11 Ideas for Effective Sales Meetings Your Team Won’t Hate

When your weekly sales meeting falls into a stale routine of reviewing numbers and discussing targets, you know it needs something more. Especially if you’re hosting them virtually and suspect your team members check their emails, chat on Slack, or even do the ironing while you’re talking.

Don’t give up, it’s actually not so hard to host effective sales team meetings. With a few tricks up your sleeve, you can transform these dreaded 30 minutes into a time for collaboration, inspiration, and growth - which your team actually looks forward to. Check out our tips to make your next sales-meetings a success, whether they’re in-person and virtual selling.

Why salespeople hate sales meetings

Sales team meetings bring everyone together to review the team’s performance, get alignment on the sales strategy, share best practices, and address any challenges. But often, these meetings can feel like an unproductive time-sink, especially when:

1. They have no clear purpose
2. They can feel a one-way communication
3. There’s a negative atmosphere
4. Your team isn’t that comfortable with each other

1. They have no clear purpose

Without a clear and agreed-upon purpose, sales meetings can become a hot mess. Your team may have different expectations. This can lead to everyone talking over each other and important topics left unaddressed (more on this later!).

How to fix it

• Set a clear agenda with sales meeting topics that need to be covered.
• Share the sales meeting agenda beforehand.
• Let everyone know their role in achieving the goals of the meeting.
• Have an appointed facilitator during virtual sales meetings to keep people on task and focused.
• Follow up with action items or a call to action (CTA) at the end of your sales team meeting.

2. They can feel like a one-way communication

If you’re the only person speaking, for example going over customer success metrics while your team zones out, this may give the impression that other people’s input isn’t valued. If this is the case, your team may only listen passively or find themselves doing other tasks in the background.

How to fix it

• Start your meetings with an icebreaker, so your team can build stronger relationships and trust.
• Split the team into breakout rooms and let them discuss their challenges, successes, and ideas.
• Ask open-ended questions that force people to think critically about the topic.
• Brainstorm solutions together as a group.

3. There’s a negative atmosphere

It can be hard to motivate people when the atmosphere is uninspiring. Negative attitudes can stem from pressure of underperformance, disagreements with targets, or difficult customer interactions.

How to fix it

• Celebrate successes with your team, no matter how small.
• Encourage creative problem-solving and collaboration instead of criticism.
• Have a clear code of conduct for your sales team meetings and hold everyone accountable.

4. Your team isn’t that comfortable with each other

If your team members aren't communicating effectively, it can lead to misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and a general sense of discomfort. Similarly, personality clashes, unequal treatment, and different goals can also lead to a breakdown in communication.

How to fix it

• Have regular check-ins with your team members to address any issues before they become bigger problems.
• Encourage team-building activities, like coffee breaks or games.
• Create an action plan to set clear expectations and goals for the entire team.

11 Fun and motivational sales meeting ideas

You want your team to walk away from each meeting feeling energized, inspired, and ready to conquer the world! Whether you're meeting in-person or virtually, these motivational sales meeting ideas can help you get there:

1. Have a clear sales team meeting agenda
2. Respect your team’s time
3. Take meetings online
4. Start with a good icebreaker
5. Give team shoutouts
6. Set up individual objectives
7. Let others own the meeting
8. Encourage collaboration
9. Train regularly
10. Run sales role-plays
11. Host lunch and learn sessions

1. Have a clear sales team meeting agenda

Whether you're running an in-person or a virtual meeting, it's important to provide your team with a clear agenda. Generally, the duration of a sales team meeting ranges between 30 to 45 mins. So, you need to ensure that everyone stays on track and eliminates any unnecessary distractions.

And if you don't know where to start, here's a meeting agenda template to inspire you:

Attendees: [Employee names], [Sales manager name]

Date: [Time and date]

Duration: 30 minutes

Wins from last week [5 minutes]

What were your biggest accomplishments last week? Did anyone on the team go above and beyond or accomplish something notable?

Sales performance review [5 minutes]

Review the team's performance from the previous week. Highlight any trends, successes, or areas for improvement.

Discuss current deals [10 minutes]

Discuss any current deals in progress, updates on progress, and any potential obstacles. Identify action items needed to move deals forward.

Priorities for this week [5 minutes]

What are your top priorities for this week? Discuss any upcoming meetings, calls, or presentations and ensure that everyone is aligned on the goals.

Action items [5 minutes]

Identify any action items or follow-ups from the meeting and assign owners for each action item. Confirm deadlines and next steps.

2. Respect your team’s time

Your team members are juggling multiple responsibilities like following up with prospects, closing deals, and meeting sales targets. So you want to avoid keeping them in the meeting longer than necessary.

Start and end meetings on time, limit the call duration, and provide a clear agenda in advance. Don't schedule more meetings than you need, and if you do need to extend a meeting, be sure to ask your team first.

3. Take meetings online

With virtual meetings, team members can participate from anywhere, allowing for greater flexibility in working hours and the option to work remotely. This eliminates the need to travel to a physical location, saving time and commuting expenses. Virtual meetings are the easiest way to get your distributed team to collaborate with others.

You can use video conferencing tools like Livestorm, Zoom, or Google Meet to host interactive, engaging sessions. For example, you can use a browser-based platform like Livestorm to get your team online without downloading any software. Plus, it comes with engagement features like live chat and emoji reactions, which can improve team collaboratio

4. Start with a good icebreaker

Icebreakers can create a sense of unity among your team, as everyone shares a little bit about themselves and gets to know their colleagues on a more personal level. You can create your own icebreaker, like "Room 101," wherein each team member names something they would banish forever.

If you're feeling stuck, take a look at these fun ideas:

• Share a photo of your pet and describe their personality
• If you were stranded on an island, what are the 3 things that you’d like to have with you?
• What's a non-work related skill or hobby you're proud of?
• Share a funny or embarrassing moment from your childhood
• What's your favorite hobby or pastime outside of work?

Pro tip: If you're hosting a virtual icebreaker that asks team members to vote on something, use Livestorm's polls for quick feedback and a visual summary of everyone's opinion.

5. Give team shoutouts

When you shine a spotlight on your team's achievements, it can be a powerful source of motivation. For example, if your team member Usman closed a significant deal, give him a shoutout during the meeting. Or if Leila mastered a new sales skill or took on a challenging project, shout it out!

But you don't have to do it alone. Encourage your team to give shoutouts to teammates for their accomplishments too. When you celebrate achievements together, you foster a positive and inclusive company culture.

Pro tip: Use Livestorm's emoji reaction feature to give a virtual 'thumbs up' or 'celebration' and show appreciation during the meeting.

6. Set up individual objectives

You want your team members to understand how their individual performance contributes to the team's success. While key performance indicators (KPIs) are important, you don't want to go overboard with metrics. Instead, set objective and key results (OKRs) which focus on outcomes rather than outputs.

Here are some examples to set OKRs for your sales team:

Objective: Increase sales revenue by 20% in Q1

Key Results:

• Close 20 new deals per week
• Increase average deal size by 15%
• Expand customer base by 10%

Objective: Improve customer satisfaction ratings to 95% in Q2

Key Results:

• Reduce customer complaints by 50%
• Increase customer feedback survey participation by 25%
• Implement 3 new customer service initiatives

7. Let others own the meeting

Are you always the only one in charge of your sales team meetings? It's time to let others take the wheel! Appoint a "Chief Meeting Officer" and take turns rotating this responsibility, so everyone gets a chance to plan and lead a meeting. This not only takes some pressure off you, but it allows your team to learn from each other, share new ideas, and build leadership skills.

Plus, you can add a segment to your sales meetings where each sales rep gives a 3 to 5 minutes presentation on an idea, skill, or other sales-related topics. They can bring their own material and use design tools like Visme to create illustrative presentations. This way, your team benefits from knowledge sharing, collaboration, and exploring different perspectives.

Pro team: If you’re hosting a virtual sales meeting, use Visme's Livestorm integration to present a Visme slide deck within the meeting room directly.

8. Encourage collaboration

The best sales meetings leave room for collaboration and brainstorming. If you're hosting an in-person meeting, you can use a physical whiteboard or flipchart to organize ideas. You can also assign group tasks or projects. For example, you can break your team into smaller groups to design a new sales strategy.

If you're hosting virtual meetings, there are plenty of collaboration tools that allow teams to work together in real time. Tools like Miro's digital whiteboard let you share ideas, map out processes, and create stunning visuals. Plus, if you're using a video engagement tool like Livestorm, you can create unlimited breakout rooms with up to 16 speakers. This way, your team can brainstorm ideas and share observations in the main room when ready.

Pro tip: Use Livestorm’s Miro integration to share and annotate ideas and visuals directly from your meeting room.

9. Train regularly

It’s always a best practice to invest in training and development so your team can stay on top of the latest technologies, (like LinkedIn Chrome extensions), strategies, and product updates. Whether you set up a formal sales training program or host weekly training sessions, focus on high-value topics like:

• Running successful virtual sales calls, product demos, and cold calls
• Building and managing customer relationships
• Negotiation and closing techniques
• Prospecting and lead generation
• Sales techniques and strategies
• Psychology and emotional intelligence

Plus, you can have everyone take regular assessments or tests to measure their progress and make sure they’re up to date on key topics.

10. Run effective sales role-plays

Role-plays are a powerful training tool for sales teams. It helps employees develop and refine their skills, learn to think on their feet, and improve communication. For example, you can run a sales pitch role-play where team members must pitch a new product or service to a potential customer, addressing their pain points and highlighting the unique features of the offering.

You can also add customer personas into your sales role-plays. For example, create a scenario where team members must sell to a specific customer persona, like a small business owner or a C-level executive.

To make sure your role-plays are effective:

• Create a realistic scenario
• Choose actors for each role and assign the roles in advance, so everyone is prepared
• Designate a moderator to observe, take meeting notes, and provide feedback
• Allow practice time before the actual role-play begins
• Provide constructive feedback after each round of the role-play

Pro tip: If you're using Livestorm, use the transcript app to generate texts in the sidebar of your room automatically and follow up on key points made during the meeting.

11. Host lunch and learn sessions

Hosting a lunch and learn session is an effective way to keep your team motivated and engaged. Put together team-building exercises and courses aimed at skill-building and personal development to get the team together. You can invite a speaker within your organization to share different perspectives.

For example, invite someone from the customer success team to discuss customer service best practices or invite someone from the marketing team to discuss lead generation strategies. Or you can also invite external speakers to share their knowledge and experience. Host the session at a local restaurant or outdoor venue, providing a change of scenery and an opportunity for team members to bond over a shared experience.

Energize and engage your sales team

Your sales team meetings don’t have to be the dreaded part of your team’s workweek. The key to a successful sales meeting is to make it both informative and enjoyable.

Here’s a quick recap:

• Set a clear sales team meeting agenda
• Start with a good icebreaker
• Recognize your team's achievements
• Set goals and OKRs
• Keep your meetings short, sweet, and to the point
• Give everyone a chance to lead
• Build confidence and sales skills with role-plays
• Provide ongoing training and development opportunities

And if you're hosting virtual sales team meetings, you need a video engagement tool. Livestorm offers interactive features like live chat and polls, integrations with Miro's whiteboard, design tools like Visme, and 1000+ other widely used apps. So your team can walk away feeling engaged, motivated, and inspired.

Frequently asked questions about sales meeting ideas

How do you motivate a sales team in a meeting?

You can motivate your sales team in a meeting by celebrating wins, encouraging positive competition, and setting attainable goals. You can also use role-plays during meetings to give your sales reps practice in real scenarios and provide constructive feedback after each round of the role-play.

What are good team meeting topics?

Good team meeting topics depend on your business goals and objectives, but some ideas include:

• Progress updates on ongoing projects
• Brainstorming ideas to improve processes, and customer experience and increase sales
• Reviewing key metrics like close rates or customer retention numbers.
• Communicating new product/service launches
• Sharing best practices from other teams in the organization

What should a sales meeting not do?

A sales meeting should not:

• Micromanage or criticize team members
• Be too long or drawn out
• Make meetings all about numbers and targets without addressing the bigger picture
• Be disorganized or lacking in structure
• Ignore the input or ideas of team members
• Be too negative or discouraging

What makes a great sales meeting?

A great sales meeting makes your team members feel engaged and motivated. It should have a clear agenda, interactive team-building exercises, and opportunities for collaboration. Keeping your meetings short and sweet with clear objectives helps ensure everyone stays focused and gets the most out of their time.