ason Gurwin is a co-founder of the site, The Streamable, a news and review site ...
Joel Gershon
June 14, 2020
Meetings don’t have to feel like a chore. When done right, they motivate, energize, and align your sales team. The key is to mix up the conversation topics and make sure your meetings serve as more than a place to check off status updates.
With the right approach, you can turn every sales meeting into an opportunity for collaboration and connection. Here’s how to kickstart your strategy with a variety of sales meeting topics to stimulate high-impact meetups.
20 top sales meeting topics and ideas
Here are 20 ideas for your next gathering, from growth-oriented sales training to fun sales meeting topics to bring your team of sales reps together.
Sales training ideas
Sales training sessions equip your team with the skills and knowledge they need to excel at each stage of the pipeline. Tailor sales meeting themes to address common challenges while building essential hard and soft skills:
1. Role-play
Resistance from potential clients is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean sales reps have to abandon a call. Use role-playing to simulate tough sales scenarios and practice resilience to objections. This interactive method strengthens your team’s confidence in real-life conversations with prospects.
2. Product deep dives
To close deals, salespeople need a deep understanding of your product or service. Pick a product or feature, explore its benefits, and explore common objections. Sales managers can also dive into the competition, equipping salespeople with the knowledge to sell their product and confidently differentiate it in the market.
3. Customer feedback
Sales strategies should evolve to meet customer expectations. Visiting feedback — both positive and negative — is one way to tell teams how to deliver what their target market wants.
Look through positive feedback and criticisms and talk about how it can shape your approach to the sales process. Analyzing feedback helps your team identify blind spots and adapt their pitch.
4. Metrics that matter
Go through the key performance indicators (KPIs) that directly impact sales success, like conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length. Examining these figures in detail gives your team a comprehensive understanding of the mechanics of sales. For example, analyzing sales cycle length can reveal inefficiencies in the sales process.
5. Advanced negotiation techniques
Host a deep dive into the nuances of negotiation. Teach new strategies (like anchoring or creating win-win situations) with recorded calls or role-play. The more sales techniques a salesperson can tap into, the more likely they can close deals with diverse prospects.
6. Selling with stories
Good sales reps know how to craft a compelling narrative. Run a meeting that revolves around the power of storytelling — teaching sales reps to connect with prospects emotionally. This can include learning when to share customer success stories, product journeys, or even personal anecdotes that bring the brand to life.
7. Emotional intelligence in sales
Prospects don’t want to feel like another number on your sales quota. Emotional intelligence is a valuable soft skill that focuses on understanding, managing, and reading emotions — and in the context of sales, it means treating potential clients like people.
Train your team to recognize common emotional cues in sales targets. This helps sales reps close deals and boost collaboration and team unity.
8. Qualifier development
A strong prospect qualification process helps your team prioritize the most valuable leads. Use meeting time to develop the criteria that define your ideal sales target, like budget, decision-making power, and timelines. Teach reps how to identify high-potential prospects during a call and refine their strategies accordingly, saving time and boosting conversions.
Team-building topics
Teamwork makes the dream work. These team-building ideas will energize salespeople and foster a culture of support, accountability, and growth:
9. Sales strategy brainstorming session
Nail two birds with one stone — bring team members together to shape sales processes and stimulate team collaboration. A high-energy brainstorming session can refine or create a fresh sales strategy and foster a sense of community. Encourage out-of-the-box thinking and constructive criticism to uncover potentially innovative approaches to the sales process.
10. Visualization for success
Sales teams are susceptible to stress, especially when their pitches aren’t landing consistently. Gather your reps to work on guided visualization exercises where everyone imagines reaching their personal and team sales goals. This helps improve focus and build a winning mindset, helping everyone see success and stay resilient to rejection.
11. Team intros and icebreakers
Start meetings or new projects with engaging icebreakers to encourage team bonding. Activities like “two truths and a lie” can get everyone talking and laughing. These exercises help team members get to know one another better and foster a relaxed work environment.
12. Spotlight top performers
Invite top sales reps to share their sales strategies with the rest of the team. Whether it’s time management hacks or unique techniques, their insights can inspire the whole sales team to elevate their game. Plus, it encourages top performers to take pride in their work and step into leadership roles.
13. Group sales simulation
Create a simulation where several team members play different roles, including salesperson, gatekeeper, prospect, and decision-makers. Split your sales team into groups and give them a scenario to work through — complete with objections, sales strategies, and objectives. Afterward, open up the floor for feedback and constructive criticism.
Fun sales meeting topics
One way to encourage attendance from your sales team is light-hearted meetings that break from routine and inject some fun into the workday. These ideas can boost employee morale and energize discussion:
14. Sales trivia or quiz show
Turn learning about the company into a game with a trivia contest. Clues can include questions about product details or industry facts. Friendly competition sparks engagement, promotes knowledge retention, and builds deeper team bonds, all while having a few laughs.
15. Sales pitch showdown
Get your sales team together for a sales pitch competition. Challenge them to pitch a product or service in a creative, humorous, or over-the-top way with awards for categories like “Most Entertaining” or “Most Likely To Win Shark Tank.” A lighthearted challenge encourages team members to flex their creativity and public speaking skills in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.
16. Guest speaker
New voices offer a fresh perspective to your sales meetings. Whether it’s a motivational speaker, industry expert, or client sharing their experience, their insights ignite motivation and spark new ideas. A guest speaker can also create a sense of occasion, making meetings feel more dynamic.
17. Sales bingo
Create a bingo card filled with common action items and milestones (like closing a deal, following up after a meeting, or reversing an objection). Team members mark items off throughout the week, and the first person to get a full row or column can win a small prize. Bingo is a great way to discuss sales skills like task prioritization and productivity strategies.
Business as usual
Transform typical meetings into more engaging, productive experiences. Here’s how to turn familiar chats into new challenges:
18. New brainstorming techniques
Your sales team might have a tried-and-true brainstorming strategy — but it’s time to switch it up. For example, if you typically do mind mapping, try out reverse brainstorming. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s a good team-building exercise.
19. Team intros
Instead of a traditional round-robin introduction, pair up new team members with an existing member for one-on-one interview-style meetings. Each pair comes up with a list of creative questions to ask one another. Once they complete the interview, each team member introduces their partner to the rest of the group.
20. Problem-solving challenge
Rather than a typical strategy meeting, break up the sales teams into groups to problem-solve current challenges. Each group presents their ideas, followed by a group discussion to refine them. This format adds a pinch of friendly competition to creative problem-solving meetings.
3 tips for successful sales meetings
Creative ideas are half of the recipe for a winning sales meeting. The other half relies on adopting reliable best practices. Here are three tips to ensure every discussion drives better results:
- Keep it positive: An upbeat work environment encourages team members to go all in. Successful facilitators celebrate successes, no matter how small, and maintain a positive attitude even when discussing challenges. Remember: Meetings should inspire growth and accountability, focusing on learning moments rather than failures.
- Stay focused: Keep the conversation on track by clearly defining objectives from the start. Draft a sales meeting agenda with clear goals, talking points, and time frames. A meeting agenda avoids distractions and prepares everyone to bring their best ideas.
- User OtterPilot for Sales: Leverage tools like OtterPilot for Sales to streamline the sales process. Our AI-powered meeting assistant automatically extracts sales insights, drafts follow-up emails, and syncs call notes, making sure you have all the information you need when your sales team needs to talk shop.
Don’t just talk sales: Make them happen with OtterPilot for Sales
No matter what topic you choose for your next sales meeting, OtterPilot for Sales has you covered. OtterPilot for Sales is an AI-powered tool specifically made for sales professionals — empowering you with automated call notes, customized Sales Insights that automatically sync to your preferred CRM system including Salesforce or Hubspot, and generated content like email follow-ups.
You focus on getting the discussion flowing. We’ll handle the note-taking. Try OtterPilot for Sales today.
