PUMPED UP FOR THE 2014

NATIONAL SALES MEETING?!!

....YEAH RIGHT!

Don’t get me wrong I’m a “Homer” for national sales meetings because it’s the 1st of the year and everyone is

excited for the sales year to unfold. It’s also a time to visit and catch up with colleagues you haven’t seen in person for

a while and share pleasantries that are sometimes phony….you know what I mean (haha!!).

“ROCK CONCERT”….OR MEETING?

What I’ve found through experiencing literally about 100 National Sales Meetings is that most of

them are nothing more than “Pep Rally’s” as opposed to “Roll-Up The Sleeves” let’s prepare to

put our beginning year 2014 Sales & Marketing Strategy plan to test.

“OVERHYPED”!!!!

First, you have the “Motivational Speaker” (a profession I need to break into) who’s paid an

insane amount of money to “Motivate” the audience….this “Motivation” doesn’t last a day after the hyped presentation, then you have the “Talking Heads” from corporate provide their departments visions which personally I find

productive and necessary if they DON’T include personal aggrandizement and “Self-Flossing”.

“STOP COMPLAINING”!!...YOU’RE SPOILING IT FOR US

Yeah, it sounds like I’m complaining and blowing out “Negative Bubbles” on how National Sales

Meetings have been orchestrated and still place together today….I only do this because I care. Believe me I’m NOT being facetious, what has frustrated me the most and still frustrates me today is the lack of real “Application” at these

meetings.

“BREAKOUTS”….WHERE THE APPLICATION BEGINS!

Okay, I define “Application” at these meetings as the opportunity to discuss key components agreed upon that were placed in the year-end/beginning of year “Sales & Marketing Strategy Plan” those would include:

• How Do We Accelerate Growth? (ex. Increasing call average on top customers/accounts, aggressively pull-through product offerings that differentiate from competition, thought leader development at the account level etc etc.

• How Do We Develop Our People? (ex. Evaluate Training Infrastructure, Job Competencies, Coaching Tactics/Development.

• How Do We Drive Efficiency? (ex. Review Profiling/Targeting, Key Account Coverage, Budgeting Resources, Field Sales Time, Sales Processes, Forecasting etc.

• How Do We Evaluate Marketing? (ex. Brand Strategy Overview, Core Messaging, Value Propositioning Build, Market Research Review, KOL development at the National level, Brand Tactics Overview, etc etc.

• How Do We Practice Selling Skills? (ex. Role-Play, Role-Play, Scenario-Play, Scenario-Play, and “Bringing it All Together-Role-Play” with Certification.

 

Those are just a few “Application” initiatives I would spend the bulk of the meeting implementing and ensuring there was full “Competency Metrics” put in place so that

everyone is ready to hit the ground running post meeting.

Now, that I got that off my chest let me say I’m not a stick in the mud I enjoy the “Let’s Get Pumped

Up” beginning of the year National Sales Meeting….I’m just offering up the idea that that

should not override or push aside the “Application” portion of the meeting. The biggest

complaint I hear even today in working with clients is “WE NEVER HAVE TIME FOR PRACTICE/ROLE-PLAYING….and our “Breakout” sessions always

seem rushed.

GET HYPED FOR YOUR NATIONAL SALES MEETING….just make sure you’re ready to go when you return from that sunny/nice

place the meeting was held

Checkout my presentation on “Commercial Excellence Sales Plan-Example”….perhaps you can take away some key points out of the example plan to keep you focused at your upcoming National Sales Meeting.

http://www.slideshare.net/aharrell2000/commercial-excellence-sales-plan-example

 

You can also checkout my background/work by clicking on the following links:

http://www.slideshare.net/aharrell2000

www.linkedin.com/pub/andre-d-harrell/5/13/382/

http://thesalesprofessionalnetwork.blogspot.com/

www.ah2andbeyond.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sales-Marketing-Management-Consulting/267898536570725

Andre’ Harrell

AH2 & Beyond Consulting

www.ah2andbeyond.com

267-221-8529