Posted by Brian Casey on Wed, Oct 14, 2009 @ 09:52 AM
One of the challenges for any sales manager, especially a fairly new manager, is conducting an effective sales meeting while consistently engaging your team. It can be extremely difficult to supply your team with valuable information without erring on the side of boring lectures and mundane sales tips. The purpose of a sales meeting is to engage your team, have the team participate and be able to share positive and constructive feedback.
When I was first promoted to a sales manager, I inherited a team whose manager was recently promoted to a Director role. He had a well oiled sales team in place and ran solid sales meetings. I figured that since I already had the personal rapport with the members on the team, it would be easy for me to follow his template for the sales meeting and have it be a success. Step 1: Run through the forecast. Step 2: Talk about what's going on in the market. Step 3: Work in a little role playing if there is time. Step 4: Make an enthusiastic wrap up that pumps up the team. It seemed easy enough.
My assumption had proven to be wrong when I looked out at the team during the meeting and realized that I wasn't keeping their attention, nor was I adding any value to them. I could sense from the team that the meetings were a complete waste of their time and I needed to change my approach if these meetings were going to be saved.
It took me a little time to find a groove but I realized that solid sales meetings take ongoing preparation. The meetings should be able to accomplish several things during a short amount of time. One of the first challenges that I faced was, "What do I talk about after we finish forecast?" What I settled on was on a weekly basis was to keep a running list of potential subjects and broke them down to Must Talk About and Could Talk About. Must Talk About were the issues that I had to cover from either a corporate side or something that I felt we needed to focus on. Could Talk About might be an interesting industry article or trend that could be brought up either this week or next. Now when I prepped for my meeting the night before I could organize what I wanted to cover. Taking time to prep is the key to running a successful sales meeting. You must block out this time!
Have an agenda and I set a timeline. Write out a meeting outline and bring copies for your team. You must keep your team engaged throughout the meeting but always remember, these are salespeople you're talking to. Salespeople are notorious for having short attention spans and your salespeople are probably thinking about a number of different things while you're blabbing away. Your outline lets your salespeople see what you want to accomplish and they can see when the meeting is going to end. This also keeps your salespeople focused until the end of the meeting and mitigates the time they spend fidgeting in their chair thinking about when they can get that cup of coffee they are dying for.
Lastly, take control and stick to what you want to accomplish. Make sure that you keep your meeting on track and relevant to the tasks you're hoping to accomplish. Do not let your sales people hijack your meeting into the direction that they choose. If the subject they begin to discuss is not relevant to the tasks at hand, address the concern as valid and offer them time to speak with you about the subject once the meeting is over. Keep things positive and wrap up the meeting in a way that makes everyone feel accomplished.
Just remember, the best sales meetings are properly planned, concise and relevant. Every once in a while you can throw in an activity for team building or brainstorming, but always make sure you are engaging your team. With a little organization, your sales meetings will seem like a walk in the park.
Posted by Dan Fantasia on Fri, May 08, 2009 @ 09:10 AM
It is not unusual to open the newspaper and read about another company whose employee pensions are in jeopardy. Over time, benefits like these have started to disappear - but so has the loyal employee who puts in 30 years of service with a single employer. From baby boomers to GenXers on down the line, we're changing jobs more frequently than ever before. In fact, many of us will work for 8-10 companies or more in our lifetimes. So in a job market permeated by change and uncertainty, how can we find career security?
Fear not, career security still exists, although not in its traditional form. In today's job market, security comes through experience and knowledge, not through any one corporation or organization. The knowledge you have accumulated since entering the workforce is what will propel you forward in your career. If, in your current situation, you are not learning new skill sets, increasing your income, or advancing your career, you may be losing precious time.
The first thing to realize is that regardless of the level of success you have achieved, job security is never guaranteed. Successful organizations protect their interests and those of their stockholders. They devise complex strategic plans that lay out specific goals and objectives that act as a roadmap for the future. They have a plan; so should you.
The key to designing your own career plan is to view yourself as a business - and you've just been appointed CEO. Before you begin to develop your own personalized blueprint for the future, you need to ask yourself some basic questions: am I growing intellectually? Am I meeting my revenue projections i.e. salary goals? What are my greatest assets and skill sets? Where do I add value?
Only you can accurately assess your professional development to this point. Though it may be daunting, a critical part of your new job description as chief executive officer is to take an honest look at yourself and inventory your professional strengths and weaknesses. This personal analysis will help you determine your future career viability.
The next step in achieving career security is to educate yourself about your industry. You can certainly do this yourself; the web is an undeniably convenient tool. Another option is to align yourself with a professional who can help you understand the latest market trends, identify key industry players, and pinpoint opportunities that will help grow your career.
A common misconception is that people initiate a job search only when they are dissatisfied with their current situations. But this isn't always so. According to U.S. Labor Bureau statistics, 30-35% of the workforce is job hunting at any given time. On average, 20-25% of all U.S. workers change jobs each year. Even if you are relatively content in your present role, it may be an optimal time to make a change.
The best time to be looking for a job is when you're at the top of your game. It is when you're most productive and successful that you maximize your marketability. Coming from this position of strength, you can leverage your track record to negotiate the best salary or career opportunity. Alternatively, waiting until you are unhappy to explore new prospects can be time consuming (the average job search takes 3.8 months) and can result in hasty decisions that are fueled by emotion instead of logic. When emotions drive business decisions the likelihood of making poor choices increases.
Finally, know your professional worth. Interviewing with different companies can serve as an effective barometer for your career search. If you come to discover that your market value and potential is greater than it is in your current situation, you have greater impetus to make a change.
In today's rapidly evolving job market, anything can happen. Achieving security - financial or otherwise - requires us to run our careers like we would a business. Chances are, at some point in your career, whether you realized it or not, marketing was part of your job description. Now, as CEO, you're about to embark on the most important marketing mission of your professional life: promoting yourself. So take charge. Be empowered. Align yourself with resources that will help you remain educated. By doing so, you will significantly reduce the risks inherent to living in this pension-less world.
Dan Fantasia is the president and founder of Wakefield-based Treeline, Inc., one of the area's fastest growing executive search firms. Treeline specializes in the recruitment of sales professionals for the medical, technology, business to business, and financial industries. For more information about Treeline, Inc. visit http://www.treeline-inc.com/.