Sales Meeting Ideas to Energize Your Team

If the idea of yet another meeting sounds not so exciting, we can’t blame you, but we have a solution: Trying new and refreshing sales meeting ideas. Taking a slightly unorthodox approach to the standard meeting can elevate your conversations beyond rote, numbers-based planning and turn them into exciting and engaging events that leave your team members feeling energized and ready to tackle the day. Play your cards right, and your team might actually look forward to your sales meetings.

Think of your sales meetings like the sales pitches your team makes every day. Like those pitches, your meetings should be to the point and conversational. If that’s how you’re keeping prospects engaged, why not do the same for your own team? That’s why this article includes 12 sales meeting ideas to bring your employees together and motivate your team to achieve their goals and meet company expectations.

• Why spicing up sales meetings is a good idea
• 12 Sales Meeting Ideas
• Tips for a successful sales meeting

Why spicing up sales meetings is a good idea

Teams with high engagement are usually more profitable than teams with low engagement. While that’s certainly a motivating factor for any business, it also helps the day go quickly and smoothly. After all, a highly engaged team is simply more enjoyable to work with. Both you and the sales reps you’re leading will have a better time in a room full of eager employees instead of people slumped over their coffees, looking (and acting) exhausted. 

Beyond the whole art of zhuzhing things up for your team, motivating everyone in the room also means you’re sharing your sales experience and thought processes. Your team can use these powerful tools to improve their performance and better connect with customers. Plus, your sales reps’ energy and enthusiasm contribute to your clients’ overall opinions about your business, what you offer, and yes — they may be more enticed to seal the deal with your company.

12 Sales Meeting Ideas

Keeping your team engaged and focus is one of the most effective ways to increase team motivation and resulting productivity. Your sales meeting is the perfect place to start! To help get the creativity flowing, here are 12 ideas to engage your employees during your sales team meetings.

• Watch a video together
• Play games
• Role-play pitches
• Share experiences and stories
• Invite an expert
• Simulate obstacles
• Relocate
• Have a lunch-and-learn session
• Individual skills planning
• Team-building exercises
• Run contests
• Celebrate wins, small and big alike

1 Watch a video together

There’s certainly no shortage of content on YouTube (or other social media platforms) that you can use to motivate your team. Videos can concisely illustrate new concepts or provide motivational advice for your team.

• Why it’s a good idea: In many cases, the information presented in a video is more easily digestible than concepts presented in a speech. A quick video can convey important information without sacrificing engagement or entertainment value.
  
• How to make it happen: Choose a video before your meeting, and make notes on some key points you want your team to discuss after watching it. Talking points prompt your team to share their thoughts, ask questions, and give suggestions on how to implement what they’ve learned into their workdays.

2 Play games

Saying, “Let’s play a game!” can be a much more exciting way to start your meeting than, “Hi everyone, let’s get started.” A game sets a relaxing, informal tone that can help your team remain focused and engaged with the subjects at hand.

• Why it’s a good idea: Games make for great team-building activities that illustrate a concept better than any lecture or talk. A game can also make your meeting less formal and more conversational, thus increasing the chance that your team will want to participate.
  
• How to make it happen: Use an icebreaker to start your meeting, or take key points from your meeting and make them the focus of your game. Examples of sales meeting games include cold calling contests, trivia, or timed pitch contests.

3 Role-play pitches

Sales pitches are a central piece of your team’s work. To help your employees sharpen their pitching skills and observe how they’d react in certain situations (and offer some helpful pointers, if needed), try role-playing your pitches.

• Why it’s a good idea: Employees can practice the sales strategies you’ve taught them while highlighting your employees’ personalities.
  
• How to make it happen: Break your team into groups of two. Assign each person the role of either seller or customer. Give each duo a sales scenario, like selling a pen or interacting with an uninterested customer. Instruct each team to enact the situation using concepts discussed in the meeting.

4 Share experiences and stories

Asking some of your team’s top sellers to share the strategies and sales skills they’ve learned can be a valuable part of your meeting. This discussion promotes healthy conversation while sharing best practices that can benefit the team.

• Why it’s a good idea: Your team can learn from real-world examples instead of guessing based on hypotheticals. Group members can then use this new information in their pitching.
  
• How to make it happen: Have your team’s top sellers prepare brief points on their most effective strategies ahead of your meeting. Encourage your speakers to keep their presentations concise so the meeting remains engaging.

5 Invite an expert

A sales meeting is a great space for bringing new ideas into the fold. Product leaders, executives, and company founders have invaluable perspectives they can share to change how your sales team approaches its tasks.

• Why it’s a good idea: Field experts bring new perspectives that your team may have never considered among themselves. Insight into new strategics or emerging topics can help sales teams up their game — and help your company increase its bottom line.
  
• How to make it happen: The outside expert for your meeting doesn’t have to be a big-name speaker, just someone who can demonstrate experience and success. While you’re planning your meeting, reach out to an expert and give them a quick synopsis so they can tailor their talking points accordingly.

6 Simulate obstacles

Many sales professionals go through the same or similar challenges, whether that’s common questions from would-be clients or tough pushback when the deal feels like it’s about to close. Addressing some of these challenges during your meeting can give your team the tools they need to work through this situation with poise, and hopefully successful results.

• Why it’s a good idea: Simulating obstacles helps your employees assess, and practice for, how they’ll handle certain situations. Employees can use what they’ve learned to address real-life challenges during sales activities.
  
• How to make it happen: Create a mock challenge for your team to work through during your meeting. For example, pretend to be a difficult customer on the phone and have your team create an effective communication plan to end the call with a sale.

7 Relocate

The same scenery can become pretty dull when your team members spend tons of time in the same place. Switching up meeting locations can increase your attendees’ attention and spark some interesting conversation.

• Why it’s a good idea: Creating even a small positive variation in your location during the day can boost your mood and help you see things from a different perspective. Periodically changing your location can give your employees just the right amount of change to make the meeting a little more exciting.
  
• How to make it happen: Pick a new spot as you plan your next meeting, and communicate the location to your team in your meeting memo. That said, to prevent confusion, change locations only occasionally.

8 Have a lunch-and-learn session

Discussing sales strategies gets a little more interesting when food is on the table (doesn’t everything?). Hosting a lunch-and-learn sales meeting not only keeps your team from thinking of food, but may increase attendance as well. After all, who doesn’t love a free lunch?

• Why it’s a good idea: Food lends an informal feel to your meetings. Hosting your meeting during lunchtime lets you share key information with your employees while not taking any time from their workday as well.
  
• How to make it happen: In your meeting invite, ask team members to share their meal preferences so everyone has something to eat. You can also book space at a local restaurant to hold an offsite lunch-and-learn meeting (see sales meeting idea #7!)

9 Individual skills planning

A skills plan allows an employee to make a list of skills they want to develop and figure out how to do so. Set aside some meeting time for employees to create plans and share their points with your team.

• Why it’s a good idea:  Creating a list of skills and a plan to develop them lets employees set their own goals. These lists encourage employees to identify areas in which they can further grow and identify ways to accomplish that growth.
  
• How to make it happen: Have your employees list the skills they want to develop. Instruct them to write two or three bullet points under each skill describing the action steps they’ll take to develop it.

10 Team-building exercises

Whether through icebreakers or problem-solving activities, team-building exercises bring some fun to your meeting, helping your team feel more relaxed and more likely to share their thoughts and ideas. Sure, they have a bit of a reputation for initially eliciting groans from employees, but once you’re well into them, don’t be surprised to see smiles lighting up the room.

• Why it’s a good idea: Team-building exercises can promote trust among your employees, foster communication, and promote healthy company culture. Each of these factors contributes to a positive work environment that can increase motivation and employee productivity.
  
• How to make it happen: Create a plan for your team-building activity before your meeting, and gather any necessary supplies. Having a detailed plan with clear instructions helps keep your meeting on track and your team engaged.

11 Run contests

Who doesn’t love a healthy dose of competition? Bring out your employees’ competitive side by announcing a contest at your meeting.

• Why it’s a good idea: A contest can drive employees to work harder while checking in with other team members about their progress and achievements. Contests also require participants to assess their work performance as it pertains to a certain goal, and doing so can lead to more accountability.
  
• How to make it happen: Challenge your team to accomplish goals related to their everyday work. For example, have each of your team members make a personable sales pitch to the rest of the group. Once everyone has taken a turn, have the group vote on whose pitch was best. The person with the most votes wins.

12 Celebrate wins, small and big alike

Every success among your team members is a company win. Praising your employees for all their successes makes them feel appreciated and more motivated to sell time and again.

• Why it’s a good idea: Promoting your employees’ successes helps you and your team focus on what’s going well. Celebrating wins can also encourage employees to set personal goals that lead to their own new wins.

• How to make it happen: Have each meeting attendee think of one win they recently had at work. Ask them to share that success with the rest of the group. Congratulations should be encouraged.

Tips for a successful sales meeting

Now that you know some strategies to boost your sales team’s motivation, you’ll need to structure your meetings so your ideas are well-received. Even if you bring fantastic ideas to the table, your meeting can be counterproductive if you neglect some key points. Here are seven tips to help make your sales meeting successful.

• Ditch technology. The urge to reply to a message during a meeting is understandable, but doing so is a distraction. Encourage your attendees to silence their devices or leave them at their desks so everyone can focus on your meeting.
  
• Start with goals. An initial discussion of goals clearly communicates the thresholds you’ve set for each team member. This way, everyone knows how they’re expected to contribute to the team’s success.
  
• Mix things up. Switching up the style and setting of your meetings can give your attendees a refreshing change. Try hosting an offsite meeting, catering a lunch, or something else novel and unexpected.
  
• Prepare an agenda beforehand. Nothing decreases interest like a disorganized meeting. A detailed sales meeting agenda helps keep your meeting on track and lets your team know what activities and discussions to expect. A meeting planning checklist can help you organize any games, questions, and simulations in advance so you’re not using meeting time to work through specific details.
  
• Provide room for discussion. Engagement is all about participation. Give your attendees time to ask questions, air concerns, or share ideas so they can contribute to your meeting.
  
• Ask for feedback. At the end of your meeting, ask your team to give you feedback. What would they add to the next meeting? Was there enough time to discuss everything? Did they like the activities and exercises? Asking these questions shows that you value your team’s opinions and invites your colleagues to contribute to future meetings.
  
• Have fun. Adding some excitement to your sales meetings can make your meetings less formal and more inviting. This allows you to better connect with your employees and increase engagement – and, in turn, sales. 

Sell your next meeting

Sales meetings get your team on the same page, set goals, and create solutions. The best part? You can do this all while motivating your team to perform its best. The above sales meeting ideas can make your next sales meeting meaningful and a clear precedent to successful pitching. To help plan your next meeting, Fellow’s tools keep you organized and your meetings streamlined as you focus on making your sales meetings engaging and fun.