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“I think that we find ourselves over-believing in tools,” says Brisk’s CEO Hampus Jakobsson. “When I interviewed Wiser’s VP of Sales and asked him about his best sales tools and practices and he said ‘Talking to my reps face to face.’” Here are five meetings every sales team should hold regularly.
1. A weekly stand-up pipeline review
Have the meeting standing up to avoid meandering discussions. Talk tactics with your fast movers to maximize the probability of closing. Use a checklist for each opportunity: Do we have an ambassador? Do we have the product usage? Have they been to a webinar?
You can discuss the decision maker, the buyer and the user but avoid mentioning people’s names. Instead mention the company. “Don’t say ‘I’m emailing Brian, great guy, blah, blah, blah.‘” says Hampus. “No one cares about Brian. What company?“
2. The cleaning session
If you’ve moved the close date six times now, you’re probably not going to close. Clean up the file. A clean funnel is best for everyone. Then discuss best practices.
Brisk sends a goodbye email. “I don’t know how many clients we’ve won by saying, ‘Okay, Brian, I don’t want to take any more of your time. Not a problem. People who buy Brisk tend to have 100% CRM adoption if that’s not your priority, I’m not going to bother you.” says Hampus. “67% of people reply. Or if they don’t, mark as closed/lost.“
3. Best practices session
Keep the VP of Sales or sales manager out of this meeting because it’s about team bonding, not about looking smart in front of your manager. I have this problem, what do you think about this? Look what this guy wrote, what does he mean? We’re selling to friends. Is this appropriate? What’s the best time to call people in the car?
“We see people doing it over beers in some countries,” says Hampus. “Do it over beers. Do it over lunch. Have a good time.”
4. Show and tell
This is the time for an individual rep to show a great tool or a smart tactic he has used. “Sales reps tend to be extroverts and they need to learn some showmanship,” says Hampus. “That’s something you don’t actually practice that much on webinars and demos which are very scripted.” In the show and tell, reps get a chance to shine in front of all their peers.
5. Individual pipeline review
This meetings are really about figuring what motivates individual reps and how to coach them accordingly. Is this rep motivated by winning or learning? Where do they see themselves in a year? Often the way into the psychological discussion is by talking about something else, in this case their individual pipeline: What’s hard, what’s easy, what’s good? Do you prefer opening discussions or being in renewals?
“One reason why golf is so popular with men, and why sauna is so popular with men in countries where sauna is big,” says Hampus. “Is because we have this issue that we can’t really talk to other men while looking them in the eye, but we’re awesome at doing it when we don’t. So go through their pipeline, but do it with the goal of figuring out who the rep is and how to make them excel.”
Listen to James Carbery’s full interview with Hampus about the five essential sales meetings in this great podcast.
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