By Hank TrislerWhen I started working with Seattle's First Repo Depo in the late fifties, we had sales meetings every morning promptly at eight. Everyone in the room after eight was fined $5, a huge amount in the fifties. The last man in was fired. The whole purpose of those meetings was to insure that we, the salesforce, were washed, clean shaven and relatively sober.
"My, how times have changed. Many managers now hold meetings "only when we need to discuss something." This virtually assures that no positive meetings will ever be held, only those to bitch and grouse about problems.
I'm going to suggest that you hold meetings periodically and further that it's your job to be sure you have something to talk about and that it's something interesting. How you going to do that? Well, that's another story for another day. If you like this well enough, we'll talk about content later.
How often do you meet? Depends on the size and geographical dispersion of your sales team. If you're a big dog and spread all over, you might get by with an annual meeting, with quarterly regional meetings to gather and disperse information, do sales training and show the flag.
If you're a puppy (say with under twenty people) you're going to have the pleasure of having a meeting every week. More frequently is just too tough to prepare and too time consuming for the team.
Sales meetings have traditionally been held first thing on Mondays to get everyone fired up for the coming week. Bad idea. Salespeople should have been planning their week over the weekend and be ready to hit the ground running on Monday morning. You'll find your people often having to choose between a sales meeting and an appointment with a customer. Bad choice. No good answer.
How about finding the least productive time of the week? The time when your folks aren't doing anything worthwhile anyhow. When they usually get a pint and go to a double feature. Yeah, that's why those shows are open in the afternoon; for salespeople avoiding rejection.
I've found one of the best times for sales meetings is 3 or 4 o'clock on Thursday afternoon. The week is winding down and people could use a break and a pump up. Don't do Friday afternoons, as people often want to get out of town and will have to lie to you about why they're missing the meeting. Don't make liars out of your sales team. Just schedule your meetings at the time that will be most convenient and least intrusive to your team.
Does this make sense? See any downsides? Let's talk.
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