If you're having an annual sales meeting, do it right
In spite of appearances, and warnings from people who have never had real jobs, executives are putting the incentive back into the selling process. Why? Easy answer: It works. An annual sales meeting is integral to the success of the year’s sales performance. It’s a one-time opportunity to recognize past performance and inspire achievement for the next 12 months. It’s also an expensive endeavor.
Making these meetings successful requires a lot of work months before the meeting takes place. Here are some ideas and challenges to make you think—and rethink—the process. (Note: If you’re on the sales team, send a copy of this article to the powers that be.)
Plan. Choose an environment for relaxed fun, and learning. A resort or hotel with sporting options, nice sleeping rooms, and nice meeting rooms.
Pre-question the participants. Ask them about problems and needs—about strengths and frustrations—about themselves and their goals. Use the questionnaires to personalize the training portions of the meeting.
Budget for it. A nice place. Transportation. Lots of fun. Great food. A first-class speaker-trainer. Awards. And more fun.
Seek professional help. Have someone in charge inside and/or outside who can make the dream meeting a reality. Arm them with
a set of directives and objectives, and specific walk-away items that the meeting must accomplish. Partner with a professional meeting planner. Note I did not say HIRE; partner means “work with.”
Create a realistic, relatable theme. Have an internal contest with a $1,000 prize for the winner.
Start with a bang. Do group fun first. Play a round of golf. Have a big dinner. Show pictures of last year. Have a karaoke party (the best way to get everyone to get to know the others).
A regal welcome. A short welcome from the CEO at the first formal gathering—10–15 minutes. Tell a few personal stories about the climb up the ladder. A personal thanks for the group’s hard work.
Spotlight one or two people. Have them tell the group how they made a big sale, saved a deal, or used a new strategy.
Award the best. The best salespeople deserve to receive awards from top managers. Have high-quality plaques, trophies, and prizes. Have several categories so there can be lots of winners: Biggest sale. Most new customers. Highest volume. Fewest lost customers. Most improved. Best AR collections. Fewest returns or cancellations.
Plan your future together. The next 12 months must be a big focus of the meeting. Let the salespeople be part of the plan. Don’t just give them the game plan. Let the salespeople help make it. If you want salespeople to take ownership of sales goals, it’s only
possible when they participate in the goal-setting process.
Goal everything. Let each team member help create a personal action plan to achieve goals. Create daily, weekly, and monthly numbers. Not just ending numbers, but what it takes to get to the end: How many leads it takes to make one appointment, how many appointments it takes to make a sale. The goal should not just be an end number. There should be goals for leads and appointments as well.
Train professionally. Hire an outside professional to present to the group. Plan the training to be inspirational, customized, personalized, and real-world. Use workbooks, workshops, role-playing and videotaping. The training should be a combination of inspiration and motivation, with actual selling situations and answers. Training should be at least 50 percent of the meeting time.
A note on speakers: Often, meeting planners or companies have a budget, and are looking to fill a slot. This is a big mistake. If you seek to transfer knowledge, hire someone who is qualified to do so; and qualified not just on the subject, but entertaining as well. The speaker can be the highlight of the entire meeting.
Eat well. Have the best food that money can buy—even at breaks during the day. People will remember the quality of the meeting by the quality of the fun, training, and food. Mostly food.
Have recreation time, but not get-drunk-and act-stupid time. Having people stagger in to information-packed conferences and seminars after a night on the town is a big waste of a meeting.
Build relationships. Have free time for people to get to know each other. Salespeople face problems alone, but can solve them together (with a professional facilitator). Leave time for problem solving, informal meeting and socializing.
The CEO issues A Final Challenge. A short, prepared inspirational message will keep the team talking (and achieving) for the next 12 months.
Want first class results from your meeting? Make the meeting first class. 
Return to Ingram's March 2010
Jeffrey Gitomer is author of The Little Red Book of Selling and The Little Red Book of Sales Answers.
P | 704.333.1112
E | salesman@gitomer.com