Stop Meeting With Your People
‘Look at this!’ Graham exclaimed. He was staring at his computer screen, an expression of angry disbelief on his face. ‘When I left here Friday, I had five open hours in my Monday calendar. Now, all that time is filled up with meetings. When am I going to get my work done?’
Sales managers are united in the concern that they are overloaded with meetings that cover a huge number of subjects: planning, forecasting, lost deals, finance, product development, HR procedures, “leveling” exercises, deal approval, pipeline reviews, contact strategy, key account planning, legal and contract review – not to mention escalations and emergencies.
This is true for every business we consult. And these are only the meetings that happen during the normal course of business. They don’t include the truly unnecessary get-togethers such as:
The ‘I’m feeling nervous so I want you to stop what you’re doing and gather some information for me to make me feel better’ meeting often initiated by senior managers.
The ‘I’ve got a great idea and now you’re going to come talk about it with me and 20 other key people’ meeting,’ often initiated by other department heads who believe that sales should sit in and be impressed.
And there's all the preparation and follow-up for these meetings: the spreadsheets, the slide decks, the email chains, none of which actually bring you or your team closer to hitting your sales targets.
Sales managers tell us that up to 80% of their time at these meetings is totally wasted. And, if they have had to include their salespeople in any of the activity, the loss of selling time mounts geometrically.
We hear nearly the same thing from salespeople who complain that their sales managers either call useless meetings or require them to go to meetings that other people have called. You may think that your meetings are really helpful to your people. Perhaps they are. Just know that you would be the exception. Very few salespeople have ever told us that their manager holds great meetings.
What can you do about this?
Roberto called me one day, laughing about a breakthrough he had just experienced.
‘I looked at my schedule for the New York trip and saw that I had every hour booked with one meeting after another. I called up each person on the schedule and suggested that we try to get our work done in half the time we had scheduled. Everyone was delighted to try, and I wound up with an extra three and-one-half hours on my hands.
‘I went back home, called each person on my team and suggested they do the same thing – and to take half the time they saved and do something for their families.
‘It changed everything for us!’
First, be dead honest with yourself about the meetings you attend. How many of them are well-planned and well-led? How many of them really hold your interest? How many of them are really worth your time? Really?
Second, draw a line in the sand with yourself and commit to never hold a poorly planned meeting again. Just stop doing it and start trying things that can truly help your people while bringing you solid insight and greater agency as a leader.
Before you call a meeting:
Ask yourself and others, ‘Can this be accomplished without a meeting?’ You’ll be surprised how often this is the case.
Add up the total person-hours that your meeting will require for preparation, the meeting itself, and follow-up. Divide by eight, and then determine if the meeting is worth that number of days taken from selling time.
When you do call a meeting:
Only invite the people who must be there and invite each one only for the time they need to be there.
Don’t just schedule the meeting for a standard period of time if half that time will do.
Plan a careful, timed agenda, and, if you are not a skilled leader, find someone who will lead the meeting for you.
Start on time, and always end a little early with clear very next steps defined and committed to.
Don’t forget refreshments and nibbles. (This is a lighthearted suggestion, but it works!)
After the meeting:
Minimize the follow-up. Only do what's needed to bring the purpose of the meeting to a successful conclusion.
Avoid circulating reports until they’re actually needed.
Get out of meetings that waste your time. If at all possible, be creative in avoiding meetings:
Ask for the agenda in advance to see if a meeting is worth your time.
Try some or all of the following:
Bow out gracefully by contributing your thinking in advance if it is being requested.
Ask which part of the meeting is absolutely critical to attend and come for that time only.
Give good reasons why you’re not attending, such as being at a customer meeting.
Always attend meetings held by your boss!
You’re a sales manager, not a politician. You’re paid to build an effective sales team, not attend meetings. Your best meeting is probably one-to-one, with your sales reps helping them get better and better.