Fall 2014
When is the right time to bring in a guest speaker into your sales meeting? Some sales managers may be worried it’s looked upon as needing someone to do their dirty work. Maybe they don’t want to be perceived as incompetent, needing to bring in an outside sales expert to whip their team into shape.
Hopefully, you see bringing a speaker to your sales meeting as a new learning opportunity. Think, “Ancora Imparo.” When Michelangelo was 86 he wrote this in the marginalia of one of his last dissertations. It translates to, “still, I am learning.” After a lifetime of discoveries and knowledge, he knew there was always more to learn – the mark of a true leader.
The most successful sales managers are those who are hungry for knowledge – reading business books, magazines and blogs that will inspire them to bring innovation to their sales meetings and business development processes. Rather than seeing an outside professional as a threat, they see it as fulfilling their responsibility to help their team be the best they can be.
Bringing in an expert in the business development field for your sales team should be about a facilitating pattern interrupt. If your salespeople are simply going through the motions, break your sales team out of stagnation and bring something fresh to your meeting. What can they (and you) learn from someone with a new perspective?
When you decide the time is right to mix up your sales meeting and invite a guest, don’t forget to survey your sales team – what is the one thing they are struggling with the most? Is it prospecting? Do they hate making cold calls and are tired of working hard only to frustrating results? Is it awkward having the money conversation? Do they find themselves in a tug-of-war over who will give up their number first?
Regardless of what it is, take the time to find out what your salespeople would like to learn more about, and then find the best speaker to present on those topics. Make sure you have your team reflect after the fact. What did they learn? What will they do better or differently? How will they implement? As a sales manager, take the lead and do the same – share how you will make the most of your guest speaker’s shared experience.
by Nigel Dunand & Mark Wormald
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