Archive for June, 2010

We’ve all sat through God-awful boring sales meetings right?

Not exactly a good time, as I’m sure you’d agree…

Has the thought ever occurred to you that your sales reps might feel like this almost every time you call a sales meeting?

“Positively absurd” you say!

Well, if you are one of the few who does have the need to inject a little vigor in your next sales meeting, then read on…

Try this to spice things up: next time you call a sales meeting, try a little “lead by being led” reverse psyschology on your sales reps to get them involved in the process of choosing topics.

All you do is simply ask your sales reps a week or two before the sales meeting what they most want to hear about is the best way to get them engaged and helps to “spruce things up”.

After all, if you ask them what they want to hear about in the meeting you can always tell them that “this was your idea” if they are tuning out…a little sneaky but it does work.

It always amazed me how much a little friendly competition gets a sales meeting spruced up as well. I was never a big fan of the “rah rah” games at sales meetings…but it does work incredibly well.

For example at the last company I worked for we had to write down on a flip chart any and all “breakthrough” ideas that we had come up with during the grueling 12-hour sales meeting session that would increase business.

Unbeknown to us, we were building a list that would be used for a day-end competition…

When the day was finally over, we were all told to present the best idea from our individual group to the rest of the larger group in the “most creative way” we could – no hold barred – with the winners each getting a $50 Starbucks gift certificate.

My group of brain surgeons decided that our idea would revolve around “adoption” of one of our sales service sites. To that end, we convinced one of our guys named Jerry to dress up as an “adopted baby” – complete with a table cloth diaper from one of the meeting tables – while me and another guy carried him into the presentation room to deliver him to the “hopeful parents” who were looking to “adopt”.

We nearly dropped poor Jerry as we ran in dressed in our “surgical gowns” – bedsheets we somehow swindled from housekeeping.

Totally ridiculous…I know.

We won in a landslide…and I got a months worth of lattes on them.

Getting people to act completely foolish for competition and prizes – with a good business focus in mind – never fails to “spice things up” at a sales meeting. Give it a try.

If you’re looking for great ideas to really spice up your sales meetings or your sales managers sales meetings, check out Meeting to Win and sign up for their newsletter.

And if you do, I promise you won’t have to dress up in a diaper…

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