Previously, we’ve talked about the 4 Reasons Why Using CRM Helps You Manage Better Sales Meetings.
In this blog, we’ll provide a complete guide for sales managers to lead purposeful, action-oriented meetings.
Ready for your line by line agenda to start running more efficient sales meetings this week?
A Sales Manager’s Guide to Annual, Quarterly, Weekly, and 1:1 Sales Meetings
To watch the free webinar ”Using CRM to Manage Your Sales Meetings” and follow along with the content below, go to timestamp 30:29.https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ciFRA0mz2I
Planning an Annual Meeting (8 hours)
Annual meetings should be a full day commitment where you define metrics, set goals, and develop an annual plan.
1. Celebrate (30 minutes)
It’s human nature to overstate our role in personal success and underemphasize the role that others play in it. To kick-off an annual meeting, celebrate team accomplishments.
Have each member (1) share a team accomplishment for the year, (2) identify an individual area of growth, (3) recognize at least two other teammates for their role in the sharer’s success.
As a sales manager leading the meeting, share the same three things using CRM to tell data-driven success stories.
2. Review (30 minutes)
Once everyone is warmed up, review the previous year’s goals and actuals, projects and accomplishments, highs, and lows. Be sure to use CRM dashboards wherever you can to share specific numbers, and review overall satisfaction metrics.
3. Executive Input (30 minutes)
What input was shared by the leadership team regarding the plan for the coming year? Review their feedback and use it to identify the “big score” you need to accomplish and work towards as a team. Break these big scores into smaller, bite-sized pieces to tackle in your individual sales plans.
Sales managers should share the specific components of individual sales plans. Also, review the company vision, mission, and values to ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction. Do your best to align every meeting with your company’s vision and mission by reinforcing the following questions:
• Who are we?
• Why do we exist?
• What are our values?
• What processes do we follow?
4. Team Building (30 min – 4 hours)
Incorporate team-building activities into your annual meeting agenda. If a particular event takes significant time and planning, like a golf outing, extend your annual meeting accordingly. Consider taking the morning to cover the first 4-hours of content, followed by 4-hours of team building, and finish up your annual planning the next day.
Important note: Do NOT include CRM training in your annual meeting. Your salespeople are dealing with an overwhelming amount of information without throwing CRM training into the meeting mix.
5. Define Annual Team Metrics (1-2 hours)
Defining your annual team metrics can take a good bit of time. We recommend you identify 6-15 metrics – about 2-5 per category – that you will track weekly.
- Category 1: Goals
Think of goals as the significant scores you would put on a company scoreboard – business outcomes or results. Example: Revenue, Profit, EBITDA.
- Category 2: Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are subgoals from Category 1 – metrics that indicate if the big goals will be met or are at least on track. Example: Proposals Sent, Leads Qualified, Demos Delivered.
- Category 3: SQAGs™
Small, Quickly Attainable Goals (SQAGs™) are different from goals and KPIs because they focus on behaviors. SQAGs™ are actions entirely controlled by sales reps that can influence results. Example: Calls, Visits, Networking Meetings, Notes. SQAGs result in KPIs, and KPIs result in meeting Goals.
5 Key Questions to Ask Before Identifying KPIs and SQAGs™
- Does it change at least weekly?
- Does the person influence it (KPI) or control it (SQAGs™)?
- Does it influence one or more goals? (e.g., # of emails tracked).
- Can we measure it using CRM today? Can we in the future? Should we try?
- Is it easy to understand?
6. SWOT and Issues List (1 hour)
Thus far, based on the information reviewed earlier, develop a list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Discuss SWOT items.
- Formulate a list of issues that individuals feel should be addressed to improve results.
- Mark issues as (1) tactical (i.e., can be resolved quickly, low budget, and by a few individuals) or (2) Shamrocks (i.e., wish list items that require more time, people, and/or budget).
7. Next Quarter Shamrocks and SQAG™ (1 hour)
What do you want to accomplish in the coming quarter to improve specific metrics? Every Shamrock and SQAG™ should be attainable strictly within your team.
- Identify 2-4 Shamrock projects (i.e., your wish list) as a team to complete in the current quarter.
- Select a single SQAG™ to focus on improving in the quarter ahead.
The Quarterly Meeting (3 meetings, 4 hours each)
Quarterly meetings are similar to annual meetings minus the time consuming, big picture goals. Use quarterly meetings to check on your sales team’s progress throughout the year.
Quarterly Meeting Agenda
1. Celebrate: See details for this part of the meeting above (“Planning Annual Meeting”).
2. Review the previous quarter: How did we do last quarter?
3. Executive input: Is there any new information from executives or the marketplace that we need to consider this quarter?
4. Quarterly SQAG™: Did we accomplish last quarter’s SQAG™? Set a new SQAG™.
5. Shamrocks and Issues: Did we accomplish our Shamrocks? What new issues do we have, and which did we solve?
How CRM Can Improve Quarterly Sales Meetings:
The Weekly Lion’s Den Meeting Agenda (50 meetings, 1-hour)
1. Preparation (5-30 min)
Metric owners should spend about five minutes entering information into a weekly Excel sheet. Sales managers should spend ~30 minutes reviewing all front windows and rear views, and then drill-down for more info.
Write down any questions in preparation for the weekly meeting. As the meeting progresses, anyone can add items to the running issue list. Everyone should have the following items open:
- CRM with everyone’s personal, weekly dashboard.
- LUCKscore™ Excel – Use a goal tracking sheet, like the one below, to create a sense of individual ownership. Task sales reps to input their SQAG™’s before each meeting and discuss as needed.
- Agenda with Issues, Shamrocks, Commitments
2. Good LUCK (10-15 min)
Make sure all electronic messaging devices are off – no exceptions! Turn off all notifications in general to keep the meeting hyper-focused and respectful of everyone’s time.
- Everyone: Share rearview (i.e., last week’s accomplishments) and front window (i.e., what they have planned this week) via each team member’s CRM dashboard.
- If your CRM is configured and used as it should be, these lists can come directly out of CRM. This is a great way to get value from your CRM investment while creating accountability to use CRM correctly.
As the sales manager, ask clarifying questions during this time. Look for complete (quantity) and clear (quality) planning and tracking, and process compliance.
3. LUCKscore™ Review (10 min)
- Briefly review all LUCKscore™ items.
- Focus on the selected quarterly SQAG™ and discuss how the team score can be further improved.
- Capture individual commitments onto the Commitments list (see below). Sales manager: Be prepared to discuss why scores are where they are – backing up observations with dashboards.
4. Shamrocks Review (5 min)
- Review and discuss all large wishlist projects for the quarter.
- Add any items that are not on track to the Issues List (see below) to determine how to get them back on track.
- Items requiring an external owner are tracked on the commitments list, and the sales manager owns them for follow-up.
5. Review Commitments List (5 min)
- Review all items on the commitments list from the previous week.
- Owners report in on their progress on items.
- Team offers support for “stuck” items.
- Remove completed items from the list.
6. Issues List (10-25 min)
- Review issues and prioritize (vote).
- Work through issues in prioritized order (see the nearby example worksheet).
- Decide on team members’ commitments needed to tackle the issues – add these to the Commitments List for next week.
Monthly 1:1 Meetings (30 min – 2 days)
The timeframe for monthly one-on-one meetings will most likely vary. Sometimes, sales managers may want to check in for 30 minutes with a particular employee. Other times, up to 2-days may be necessary for coaching an employee to improve their performance.
1:1 Planning and Follow-Ups Agenda
- Coaching: 1:1 training/meeting, ride-along, detailed dashboard reviews
- Individual account plans/account-based selling
- Active opportunities and neglected items
- Targets: Client, referral, prospects
- Event/networking plan
- Thought leadership, content creation, social selling
- Overall: Activity planning and tracking – closing equation
- Individual SQAG™ or metric performance
- ROTII matrix and analysis
Consult with C5 Insight About CRM for Sales Meetings
Sales meetings are ineffective unless you have a regular cadence and an action plan to follow through on what you discussed. Use the sales meeting agendas provided in this blog to serve your team better at your next meeting.
At C5 Insight, we use this sales meeting model to coach our clients using scalable, repeatable, data-driven practices.
Are you interested in learning more about how CRM can benefit your sales meetings and your bottom line? Contact our team at C5 Insight by calling 704-895-2500 or email me, Geoff Ables, directly at geoff.ables@c5insight.com.
