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Sales team meetings needn’t be a snore. In fact, they should be bursting with energy; a weekly highlight that galvanizes your team and sends their productivity and effectiveness into overdrive. But all too often, sales team meetings are underwhelming, repetitive or unmotivating. There’s too much talking and instead of your selling stars leaving with new tools, tactics and solutions, they are left feeling as though that was valuable time wasted; time that should have been spent on making sales. If you want to make your meetings dynamic, you need to think outside the box.  Here are five innovative sales team meeting ideas for an all-star sales team.

1. Include Short Team Activities

While the oft-quoted proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together." sounds pithy, it’s easy to imagine that the advice doesn’t have much use in sales. And yet the stereotype of the lone-wolf sales pro could be what’s holding your team, and your team meetings, back. Although reps have individual quotas and targets, there’s definitely a case for team targets and team work. Yes, collaboration in sales IS something to be encouraged! For one thing, sales reps can learn much from each other, especially when it comes to sharing tips, tricks and customer-focused solutions. Thus, incorporating short team activities into your sales team meetings not only adds another layer of enjoyment and learning but enables you to build team spirit and foster a sense of community. Plus team meetings are a lot less boring when your team has to roll their sleeves up and participate.

2. Allow Team to Share Losses and Seek Advice From Each Other

The more you have your reps work together, the more they will support each other which is great for morale and productivity. While talking about losses in a meeting that’s supposed to be motivational might seem counterproductive, it’s actually a really great way to help reps who are struggling. Rather than public shaming exercises, your team meetings can become a way to counter the high churn of the sales team if you allow your team to share losses and seek advice. However, for this to be effective, it’s important to build up to a culture of support, coaching and mentoring. So, rather than putting people on the spot, begin by prepping your reps. Ask someone ahead of time to seek advice on a difficult customer or a hot prospect that’s gone cold. At the same time, ask another member of the team to be ready to share how they worked their way out of a similar situation. Once your pros come to see the sales team meeting as a safe place where they can ask for and receive great advice, you’ll find your reps find them far more useful and worthwhile.

3. Allow Team to Share Wins

Another great sales team meeting idea is to allow your team to share wins. While this doesn’t seem super innovative on the surface, this tip is about more than just praising a rep who’s done well. Go further by making a case study of a rep’s success and use the team meeting as an opportunity for them to share their wins in detail. You’ll not only be boosting them and rewarding great work but the whole team can benefit from and be inspired by their success story.

4. Prepare Team with Pre-learning Prior to Weekly Meetings

Adding extra work to a meeting?! Before you write this idea off as crazy, consider why it’s a really good idea. Let’s say you’ve allocated 15 mins of your meeting to discuss the latest strategies around objection handling. If you do all the talking, your meeting descends into a boring lecture and your reps switch off taking nothing on board. Conversely, if you plan a cool team activity or discussion but give your reps no lead time, you’re putting them on the spot and it’s likely they’ll disengage…leading to them taking nothing on board! So where’s the middle ground? By giving your reps time to prepare with some easy to digest pre-learning prior to the meeting, you are setting the stage for an interactive and engaging meeting where reps learn a lot and walk away with a ton of new learning. Win!

5. Use the CPSA’s Meeting in a Box Template

If it feels like all the innovative sales team meeting ideas require more prep than you’d like, we have an answer for you. While it’s true that you get out what you put in, we’re here to provide some shortcuts to success. The CPSA’s new series of 15-minute weekly Meeting in a Box Templates will guide your sales team through actionable and dynamic weekly meetings. Each template is equipped with pre-learning resources and exercises, that you can use to educate and motivate your team. Get started now with the CPSA’s Meetings in a Box.