Writing An Awesome & Efficient Sales Meeting Agenda

Anyone in charge of salespeople knows that it’s important to stay organized, to communicate frequently with the team, and to ensure that everyone is focusing on what’s important for the business. If you’re part of a well-organized team, you know that means generally one thing: frequent sales meetings. Meetings which, while necessary, can often feel like an inefficient use of time. Whether your colleagues show up late (resulting in delayed meetings or in time spent re-addressing topics already covered), other colleagues aren’t active and miss important information due to inattention. Other times, someone monopolizes the meeting time (which is even worse when it’s for irrelevant banter). There are many potential obstacles to a productive sales meeting.

How can you write a good sales meeting agenda to make the best use of your time?

Have One Clear Goal

The foundation of a sales meeting agenda should one clearly defined goal. Any actions you need to get approved? Discussing the company pipeline? Are you discussing sales objections and how to overcome them? Communicate the topic beforehand, so everyone enters the meeting prepared and ready to make a valuable contribution.

Moreover, the most productive meetings have only one goal in mind. You shouldn’t have multiple team meeting topics on your agenda, because you want to ensure that everyone stays focused and effectively addresses the primary goal. Plus, then there’s less time wasted presenting information to the group that may only be relevant to a few members. That means more time for everyone else on the sales floor.

Be Punctual

While this may seem obvious, it’s something many companies struggle with. A few minutes lost can quickly add up if they become a regular part of team meetings. Use your sales meeting agenda to establish specific start and end times for your meetings, and then stick to them. If a team member is late, start without them. If the meeting can’t be concluded on time, then schedule another meeting to further address the subject. Regimented adherence to your sales meeting agenda will ensure efficiency and prevent wasted time.

Be Positive

While you want to run quick and efficient meetings, it’s a great idea to always take a few minutes out to recognize the success of the entire team or standout colleagues. (Make sure this time is allocated in your sales meeting agenda to ensure it doesn’t take away from the primary goal of the meeting.) A little bit of positivity can go a long way, and starting off a sales meeting with good news (however small) puts everyone in a good mood for the rest of the meeting. This is especially important if you have some bad news or unpleasant topics to address in the meeting. It’s also a great way to help new team members learn from the more experienced ones, who can share their sales know-how.

Take Notes

Each meeting should have a designated recorder who can make note of any questions unanswered, new tasks, or problems to solve. They should also make note of whose responsibility these issues are so that they’re resolve quickly.

Pro Meeting Hack: Use Google Docs to keep notes on your meetings. You can keep the meeting minutes on a Google Drive folder shared with the team, and you can tag people with follow-up items to send them email reminders and keep the conversation going after the meeting. 

Follow-Up

After your meeting, you should have a clear record of what was discussed and the actions that need to be taken. All that’s left is for someone to oversee and follow-up to ensure that the issues discussed have been addressed. This is the most important step in the process, because an efficient meeting is meaningless if the resulting plan isn’t executed. A productive sales team also knows each member must be accountable for something, as everyone is important to help the company succeed.

As you can see, running a productive sales meeting doesn’t need to be difficult. All it takes is preparation, organization, and a willingness to stick to the agenda.

Sales meetings can be much more productive if you have solid sales leads. With a lead prospecting tool like FindThatLead, generating great leads is a breeze.