Sales Team Conference Call Meeting Guide

Your sales force is that their best and most successful in face-to-face conversations. To connect with clients and potential clients they actively listen and lead the conversation utilizing body language to express themselves. Holding a conference call is a totally different challenge for your sales force.

During a conference call, you are expecting your sales force to sit quietly and do very little. This can lead to them becoming bored during the call. Some of the many challenges you will encounter during a conference call include:

• Some people may be hesitant to voice their opinions as they will not receive the same feedback they would get in person.
• It can become confusing if too many people try to talk that the same time. Sometimes it can be difficult to identify who is talking. Is it a junior employee offering a suggestion? Or is it a manager giving an instruction?
• Issues with technology can cause delays in the calls and make it difficult to hear what is discussed.

More preparation time is necessary to organize a conference call than a meeting held face-to-face plus stricter guidance is required. The benefit of holding conference calls with your sales force is that the start they can remain out in the field instead of returning to the office.

Tips for holding successful conference calls:

Give Advance Notice and Allow Preparation Time

Conference calls should not be held without having an agenda prepared beforehand. The agenda should be sent to members of your sales force at least 48 hours in advance. The aim of the agenda is to keep the meeting on task and clearly defines the purpose of the meeting. The more efficient the meeting the sooner your sales force is back selling.

An agenda can be used to promote more active participation. For each item planned assign one person to lead it. By doing this you will encourage engagement and encourage the full team to participate in the call.

Always Start the Meeting on Time

If team members know that you will wait for them to join the call there's no incentive for them to be on time. Delaying a call for a late arrival will risk losing the attention of team members already on the call. Always start on time and with a question to engage all team members.

Set Rules for Your Conference Calls

Rules need to be established for the calls to achieve the most from them. Two of the most important rules are muting yourself when you are not speaking and announcing your name before speaking. Announcing these rules before each call you will help to avoid confusion and frustration by stopping participants talking over each other.

Acknowledge the Successes of Your Team

Every call with your sales team should include time to discuss recent success stories. Having a time segment set aside in every call will help to motivate and encourage your sales team. They will also look forward to attending the meetings.

Keep the Conversation on Topic

The person leading the call is responsible for keeping it on topic. This is vital because as there are no visual clues to guide participants it can be very easy for the conversation to wander off topic.

• If a discussion is going on for too long recommend that those involved set up a separate call that a later time to continue the discussion.
• If more than one participant tries to speak at the same time establish an order so that all participants have an opportunity to have their say.
• As soon as a participant has finished speaking repeat the main aspects of what they've just said and steer the conversation to another participant.

Record the Conference Calls

It is important to record the conference calls and send them to each member of the sales team. These recordings may be the only way some team members can get the information they need. Team members can listen to the calls as and when their schedule allows.

Summarize the Call

Writing a summary of the call and sending it to all team members will help to clarify what was said and agreed on the call. It is recommended that this summary is completed and sent out within two days.

This summary should include which team members are responsible for each action point. Sending the report to all team members will help to motivate those responsible for the action points to act by the due date.

The person leading the conference calls is key to their success. These calls are a great opportunity to discuss updates to products and also highlight the sales techniques working well to increase the success of the team.