Running Meetings that Don't Suck - Process
The Secret to Running Meetings That Are Productive and Engaging
Please don’t run meetings that suck — I’ve written a few posts on the topic and this is a deeper dive into the process to create and run effective meetings.
It’s amazing what you can do if you get your meeting process dialed in. The first thing is to have a process. Most don’t, and I didn’t used to, but back then I ran terrible meetings.
Here are four areas I got serious about to dial in my meeting PROCESS to make them both effective and engaging:
1. Preparation
Preparation is critical to running a high-quality sales meeting that adds value to attendees. You have to design each meeting with purpose.
Dedicate at least 15-30 minutes to plan your meeting.
Are the correct people invited? Review the attendee list. No more or less than necessary.
Have an agenda and share it in advance. Allow others to contribute ahead of the meeting.
2. Facilitation
The facilitation of a sales meeting is crucial to its success.
Communicate the goal for the meeting in the beginning and review the agenda together in the first 5 minutes.
Think about engagement. Have a plan to engage EVERYONE in the meeting.
Is the agenda relevant to the people in the meeting? If so, they will be engaged!
How are you interacting with everyone? As the facilitator have a strategy to handle participation from everyone so that the few talkers don’t dominate the topics and the quiets ones roll their eyes and don’t contribute.
Stick to the agenda.
Adapt as new topics come in. Address them or defer them to a new meeting but don’t let yourself get derailed. (i.e. I’ve set aside 10 minutes at the end of this meeting so that we can tackle any non-agenda items that might come up).
Designate a time keeper.
3. Meeting Time
The time allotted for a sales meeting should be used wisely and efficiently.
Start on time!
Manage time: If it looks like it will run long, check with all meeting members to see if you can run long or need to schedule a follow-up meeting.
Leverage your Time Keeper - give them the authority in the meeting to help keep everyone on track.
Finish on time or early!
4. Follow-Up
This is the easiest to forget and probably the most important to set a tone for your leadership.
With written action items sent to meeting members.
Know your audience. Communicate action items in a way that works for your team. (MS Teams, email, etc)
Here is an easy cheat sheet for your meetings as you prep.
Summary:
To hold a successful sales meeting, focus on preparation, facilitation, meeting time, and follow-up. Plan the meeting with a clear purpose, invite the appropriate people, create an agenda, and stick to it. Communicate the goal and engage attendees. Manage time wisely and finish on time or early. Follow up with written action items and communicate in a way that works for your team.
Here is a pdf of our Meeting Guidelines in case you missed it in my earlier post.