Jeff
Keller

Keep Morale High At Sales Meetings

Sales meetings too often resemble the evening news: They focus a great deal of energy on what is wrong, rather than enlighten or make people feel positive about their world. And they are often low on the information sales reps need to succeed. Sales meetings can be constructive events, if you follow these strategies to Keep Morale High At Sales Meetings.

I've had the privilege of delivering motivational presentations and seminars at sales meetings for a variety of organizations. Typically, these sales meetings are one to three days in length, and they include industry-specific training as well as motivational programs. If you're in sales, my guess is that you've attended many of these sales meetings.

While "outside" speakers are often used for motivational programs, most of the other programs on the agenda are delivered by in-house salespeople, sales managers and executives. I've had the pleasure of sitting in on a lot of these in-house presentations, as well as participating in some of the other activities that are a part of these sales meetings.

Let me share with you the good, the bad and the ugly from what I have observed. It is not my intention to judge or criticize particular strategies or formats of these sales meetings. This is simply my attempt to convey what works best (from my personal observations) and what you might consider in getting the best results from your next sales meeting.

1. Avoid boring slide presentations
For the most part, the presenters I've seen at sales meetings are excellent speakers, and they have a thorough knowledge of the material they are presenting. Yet time after time, I see presentations where the speaker does nothing more than display a bunch of PowerPoint slides and then proceed to read the slides to the audience for the next 30-60 minutes.

This is boring, and the speaker quickly loses the attention of those in the audience. Furthermore, the speaker could just as easily have made paper copies of the slides and handed them out to the attendees beforehand -- and we wouldn't even need the sales meeting. I'm not saying that these kinds of presentations have no value; they do reinforce and clarify certain points. What I'm suggesting is that the speaker could make much more effective use of the time by developing a presentation that is more interesting and creative.

At the least, don't include all of your information on the slides. As a presenter, you may want to use the slides as a prompt for your next point, but then discuss the details of each point on your own, without listing each sentence or concept on a slide. Also, ask for questions from audience members regarding your topic. When they get involved and have their questions answered -- and their points raised -- you're going to maintain a high level of interest and energy.

2. Give the audience a break
I've been at many sales meetings where the presentations for the day start at 7:30 a.m. and go all the way to 5:30 p.m. During that time, there's a lunch break of 45-60 minutes and maybe two other short breaks of about 15-30 minutes. At the end of the day, what I've seen are a lot of weary people.

Sitting through seven or more hours of presentations is just too much, and you're going to lose a lot of people. Their brains just shut off and, while their physical bodies are present, they're not absorbing much.

Sales managers and sales executives feel they have to justify the huge investment being made in conducting some of these sales conferences. So the thinking is: "We're spending a lot of money to bring them here. We have to use the time to exchange lots of information." While this sounds like a persuasive argument, you simply can't ignore the law of diminishing returns. We've all worked for many hours until our brains just cried for a break. If your choice is between six hours and eight hours of presentations per day, then choose six hours. The participants will be more receptive and will appreciate the breaks.

3. Let audience members have some fun and enjoy the surroundings
When you're holding a sales conference for at least two days, I've noticed that participants absolutely love to have some time during the day for recreation or sightseeing activities. I'm not suggesting you give them a full day to play golf and have fun. However, in a two- to three-day conference, either a morning or afternoon of one day can be left open as "free time."

Let's face it: What good is it to travel to a beautiful place if you're going to sit inside all day and hear presentations in a hotel? Salespeople appreciate the opportunity to visit new places and to have a little time for recreation. Often in this relaxed atmosphere, I've noticed that people in the company will form a stronger bond and frequently discuss their jobs. Most importantly, they appreciate that the company has afforded this time to have a little fun. It builds tremendous goodwill toward the company. Furthermore, when salespeople go back to the presentations, they're more refreshed and will listen more attentively.

4. Do your homework on the meeting-room layout
I've been to many conferences where the meeting room has a wonderful view, sufficient light, more than enough space to accommodate everyone and no noise that would interfere with the programs. However, I've also been to meetings where the attendees were uncomfortable because the meeting room was too small or the lighting was poor. I've also been to many meetings where the noise level was utterly ridiculous. In some cases, the meeting room was right next to the bar or the restaurant, which had music blaring. This can happen even in the most beautiful resorts and conference centers.

So there's no substitute for doing your homework on the room layout and surrounding conditions. You're making a large investment in your sales meeting, so make sure to properly scout the meeting rooms. Obviously, the ideal solution is to visit the site. If that is simply not possible, get pictures and specific information about the room layout, and ask lots of questions.

Sales meetings can be an effective way to get your staff together and exchange valuable information. I encourage you to evaluate your sales meetings in light of the points discussed above. Add your own creative ideas. When you make improvements in these areas, you're going to maintain a high level of interest and accomplish more of your meeting objectives.

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