will become more motivated to reach sales goals.

To encourage this, share your company’s mission statement with your sales team. Have a discussion on what the mission means for your team. Identify what actions you can take to turn the mission into reality. Try to incorporate aspects of the mission statement into your sales goals, meetings, and training sessions. This will create the sense of working towards a larger goal and motivate your reps.

9. Track Sales Performance

You should implement a system that tracks your team’s sales performance throughout the overall sales cycle and allows you to target areas of improvement. While this may seem like an obvious action, you should always monitor your team’s actual sales performance. Many team leaders neglect regular performance analysis in the hustle and bustle of the corporate world. Set aside time every day to review your team’s performance and identify improvement actions for specific members. Remember not to single out or publicly share failures of individual sales representatives.

10. Provide Creative Incentives

Don’t be afraid to inject some fun into the workplace. Many effective team leaders encourage their sales reps to attain their sales goals by implementing an interesting team incentive. These incentives can be as simple as buying donuts and coffee for the office on Friday to hosting an outing to a sports game. These rewards will encourage your sales team to work even harder towards their sales goals.

If you want to get a bit more unusual, some team leaders even pledge to shave their heads, wear a fun costume, or allow their employees to throw pies in their face when they achieve a sales goal. Remember to keep these incentives appropriate for the workplace, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Stay professional and have fun!

Do you want to help your team meet their sales goals using an expertly designed training program? Contact Shapiro Negotiations to inquire about our corporate sales training sessions today.

We offer integrated and systematic approaches to sales that will help boost your team’s confidence, lead procurement, and sales volume. Shapiro Negotiations will provide your company with the habits, tools, and processes necessary for greater sales success.

The 37^th edition of the Training Industry Report has been released by Training Magazine. From its results, training industry experts, corporate leadership, and company training staff can gain valuable insight into the current status of training programs across the country. In addition, the findings of this report enables industry professionals to benchmark against industry standards and trends.

The Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI) is not exempt from this learning opportunity. We find this annual report very valuable and as a result have decided to create this post in order to pass along some of our takeaways to our community.

Report Methodology

The first Training Industry Report was released 37 years ago and the publication is now a trusted source of data for industry professionals and corporate leadership alike. During May and June 2018, an independent research company collected data from Training Magazine member companies via an online survey. Only U.S.-based corporations from Training Magazine’s database were included in this report.

Out of the 271 responses to the study:

• 36% of responses came from small companies of 100 to 999 employees
• 41% came from midsize companies with 1,000 to 9,999 employees
• 23% came from large companies with over 10,000 employees

Survey demographics show a wide range of industry classifications and job functions.

• 17% of respondents worked in the health/medical services industry
• 11% came from finance and banking companies
• 10% worked in manufacturing

Top job roles include managers and high-level company leadership (61%), developers and instructional designers (17%), and mid- and low-level company employees (22%).

Time, Money, and Services: Training Expenditure Data

According to the report, training expenditures across respondents’ companies decreased by 6.4%. Total expenditures, including payroll and training products and services, totaled $87.6 billion. Of that total, $47 billion was spent on payroll for training professionals and $11 billion was spent on external goods and services.

In addition, professionals selected top training materials that they plan to purchase in the upcoming year. The most popular products and services include:

• Online learning tools and systems (41% of respondents)
• Learning management systems (33%)
• Classroom tools and systems (32%)
• Content development (31%)
• Authoring tools and systems (27%)

It is no surprise that the data shows that professionals continue to transition more spending from classrooms to online. That said, it is interesting to know that classroom tools are still a priority. Consistent with this report, SNI has spent a great deal of effort developing new online learning tools and seen a great deal of success; however, we still believe that classroom is the best environment for an original session and online is the best medium for reinforcement.

Delivery Trends and Techniques

Companies utilized a mix of classroom learning, online learning, and blended techniques for training administration over the past year.

• 79% of small companies, 86% of midsize companies, and 43% of large companies utilized blended learning techniques in 2018.
• 39% of small companies, 35% of midsize companies, and 31% of large companies used instructor-led classrooms only.
• 8% of small companies, 10% of midsize companies, and 14% of large companies used a virtual classroom.
• 24% of small companies, 28% to midsize companies, and 24% of large companies used an online method without an instructor.
• Mobile and social learning were used significantly less than the other methods, ranging from 0% to 3% per company size and category.

It was interesting to note that blended learning techniques are the most common across all company sizes – this is not only what we would expect but also what we recommend. We were surprised to see that a very small percentage use mobile and social learning but we expect those numbers to grow as organizations are willing to give it a try, especially with the steadily decreasing average age in the workforce and as new technology and platforms continue to be developed.

Training Outsourcing and Expert Mobility

Many companies recognize that they lack expertise in some subject areas. They also understand and recognize the value of expert training programs and organizations like SNI. As a result, we were pleased to see that this report found the companies were increasing their expenditures for training outsourcing. On average, companies spent $422,321 in 2018 on training outsourcing versus $219,265 in 2017.

• 56% of small companies, 55% a midsize companies, and 49% of large companies indicated that they outsourced instruction and facilitation services in 2018.
• 48% of small companies, 50% of midsize companies, and 54% of large companies outsourced learning management system operations.
• 34% of small companies, 53% of midsize companies, and 60% of large companies outsourced custom content development.

It is important to note that there are hybrid models available. For example, we recently implemented a large train-the-trainer program with a client that wanted to train thousands of sales people across the country. In this case we developed the curriculum, customized it, and then taught our client’s internal trainers how to teach the class. The result – our expertise, content, and customization combined with internal control and flexibility, and the cost savings that come with it.

2018 Training Industry Takeaways

Training industry professionals can learn key lessons from this data.

• Most companies have been investing in technologically-based training materials and methods, such as learning management systems, custom content development, virtual classrooms, and other e-learning tools for years. Those who have not are now the minority and likely considering it in 2019. SNI has experienced this first hand with clients and as a result developed several online training platforms and online training programs – many of which are mobile-friendly or mobile-based in order to be ahead of the curve and continue to push the envelope the use of technology in education.
• Companies are increasingly strategic in how they incorporate expert knowledge from outside sources. SNI has seem this first hand as organizations reach out because they are looking for a fresh perspective or simply do not have expertise around negotiation training. We have seen this in particular with smaller firms that simply do not have the staff or larger companies that are looking for world-class expertise.

If you have any questions about this summary, or for more information about our training, feel free to contact SNI at 410-662-4764.

Product knowledge is a crucial skill that all effective salespeople need to master. In order to successfully market a product or service, a salesperson must deliver the specifications of that product or service with intelligence and confidence. In order to bring salespeople up to speed with the latest company offerings, management and team leaders engage in product knowledge training sessions.

How can team leaders administer these training sessions effectively, boost retail credibility, and maintain high employee engagement? There are a few types of educational techniques that training administrators can incorporate into their product knowledge sessions. Using interactive activities, humanizing the customer, and collecting feedback are all effective tools to use in this type of training.

Hands-On Activities

A person can’t become skilled at something without learning and practicing it several times beforehand. Product knowledge training sessions should incorporate interactive, hands-on activities to encourage this practice. In addition, these activities help break up the monotony of lectures and PowerPoint slides. Incorporating roleplaying activities, simulations, games, and other techniques can provide opportunities for salespeople to test their product knowledge.

For example, a training leader can develop a speed game where a product’s picture is shown on a screen and employees compete to identify the product and list its specifications. Leaders can also pair salespeople together in roleplaying scenarios, in which one person is selling a product to the other. During role play, the salesperson can discuss the specifications of that product. This helps ingrain product knowledge into the brain during the learning process.

Define Customer Needs

Customers are more inclined to purchase a product they believe they need. Salespeople should connect the specifications of different products to the customer needs they could satisfy. Connecting each product to a need or set of needs can help with the memorization process. In addition, including these topics in your training will allow for smoother sales presentations during real world situations.

Consult With Marketing

Marketing professionals know the specifications of products better than most people in an office. This is because the entire field of marketing involves being able to highlight a product’s benefits and connecting those benefits to customers’ needs. It’s likely that the marketing department of the company has product knowledge materials that they can share with the sales team. These experts can help sales team leaders administer effective product knowledge training using these materials. Check with marketing before creating training materials to save time and generate ideas.

Provide Refresher Training

Even the most seasoned sales professionals will forget details about a product. Sometimes, these details could provide opportunities for effective sales pitches. In order to revive this information, as well as introduce new products, team leaders should hold refresher training at least once per year. This will help bring all salespeople to the same page in terms of selling current product.

Listen to Feedback

Every training session can improve for optimal education. After each training session they administer, sales team leaders should distribute an anonymous survey for participants to fill out. This survey can be online, on paper, or through another data collection system. With the results of these surveys, team leaders can identify areas of the session that worked and others that need improvement. This presents an opportunity to make the next training session even better.

To learn more about corporate sales training for your company’s team, visit Shapiro Negotiations today. We offer integrated and systematic sales training options to optimize your sales power, approach, and customer engagement to their highest potential.

Contact us today to schedule a training session for your company or team.

Multiple forms of sales take place every day in the corporate world. From B2B to B2C, a wide range of structures exists to diversify the market and provide the best goods to consumers. One of the most complex forms of sales is known as organizational selling. With organization selling comes a set of standards and guidelines to which salespeople must adhere to establish trust and credibility with their clients.

The Definition of Organizational Selling

Organizational selling is defined as a business selling to another business. This seems simple enough, but organizational selling follows a different set of rules than selling a product to a single person. Just like their customers, organizations and businesses require certain products to keep their operations running smoothly. From shipping and packing supplies to raw materials like wood and steel, these organizations need to purchase goods from an outside source if they don’t produce them.

Driven by customer demand to produce goods, organizations purchase products in greater quantities than private consumers. As a result, organizational selling often deals with bulk purchases and their order costs tend to be much higher than what an individual would purchase. In addition, organizations must adhere to certain guidelines regarding the products they use. A certain type or quality of wood, a certain grade of steel, even packing boxes must adhere to organizational policies and consumer protection laws.

Sometimes, governmental standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are also applicable. For example, if your company manufactures no-slip shoes and steel-toed boots, another organization that wants to supply its employees with these shoes would likely ask if your product is OSHA-approved.

When organizations look to purchase goods, they are looking for products that would provide the greatest value for their businesses and meet certain quality and safety guidelines. This makes their purchasing habits unique from individual consumers.

Why Is Organizational Selling Important?

Knowing how organizations and businesses purchase goods is the key to marketing those goods effectively. The purchasing habits of these businesses can easily translate to common sales practices such as pitching and cold calling. Organizations depend on certain products to survive. For example, if you own a lumber mill or a mining company, the raw materials you produce are necessities for certain companies to operate. Take advantage of this fact by identifying those companies and pitching your product to them.

Identifying how your products can benefit organizations can lead to the development of a list of potential clients to contact. In addition, the bulk purchases of these organizations will provide major revenue that often exceeds what a private customer can provide. Facilitating an organization’s buying experience by allowing bulk purchases will keep them coming back for future business.

Since organizations adhere to standards regarding certain materials and products, researching the guidelines that surround your product will lead to additional development and marketing opportunities. Does your steel need to be a certain grade to be marketable? Does your latest line of shoes need OSHA certification? Bringing your product up to standard will allow you to market those qualifications to potential customers, making them likely to buy.

The use of missionary salespeople can help you identify and sign potential organizational clients. Missionary salespeople enter a region that your company does not currently serve and market your products to potential clientele, including major organizations that rely upon the goods that you produce.

Salespeople can use the concept of value selling to market your products to major organizations. Value selling focuses on how a product can solve a customer’s problems. With organizations, the problem is simple: They need safe, high-quality products to manufacture their own products and to keep their companies running smoothly. Your company manufactures the safe, high-quality product they need – and you can sell it to them.

The marketing formula is simple. Organizational selling is ripe with potential sales success – all it takes is a little bit of research and making the right connections. To learn more about effectively marketing your product to organizations, contact Shapiro Negotiations today about our corporate sales training program.