Sales Managers

top virtual sales training company

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Factor 8 Named a Selling Power 2022 Top Virtual Sales Training Company

Factor 8 is pleased to announce it has been included on Selling Power’s Top Virtual Sales Training Companies in 2022 list.

“Since our start in 2008, we’ve been training virtual sales. It was uncommon even 5 years ago for sales leaders to embrace selling software, technology, and pharmaceuticals over the phone! I’m inspired by the industry’s shift to virtual selling in the past decade and look forward to continuing our progress for the next ten years. Factor 8 believes fully in the power of inside/virtual teams and our responsibility to train sellers and managers to maximize this legitimate, and daresay dominant, channel. Thank you Selling Power for this prestigious designation,” says Factor 8 Founder & President Lauren Bailey.

Factor 8’s winning application highlighted the incredible success of its virtual sales training programs and its ability to adapt to its customer’s needs in the constantly evolving corporate landscape. With many years of experience in virtual sales, Factor 8 quickly became a strategic partner to various B2B and B2C companies, helping their sales teams adjust to and excel in virtual and hybrid selling environments.

According to Selling Power publisher and CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner, “Research shows that sales training has dramatically shifted from live to virtual. Selling Power magazine has identified the Top Virtual Sales Training companies in the market. Each one of the companies included delivers best-in-class, virtual training solutions that consistently drive-up sales. Their efforts and expertise helped their clients reach and exceed sales goals during an increasingly challenging economy.”

All companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application that included a detailed listing of their offerings for both training and retention, delivery methods, and their response to changing market conditions.

The main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this year’s list were:

  • Strategies to keep participants engaged
  • The scope and breadth of virtual sales training offerings
  • Methodologies for supporting participant retention
  • Innovation in offerings and/or delivery as a response to customer needs or changes in the marketplace
  • Strength of client satisfaction and general client feedback

To evaluate client satisfaction, the Selling Power team surveyed and considered feedback from more than 270 clients of the applicants. Here is a brief selection of comments from their clients:

  • “Simply put, they provide superior training and development for our team. From our entry-level folks to our most experienced team members, everyone gains knowledge from their sessions.”
  • “Fabulous training. Engaging, passionate, and always willing to go the extra mile. Their investment in our team has been amazing.”
  • “First Class organization that stands behind their training services.”
  •  “Great overall experience and concepts outlined to address the key sales success areas we are targeting. Their team has maintained a high level of service, and we appreciate the partnership.”
  • “Great company, great people, great results!”

Selling Power magazine editors say CROs, sales VPs, and sales enablement leaders can leverage this list to find the right sales training partner to deliver best-in-class virtual sales training.

See Selling Power’s Top Virtual Sales Training Companies in 2022 list at: https://bit.ly/3NtA2Cw

About Factor 8 

Factor 8 is an award-winning sales rep and management training company focused 100% on helping sales teams sell in a virtual world. They are a team of expert sales leaders who quit the daily grind so they could spend their time developing people. Together, they’ve solved the big problem: Sales Reps and Managers are not gaining the skills they need to quickly feel confident and successful long-term. That means they ramp slowly and leave quickly. 

They’ve made the calls, done the demos, managed the teams, and forecasted the deals. They have a better way to ensure teams hit higher revenue goals faster. https://factor8.com/

About Selling Power 

In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as videos featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by a total of more than 4,500 sales leaders each year. www.sellingpower.com

Looking to partner with a top virtual sales training company?

Contact us today to learn more about our virtual sales training programs
for sales reps and sales managers. 



The Ultimate Sales Rep + Manager Relationship [“Sales Shot” Workshop]

The Ultimate Sales Rep + Manager Relationship

[“Sales Shot” Workshop]

“PEOPLE DON’T QUIT BAD JOBS, THEY QUIT BAD BOSSES”

We know how tough it is to find great salespeople, so the smart leaders are asking a better question, “How do we keep our reps?” The bottom line is always the relationship between an employee and their manager. So what does the ultimate Sales Rep to Sales Manager relationship look like? Gallup reports that reps with great relationships won’t leave a company unless they’re offered over a 20% higher salary.

Watch this uber informative session to learn 10 things you can do ASAP to boost the relationship with your reps (and reps with their managers!). We’ll hear from in-demand sellers and award-winning leaders so we can beat the Great Resignation by keeping talent longer, loving our jobs, and all making more commission.

Watch the video replay!

“PEOPLE DON’T QUIT BAD JOBS, THEY QUIT BAD BOSSES”

We know how tough it is to find great salespeople, so the smart leaders are asking a better question, “How do we keep our reps?” The bottom line is always the relationship between an employee and their manager. So what does the ultimate Sales Rep to Sales Manager relationship look like? Gallup reports that reps with great relationships won’t leave a company unless they’re offered over a 20% higher salary.

Watch this uber informative session to learn 10 things you can do ASAP to boost the relationship with your reps (and reps with their managers!). We’ll hear from in-demand sellers and award-winning leaders so we can beat the Great Resignation by keeping talent longer, loving our jobs, and all making more commission.

Watch the video replay!

Sales Management Productivity Tips

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Top 8 Sales Management Productivity Hacks

Fact: Sales management is the busiest job in the world. Okay, maybe that’s not a real fact, but if you’re a sales manager, you probably feel like it is. Chances are, you’ve got a pretty tremendous and stressful workload. According to the American Institute of Stress, 39% of stress reported amongst employees in the US is caused by an overwhelming amount of work. 

So, what happens when you can’t get it all done? For starters: you go home later, you feel less satisfied with your accomplishments, and you add an extra level of anxiety to your plate. Let’s get some of that time back in your day. 

Here are our top 8 sales management productivity tips: 

1. Make Proactivity the Goal

Start by leaving your reactive self in the past. How? First, we need to identify your priorities. I get it, you received 100 emails just in the time you are reading this blog. But you were not hired to write emails. So, let’s take a closer look at what you were hired to do and what your priority should be. Next, set your daily goal to hit that priority. Setting (and hitting) that goal will make you feel a lot more productive and will make it easier for you to stay on track. Finally, we need to learn how to recognize whether the new things that come our way each day are proactive versus reactive. This will help you say “no” at the right times and help you prioritize the things that you really NEED to get accomplished. 

Hint: Reading emails = Reactive. Helping reps with questions that pop up = Reactive. Calling a strategy meeting to help a rep hit their goal = Proactive! Creating a new KPI report = Proactive!


2. Rethink Meetings

Your meeting cadence is the process that organizes your team’s regular interactions. When scheduled properly, the cadence will prevent you from handling a series of reactive “fires” every day. Create the cadence that works best for you and your team. We’ve taken a bit of time to dive into the 8 essential sales manager meetings. Check out this deep dive and learn which meetings are short, which are long, which are 1:1, and which should be done in a group. Read more here: 8 Essential Manager Meetings. While you’re working on your meeting cadence you can also perfect your 1:1 meetings.


3. Live in the Matrix

Have you used the Eisenhower Matrix before? If not, it all starts by asking yourself 2 critical questions. Is it urgent? Is it important? From there we break things down into 4 groups.

  1. Is this a Fire Drill? 
  2. An item to Schedule? 
  3. An item to Delegate? 
  4. Or an item to Trash? 

Eisenhower Matrix

Let’s dive in a little deeper to see how these questions help us categorize each task. First are the urgent items. Urgent means time-sensitive and goal-related. Maybe the customer is on the phone and needs an answer to close the deal, or maybe the contract department is reviewing your deal in 1 hour and you need to tie up a few loose ends first. 

Next are the important items. Important means it is critical to the mission but it is not time-sensitive. These important things can be scheduled out. This might be mapping out a strategy for a certain campaign, or reviewing the team’s numbers to ensure they will hit goal. 

Now, let’s see how the two questions help us categorize our tasks

  1. Important + Urgent = Fire Drill – do it ASAP
  2. Important + Not Urgent = Schedule – put some time on your calendar to complete the task
  3. Not Important + Urgent = Delegate – find the right member of your team to handle this task
  4. Not Important + Not Urgent = Trash – remove it from your plate

 

4. Start Saying “No.” A LOT

Spoiler alert: You’re about to find out that 3 out of 4 requests aren’t urgent OR important. Oftentimes, they’re actually something your rep can figure out on their own. So, we need to get REALLY good at pushing pop-up requests to meetings, delegating to others, and taking them off your plate!

Here’s how we’ll do it:

  1. Identify the proactive tasks
  2. Categorize tasks according to urgency and importance
  3. Properly respond to requests. It looks something like this…

“Hey, (Rep) this sounds AWESOME! But I’m late on a deadline right now, could you bring the story and the call recording to our call coaching session next week?”

OR

 “Whoa, (Rep), I need to stop you a moment. This sounds important and I want to give it the time it deserves. Please put it on the agenda for our 1:1 next week?” 

If you’re on Slack, it could sound like this…

  • Manager: What’s up?
  • Rep: Got a minute?
  • Manager: I have 30 seconds right now, or 15 minutes at 2pm. Hit me back then if you still need help?
    • Here we are putting the action item back on them. You’re not saying you will call them at 2pm, you’re saying call me if you can’t figure out a solution to your problem.

OR

  • Rep: Got a minute? 
  • Manager: Sorry, in a meeting. Can you reach out to Bob, please?
    • Here we are delegating to someone else to help the rep.

5. Get COACHN

I probably spent 3 hours preparing for my first team meeting. From the scheduling, to figuring out what to say, to deciding what I needed, to realizing I forgot really important things, it was draining, to say the least. What I realized is that if I streamlined the process and prepared for each meeting the same way, I could save myself HOURS of previously wasted time (I only say wasted because those hours were not helping my team reach goal). 

Through that painful process, we developed the COACHN Model™. This acronym is about to make your meeting preparation SO MUCH EASIER!

COACHN stands for:

C: Clarify Expectations – This sets the tone for the meeting. “Last time you decided to work on your intros and I know we have a few calls scored. Let’s see how you’re improving.” 

O: Observed Behavior – You start first, lay out facts, and list your observations before you…

A: Ask Questions – Great leaders talk in questions. Have them prepared before your meeting. 

C: Commit to Actions – Your number of action items should be 0-1, their action items can be anywhere from 1-4 

H: How Can I Help – This helps the rep learn to trust you. Growth is good, but we cannot grow unless we can admit that we need help!

N: Next Steps – We are agreeing at the end. “You own this, I own that, we’re going to meet again ______. Will you (rep) please send the invite!”

6. Have One Source of Truth Within the Organization

Use a standard coaching form. Define what “good” is across the company. If people move or shift, you don’t need to retrain or redefine these elements. If you need a place to start, you can grab our Call Coaching Activities here to help you prioritize and plan your coaching sessions.


7. Stop Proving, Start Delegating

It’s time to put your reps in charge. I get it, you want to help them. But you need to stop giving the fish away. Stop solving all of the problems and owning all of the actions. It’s time to teach those reps to fish instead!

Here are 6 easy things you can delegate TODAY:

  1. Grading their own call recordings and creating a list of skills to improve
  2. Sales huddles – Not all of them, but maybe 1 per week
  3. Notes from all meetings (actions, decisions, and deliverables)
  4. Their PIP actions and check-ins
  5. Scheduling follow-up meetings
  6. Team meeting training
    1. This one will require a bit more guidance, but instead of running every training session, let’s open up a few for peer training. You will need to double-check their work beforehand (no one wants a 2-hour “look at me” session). But if you have a top rep that is CRUSHING prospecting or brush-offs, let them show the rest of the team how they do it. 

8. You Cannot Control How Much Other People Care

This was a tough one for me to really wrap my head around in the beginning. But the truth is that there is a reason that you were promoted to manager. There is a reason that other people will remain as a rep. You cannot control how much other people care. When you care more about their job than they do, it will cause numerous problems. 

Let me tell you a little story. Back at the beginning of my sales career, I had a rep, let’s call him “George.” Well, George just could not seem to get himself to work on time. I got one excuse after another. There was a part of me that felt guilty that I didn’t have car trouble and that I could afford a new alarm clock, etc. One Thursday during lunch I left work to go across the street to buy George a new alarm clock (I know, I know). That was when it hit me. What the hell was I doing? If George didn’t care enough to figure out how to get an alarm clock on his phone or borrow a buddy’s clock, or heck, go to Goodwill and buy a used one, then why did I care so much? That was my “ah-ha” moment. I was caring more than George and no amount of new alarm clocks was going to force him to care more.

You need to stay within your span of control. You can control your schedule, your reactions to things, and your time. You don’t control your team, you can’t control a pricing increase, you don’t control what the customer’s going to say, you just don’t. You can influence your team’s skill level, activity, and focus, but you can’t control it. There are a lot of things under your concern, but that you can’t control. There is very little you can actually control. So, stop spinning your wheels and stressing out about it. You can provide coaching and help when appropriate, but “George” is either going to make it or he’s not. 

BONUS!
  1. Kill all of your notifications! All of those Instagram posts and text messages can wait until your lunch break. These notifications will only distract you and make completing your tasks take much longer. 
  2. Time block goal actions on your calendar. Block out checking your email, your phone messages, etc. 
  3. Keep tasks in the same place. Your meetings and your time-blocked tasks are on your calendar. But I’m betting you also have a bunch of other things to do. Compile all of those to-dos into one list. Whether it’s an app or a paper list, keep everything in the same place so nothing slips through the cracks. 
  4. Set a time for similar actions and tasks. If you have 3 tasks on your to-do list that require emails, complete those tasks during your time block to check emails. If you need to go pick something up, do it at the same time you need to go to the post office. By grouping similar tasks together, your mind will be able to focus more efficiently and complete those tasks faster. 

I know this was A LOT of information and your inbox has probably increased by 200 emails now, but if you take the time to start implementing at least some of these sales management productivity hacks that we talked about here, it will make a difference: in both your success and your happiness! You will feel and be more productive. It will just take a little practice! 

Looking for more sales management productivity tips?

Join one of our upcoming Virtual Sales Management Boot Camps! We offer 3 different classes for new, aspiring, and seasoned Sales Managers. Our Boot Camps cover the most important aspects of a sales management position, like running a successful 1:1, time management and productivity, having difficult conversations, call coaching, and more!

VIEW SALES MANAGEMENT BOOT CAMPS

How to Be a Great Sales Manager [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]

How to Be a Great Sales Manager

[“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]

Ready to Become a Great Sales Manager?

Whether you’re a current sales manager craving more training, a sales rep who aspires to lead, or a leader who wants to know the secret to turning their best reps into great managers, watch this informative workshop to learn:

  • Best practices for call coaching sales calls
  • How to run pipeline meetings
  • Tips for conducting successful 1:1s
  • How to drive sales performance
  • Top time management tricks
  • How to get started with sales management training

Plus, many more tips straight out of our Sales Bar. There’s a management tip or two for everyone!

Watch the video replay!

Ready to Become a Great Sales Manager?

Whether you’re a current sales manager craving more training, a sales rep who aspires to lead, or a leader who wants to know the secret to turning their best reps into great managers, watch this informative workshop to learn:

  • Best practices for call coaching sales calls
  • How to run pipeline meetings
  • Tips for conducting successful 1:1s
  • How to drive sales performance
  • Top time management tricks
  • How to get started with sales management training

Plus, many more tips straight out of our Sales Bar. There’s a management tip or two for everyone!

Watch the video replay!

sales coaching

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How to Increase Sales Coaching Frequency

In all my years of sales leadership, there has never been a sales coaching emergency. You? Ever gotten a call after hours along the lines of:

 “Panic! They don’t know how to…!! Help!?”

Exactly. And this is actually why, despite all our good intentions, there are precious few true coaching cultures in sales organizations. Even though we know the benefits – coaching skills that exceed expectations result in 94.8% of reps meeting quota and a top demand from the millennial and gen Z’s you’re trying to hire (source: like every study published in the past five years).

Since there ARE sales emergencies, customer emergencies, product emergencies, and political emergencies every single day (and the non-emergent intentions), it’s no surprise that meetings get pushed to the bottom.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with many organizations to establish or turn around their development cultures and we have lots of resources to help you after you finish this blog. Check out our top 20 actions download to help increase coaching frequency, our recent webinar on establishing a coaching culture, as well this fun quiz to determine whether or not your organization has a coaching culture.

If you’re a sales leader, the most important place you can start is by assessing your current culture of development and sales coaching importance. Here are a few questions to get you started:

  1. How often are my managers scheduled to call coach? How often do they really?
  2. What is coaching more important than? ($1M deal?) What is it not? (reporting request?)
  3. How eager are reps and managers for coaching sessions?
  4. Are we hiding or celebrating fails?
  5. Are reps getting built up or brought down?

The goal here is to determine if you have enough coaching, the right kind of coaching, and the kind of culture that supports it.

Starting with question 1, you may be surprised to learn that nearly 50% of reps disagree that they’re getting as much coaching as their managers state. Some of this is due to canceled or pushed coaching when fires happen (and let’s be honest, they happen daily in sales). I think the root of the problem here is how we define coaching. Most managers believe they’re coaching during a 1:1 meeting, a “how’s it going” chat, or a pipeline/deal conversation. Sorry, 

“That’s NOT coaching!”

Our definition of best-in-class coaching is:

  1. Sales meeting is present (ride-along, recorded call, live video meeting)
  2. Manager asks questions about the reps’ skill
  3. Rep receives custom feedback on their execution
  4. Rep leaves feeling more confident than when they walked in

Sadly, this means that if you’re playing a call at a team meeting (great job by the way), this is sales training, not sales coaching. At most, you can provide custom feedback on a rep’s skills for about 3 people and 3 short call recordings in an hour. Yes, it also means that giving someone a laundry list of what to improve also doesn’t count as coaching. That’s just bullying. Inspect some sessions. You’ll be surprised – and you’ll be showing coaching’s importance with your presence. 

Sales Executive Council also tells us that call coaching (aka skill coaching) is sales managers’ #1 worst skill. I’ve been hiring and training sales managers for 20 years and I wholeheartedly agree. And the hardest skill to shift is the laundry list of improvement items. It’s so easy for us to hear the challenges, and so hard for us to resist giving just one more idea for improvement. 90% of sessions during role plays come off negative at first, and it takes us at LEAST three training and practice sessions to start to even this out. 

Like most leaders who came up through sales, I’m 100% guilty of the coaching bully myself. In fact, as we train sales managers how to coach at Factor 8, I modeled the curriculum after all my own personal atrocities. “Be like me…I do all the talking…Debbie Downer…” you get the picture. If you relate to this, you’ve probably also taken over a call or two you were meant to be silently observing. 

That’s why I only coach recordings now. I just can’t be trusted during a live call. It’s also led to my #1 tip for antsy sales coaches:

“Coach the rep, not the deal.”

When we approach coaching with the intent of building confidence and skill vs. saving the deal, everything changes. Imagine the deal already lost. Resist the temptation to even ask about the outcome. Focus instead on engaging this seller, and helping them love their job, love their company, love their manager, and love sales.

It changes everything.

A note on culture. Spend a minute Googling the concept of a “growth mindset.” It’s our ultimate goal for sales coaching cultures. It’s a magical land where everyone cares more about improvement than winning. Did you just laugh out loud, my sales leader friend? Before you dismiss it, realize it’s the calling card of nearly every great athlete, and imagine if all your “A” players just kept getting better. How do you get here? A few ideas:

  1. Weed out your problem leaders. Yeah, the person you pictured is exactly who I’m talking about. They probably have veteran reps and accounts and are a fixture in your org – like a barnacle on the underside of the boat, they aren’t uplifters. Just note: culture is formed not by your intent! It’s defined by the worst behavior you’re willing to tolerate. His name was Brian at my first sales management job, and his attitude led the whole division to a culture of hazing and sink or swim. NOT the coaching culture the new workforce is craving!
  2. Share your failures and encourage your managers to do the same. A coaching culture is one where we’re not afraid to fail. We willingly share bad calls. We welcome feedback and input. Sorry, but humans aren’t built to be vulnerable and they will need a lot of role modeling here until your people feel safe to do so.
  3. Reward improvement. If you want a growth mindset culture, you can’t just reward the winners. Find ways every month to celebrate improvement. Could be a metrics jump, a KPI improvement, skill gains, CSat ratings…you get it.

A final word of advice: over-correct. My first Sales Director job came on the heels of me launching a training department. There was no other sales leader as dedicated to developing people as I. It still took me 6 months in the new gig to start talking about and prioritizing training. So I get how hard it is and how busy everyone is and how many emergencies keep coaching at the bottom of the to-do list. So, if it’s your goal, you’ll need to triple down to shift the pendulum. Dedicate six months to over-doing it. Talk about it in every team meeting and all-hands. Drop into coaching sessions and coach the coaches. Reward top coaches and rep improvements. Add it to contests. Ask manager for skill trends in every meeting. Spend money on sales manager training. Be sure it is OVER represented in your calendar, your budget, and your voice for long enough that your team knows it isn’t a flavor of the month.

Got a tip? Drop me a line and let me know what’s worked for you! lb@factor8.com.

Want more tips on how to increase sales coaching frequency?

Fill out the form below to watch the recording from
our recent session on“Creating a Coaching Culture” for more tips.



20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work [Cheat Sheet]

20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work

[Cheat Sheet]

call coaching is sales managers’ #1 worst skill

Why? Because coaching, like any other skill, needs to be practiced. Since managers’ schedules are filled with daily fires, full inboxes, and a flurry of Slack messages, it’s easy for coaching to fall out of focus.

We spoke with various sales leaders who foster a coaching culture to understand how they shifted the focus away from daily distractions and back to coaching. Here are their top 20 tips to help increase sales coaching focus in the workplace.

Grab your download below!

call coaching is sales managers’ #1 worst skill

Why? Because coaching, like any other skill, needs to be practiced. Since managers’ schedules are filled with daily fires, full inboxes, and a flurry of Slack messages, it’s easy for coaching to fall out of focus.

We spoke with various sales leaders who foster a coaching culture to understand how they shifted the focus away from daily distractions and back to coaching. Here are their top 20 tips to help increase sales coaching focus in the workplace.

Grab your download below!

sales manager meetings

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8 Essential Sales Manager Meetings to Master

At my very first management job, I managed a little retail pop-up at Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Funny how that experience was SO cool in my twenties, cringy in my thirties, and now just a sweet memory.

In that job, I learned the hard way how important it is to teach yourself (or your team) what a successful meeting should look like. I learned that if you don’t have a plan, agenda, or at least a list, then what you will have is a train wreck. Your meetings will be too long, too short, too impersonal, or too casual. However, with a little pre-planning and strategy, your sales manager meetings can be both impactful and efficient! 

I will never forget my first “team meeting” at the retail store. I prepared for DAYS and my 45-minute meeting went TWO HOURS long. The patient, part-time adults working there were DYING of boredom. Every new manager has felt this pain, right? (Please, tell me I’m not alone). That experience stayed with me as I left retail and went into the bright shiny world of sales. 

In the sales world, there are so many important sales manager meetings. As a fledgling manager, it was hard for me to understand the nuances of each separate type of meeting. 

So, for all of my newbie sales managers (or future sales managers) I wanted to break down the top 8 essential sales manager meetings you need to master and provide a little insight that I wish I had in my early days. 

1. Sales Huddle
Goal:
  • This meeting should be standing room only. The point is to get in, get pumped, and get out (and on the phones!) This meeting starts the day with focus and gets everyone on the same page. It’s also a good place to set the day’s goal – “Today we’re all going to get 5 touches.” And every once in a while, this is a great opportunity to do a quick skill reminder or overview of a new skill!
How Often:
  • Newbie team – Every day
  • Tenured team – 2-3 per week
How Long:
  • Short – 15 minutes or less
Insider Tip:
  • Keep this meeting interesting, mix it up. Don’t run the meeting every time. This is a great opportunity to give those up-and-coming managers a chance to start practicing their leadership skills.

 

2. Performance 1:1
Goal:
  • The performance 1:1 meeting should be a private meeting with just you and your rep. You will go through all of their metrics, talk about team ranking, discuss performance, set goals for the next month, and address performance issues (if necessary). 
How Often:
  • Once per month, I recommend doing them the first week of the month.
How Long:
  • 30 – 60 minutes
Insider Tip:
  • Resist the urge to make this a 15-minute meeting, even if they’re hitting all of their numbers and you don’t think you have anything to address. If that’s the case, then use this time to build your relationship. Go beyond the numbers. Most Millennials and Gen Z crave connection to their leaders. This is a perfect chance to do just that!

 

3. Call Coaching
Goal:
  • This meeting is all about skill-building. Coaching is not about performance or discipline. We are discussing and building new skills. If you’re coaching regularly, then you’re not waiting to find something wrong. You’re either encouraging already stellar behavior or getting ahead of those areas of opportunity. This usually works best if you and your rep listen to the recorded call and score separately before your meeting. Then you come together to compare notes. Using this structure not only builds their sales skills; it helps them learn how to self-reflect. This meeting can be 1:1 or you can do a group meeting up to 3:1. Just be careful, in a group meeting it’s important that each rep still receives individual feedback on their call.
How Often:
  • Newer or Underperforming Reps – Once per week
  • Tenured or High-Performing Reps – Once per month
How Long:
  • 15 – 60 minutes
Insider Tips:
  • You don’t have to find something wrong! Coaching sessions are a great time to boost your rep’s confidence by sharing positive feedback on their calls. You can even dive deeper into their strategies and share them with new reps! (Use our COACHN model to help you in your coaching sessions!)
  • Be sure you chart their progress and present a visual representation of it at least twice per year. Seeing a visualization of their progress (or lack thereof) can increase engagement, both in top-performing reps and in reps that might be underperforming.
4. Pipeline 
Goal:
  • This is a full team meeting. We are talking big picture only in pipeline (forecast, wins and losses, clarify needs to meet goal, adjust expectations, sharing strategies). To keep yourselves on track, stick to the facts – no stories. If a particular deal or client needs to be drilled into more, book a 1:1 or group strategy meeting only for the people who need to be involved. 
How Often:
  • Newbie Team – Once per week
  • Tenured Team – Once per month 
How Long:
  • Varies based on team size
Insider Tip:
  • Individual pipeline meetings kill your day and don’t do anything to motivate your newer or underperforming reps. It’s going to be easier for Rob to tell you 1:1 that he’s not going to hit goal. Announcing this to the whole team will be a bit more intimidating and can provide a little extra motivation. 

 

5. Sales Strategy
Goal:
  • This is where we look at how deals and performance are trending. We also talk about getting deals un-stuck, strategizing how to penetrate accounts, etc.
How Often:
  • Newbie & Mid-Level Reps – Monthly 
  • Top Reps – Quarterly or Bi-annually 
How Long:
  • 15 – 60 minutes
Insider Tip:
  • These meetings work really well in a slightly larger group 3:1. If you are struggling with a particular rep, try pulling in your top reps to help with this brainstorming session!
  • It’s important to have your top reps present their book of business to you twice per year, even if they are continuously hitting quota without issue. Give them the love!

 

6. Team Meetings
Goal:
  • This is a chance to get everyone on the same page about general items. It could be reviewing training skills, making team or company announcements, discussing customer success stories, answering product questions, or simply doing team-building exercises.
How Often:
  • Newbie Team – Monthly
  • Tenured Team – Quarterly
How Long:
  • 60 – 90 minutes
Insider Tips:
  • Try to frame company policies, product roll-outs, etc. in terms that are going to be important to your specific team. At least one team member is bored 75% of the time… most of the time it’s because they think that the issue doesn’t pertain to their job.
  • Also, this is another meeting you don’t have to run every time. Have an up-and-coming leader? Let them run with one meeting. Have another department you work closely with? Bring in one of their leaders to provide a new perspective. 

 

7. Rep Career Reviews
Goal:
  • Talk about career goals and make a plan on the skills needed to get them there. Career advancement and development are continuously two of the top elements Millennials and Gen Z are looking for from their employer. This is the perfect opportunity to provide them with the feedback they desire!
How Often:
  • Once per quarter
  • Instead of creating an additional meeting, use one of your monthly 1:1s each quarter for this meeting.
How Long:
  • 60 minutes
Insider Tip:
  • Strive for equal talking time during this meeting. The best way to understand where they want to be is by letting them tell you. 
  • If your company has a standardized annual review doc, use that during these meetings. It’s a great tool to help you track progress.

 

8. Team Training
Goal:
  • Different from a team meeting, this is the place where we answer the “how do I…” questions in greater detail. Track your top skill needs, watch for industry trends, survey your team, and then work with your enablement department. This is a great place to bring in a professional sales training provider (ahem, that’s what we do here at Factor 8)
How Long:
  • Depends on the skill being taught. Consult with your trainer and decide together how much time works best for that particular skill.
How Often:
  • Monthly or Quarterly
Insider Tip:
  • Do not do this all alone! If you have to do the hiring, training, coaching, firing, AND the rest of your job, you will never go home. If you have an enablement team, use them. If you don’t perhaps a training partner is the right move for you. 
  • Have the team do pre-work and homework, if you can. The more you can get pre and post-engagement, the higher the retention rate for the training will be. 
  • Applaud improvement, any improvement. The goal here is to build a growth mindset within your organization. If you have a performance-based culture that is only celebrating the “winner” of the staff ranking, then that means that some of your team is “losing,” even if they’re hitting their numbers. People stay in jobs where they feel successful and there is more than one measurement for success.

Now, is this a list of all the sales manager meetings you will be a part of? No, but it’s a good place to start if you need to either begin setting up your schedule or if you need to take back control of it. As a manager, sometimes your day can get away from you while you are working hard to help each member of your team. If that’s the case, use this list to find the right meeting to address the question. How would you spend the extra time you’ll get back each day?

Looking for training to improve your sales manager meetings?

Join one of our upcoming Virtual Sales Management Boot Camps! We offer 3 different classes for new, aspiring, and seasoned Sales Managers. Our Boot Camps cover the most important aspects of a sales management position, like running a successful 1:1, time management and productivity, having difficult conversations, call coaching, and more!

VIEW SALES MANAGEMENT BOOT CAMPS

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