Effective Sales Meeting Agenda: Unlock Productivity and Engagement

There’s a fine line between a productive sales meeting and a useless snooze fest. Meetings are a part of the job, but they shouldn’t feel routine or mundane. Each time you bring the team together, there should be clear objectives, opportunities for questions, and useful takeaways. Simple, right? Well, it’s easier said than done.

That’s why we’re here to guide you through designing the ultimate sales meeting agenda. Knowing how to prepare for the meeting, properly structure it, and create an inspiring atmosphere takes a bit of work. But it’s nothing you can’t handle. So, get ready to rid your company of time-wasting sales agendas, and let’s get into it!

How to Prepare for the Meeting

An effective sales meeting starts during the preparation period. In a 2019 study, 67% of the participants said that meetings were a distraction and prevented them from doing their work. Additionally, 34% said 2 to 5 hours get wasted each week due to unnecessary meetings. So, to avoid wasting time, preparing beforehand will ensure you are ready to go and that you know what you want to achieve.

Tips to Prepare an Effective Meeting:

• Set Clear Goals
• Prepare Information, Materials, and Questions
• Allocate Timeslots
• Notify Your Team in Advance
• Ask Yourself if the Meeting is Necessary

Set clear goals

The first step in preparing a meeting is to set clear goals. A sales briefing shouldn’t be used as a casual powwow – no. Failing to establish clear objectives creates an unfocused environment and hinders the effectiveness of the meeting. When there’s a purpose, such as discussing strategies or turnover rates, employees will be more engaged and benefit more from the session.

Additionally, it’s important not to set too many goals. Stick to one or two main topics to keep a theme throughout the sales briefing. Overloading employees with too much information causes people to disconnect and fail to retain information.

Prepare information, materials, and questions

When the meeting begins, all the information and materials should already be prepared. Do the necessary research, create infographics, and distribute materials to those attending beforehand. This will help cut back time and allow you to stick to the sales meeting agenda.

Another great tip is to ask your sales team to send in questions ahead of time. This will give you a chance to create thoughtful responses and include recurring questions in the presentation.

Allocate timeslots

A good sales meeting agenda has specific timeslots for each talking point. The most important topics should be given priority. Of course, you’ll also want to make sure there’s room for in-depth discussions. Once you’ve established the schedule, it’s crucial to stick to it.

If there’s a talking point that needs more time, make a note and save it for the next briefing. It can be tempting to go off course. But staying on track will ensure the meeting remains effective and that the objective is achieved.

Notify your team in advance

Avoid springing random meetings on your team. Notifying the members in advance will give everyone a chance to rearrange their schedules. If you don’t respect people’s time, you run the risk of creating tension and resentment–that’s not good for productivity or loyalty. 

It would also be wise to send out the materials that will be covered ahead of time. Employees will have a better understanding of what will be addressed and can prepare properly.

Ask yourself if the meeting is necessary

Remember, 67% of the respondents from the study said excessive meetings prevent them from making an impact. That’s a problem! So, ask yourself if the talking points could be sent out as an email. If you’re not looking to open a discussion with your team, a meeting may not be necessary.

But don’t be afraid to hold meetings. As the boss or supervisor, it’s your job to bring the sales team together. Just make sure that it’s going to be more beneficial than taking employees’ work time away!

How to Structure a Sales Meeting Agenda

The way you structure a sales meeting agenda plays an important role in its effectiveness. Each meeting is going to be different; however, there are some principles you should always apply. Start the meeting off on a positive note. Highlight accomplishments, find solutions to failures, and end the meeting by finalizing a game plan. The meeting should be coherent and stay on track. So, be mindful of time.

Tips to Structure a Sales Meeting Agenda:

1. Open the Meeting with a Positive Tone
2. Review Information from Previous Meetings
3. Cover Sales Updates (Highlight Achievements)
4. Discuss Challenges
5. Introduce Strategies and Opportunities
6. Make a Gameplan
7. Send a Follow-Up Email

1. Open the meeting with a positive tone

Get the meeting started by putting your best foot forward. Welcome your sales team and quickly break down what the main objectives of the meeting are. The first few minutes are an excellent time to set the tone. Don’t dilly-dally about this and that. Instead, get right into it to show your sales team that you value their time. 

Your employees shouldn’t sit down and think what in the world is the point of this? They should already know what the goals of the meetings' are, have the meeting schedule, and be prepared for in-depth discussions.

2. Review information from previous meetings

Once you go over the objectives, don’t forget to review the information from the previous meeting. Quickly rehash the challenges and solutions that were discussed and give people a chance to share their experiences. The review is important, but it should not be the bulk of the meeting. Stay focused on the new material.

If the information from the last meeting is irrelevant, don’t include it. However, if you are expanding on a previous topic, a concise review would be a great idea.

3. Cover sales updates (highlight achievements)

Move into sales reports. You should already have prepared infographics to break down performance metrics. Now is also the time to highlight achievements. First, focus on all the great things your sales team accomplished. You can celebrate specific members and applaud the entire team for achieving certain goals. Just because goals weren’t met doesn’t mean you can’t find accomplishments to praise.

If your sales team came up short, dive into the numbers. Show your employees where the mark was missed to create a full picture of their performance. Be careful not to bring down morale. Instead, turn it into a learning and growing experience.

4. Discuss challenges and obstacles

Now that the team’s performance has been addressed in the sales meeting agenda, discuss challenges. If new strategies were implemented, have your members detail what they liked and didn’t like. Look for common trends within the team’s feedback and make notes.

During this part of the meeting, it’s important to read the room. Do your employees sound frustrated? Are they eager to adjust certain strategies? Or are they happy with the way things are moving? Whatever the case may be, identifying the consensus is important to develop the right sales strategies.

5. Introduce strategies and sales opportunities

Take the time to deconstruct previous sales strategies and introduce new ones. Depending on your goal, you may only want to discuss new tactics. But either way, open the conversation for everyone to participate.

Every business should consider bringing CallPage’s Click-to-Call and Meeting Scheduling software to their next meeting. Both of these programs make it as easy as possible for potential clients to speak with your sales team. 

The click-to-call program works by prompting website visitors to receive a call from a representative within 28 seconds. Companies that have used it have seen a 75% increase in conversions. Check out these nine reasons you should try it!

The Meeting Scheduling program prompts website visitors to easily book an appointment directly on the page. Based on the information provided, the meeting will be scheduled with the perfect sales team member–convenient, right?

CallPage offers free trials for both programs. So, bring it up in the next meeting to see how your sales team thinks it would benefit the company!

6. Create a gameplan

The meeting should finish with an action plan. Make sure to clearly state everyone’s responsibilities and deadlines. Each team member should know exactly what their goals are and exactly how to achieve them. If your employees leave the briefing and don’t know what to do next, that’s a failed meeting.

So, make sure to summarize the key points, reiterate the objectives of the week (or month), and lay out the steps to achieve them. You want your team to feel motivated and capable by the end of the sales meeting agenda.

7. Send a follow-up email

After the meeting, send out a follow-up email. The message should cover the main talking points, list goals, and include other useful information. A follow-up email is crucial, especially if a team member couldn’t make the meeting or had to leave early. It will ensure everyone remains on the same page and knows what the expectations are.

How to Run a Sales Meeting Effectively

Now that you know the basics of planning a sales meeting, let’s talk about running the meeting. You need to create the right atmosphere and have the right attitude to get your team engaged. How do you do that? Well, it starts in the preparation phase and ends in the follow-up phase. Let’s take a closer look at a few tips and strategies.

While you’re at it, read up on how to improve sales performances quickly and effectively here!

Tips to Run a Sales Meeting Effectively:

• Create Engaging Presentations
• Encourage Participation
• Stick to the Schedule

Create engaging presentations

The more engaging the content, the better. Make the experience interactive by giving everyone a chance to lead. You could also schedule role-playing games and icebreakers to get people out of their comfort zones and practice sales techniques. Lastly, make the content in your presentation fun and captivating. For example, if you want to highlight a team member, put their picture on a slide or add their face to a fun meme.

Just keep in mind that short and sweet are the best ingredients to create engagement. The longer something drags on, the less attention employees will give. So, don’t beat around the bush and get right into the thick of it. 

Encourage participation

What’s more engaging, a one-person lecture or a group conversation? We all know the answer, and you should remember that while planning the sales meeting agenda. Listening to a monologue isn’t going to fire up your team. In fact, it may make them feel unheard or unappreciated.

Open up the conversation to everyone. If you notice one team member isn’t participating, call on them for their opinion. This will create a much more participative environment, which will lead to more ideas and deeper insights.

Stick to the schedule

You don’t create a sales strategy meeting agenda just to veer off schedule. Stick to the timeslots that you allocate for each section of the briefing. Staying on track will ensure you get through everything you intend to. If you allow the conversation to go any which way, the meeting will become less effective. That’s why it’s so important to clearly define the purpose of bringing everyone together!

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to create the ideal sales meeting agenda takes a bit of practice. After each briefing, talk to your employees about how it went and make notes. Over time, your meetings will become more effective as long as you try new things. So, if you’re looking for a new strategy to bring to the next meeting, CallPage’s Click-to-Call and Meeting Schedule programs are here for you. Sign up for the trial and see what your sales team has to say about them!