GambitP

Doing everything sales

STOP internal meetings! Asked by VP why I hate it?

I was complaining about internal meetings to my VP: stand-ups, constant questions about deals by my manager and director, pipeline review & forecasting, 1:1s...

He asked if there is anything else that bothers me about meetings/calls, except for spending time not selling. I thought about a few but wanted to hear others before I go back to him.

Why internal meetings SUCK?

Attached poll

Takes too much time Hate scheduling Manager forgets what we talked about Manager comes unprepared and waste time going through CRM data that he has What else? write in the comments

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

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49 comments

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1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Discussing the same items over and over or having the meeting hijacked by 1 or 2 people who want to make a team meeting about themselves.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Ugh the meeting hijackers...you just want to slap 'em. I especially dislike when they use it to talk about some off topic thing nobody gives a fuck about. One person on my team always brings up sports drafts...so annoying.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Hate it when ppl do it! Good lord you have your 1:1

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Agreed. Or they bring up a tiny issue that only affects them and is unlikely to ever happen again. Brutal.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

For the first time in my career, I work for a company that values efficiency in internal meetings. We schedule a 25 minute or 50 minutes session, spend little to no time on small talk, and have clear goals. If we hit those goals we end the call.

You simply have to run internal meetings like you would a prospect meeting. Don't waste their or your time, set a clear agenda, and cut the call when it makes sense.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Same here.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Who is in charge of the agenda? Don't you think you can switch up some of the convo to Slack or CRM comments?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

CEO is in charge of the agenda, and since we are distributed amongst 3 timezones it makes far more sense to have us all on a scheduled meeting.

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Micro managing kills me

Bittersweet0326

Politicker

Digital Business Associate

Value. Point blank. If you are taking your time away from your day to day (quotas/etc) then it has to be valuable. If there is no value in one way or another I'm not super interested.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Unstructured meetings are even worse. The questions should be "what do we want to take away from this meeting?" If you can't answer that, cancel it

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Aman! My 1:1s are always unstructured - how are you doing, do you need help with anything... such a waste of time, I rather just bring up any obstacles in real time

Wanna.Be.Rick.Spielman

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Not at my present job, but at previous companies I would get so angry sitting there watching my manager click around in our CRM while we all sit waiting. Before bringing 10 people in the room, maybe look at the reports and have them run before we arrive? Also, do not mandate we keep the CRM up to date and constantly review the pipeline and then force me to talk about what I am forecasting in a separate meeting. Like what was the point of updating the CRM then if I still had to verbally present my forecast?

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Sounds like your manager is purposely trying to waste time and have people spin their wheels geez

Broncosfan

Politicker

Account Manager

I am tired of being asked to be on meetings that I cant provide value on and provide no value to me. Meetings need to be smaller groups.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

I see no value in team meetings beside when talking about team strategy. Forecasting calls shouldn’t be with the entire team on line 🤯

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

A lot of meetings have a bunch of people on them but only actually benefit one person. So all of those other people are at least distracted, if not completely focused on, something that provides no benefit.

Lambda

Tycoon

Sales Consultant

Internal meetings are usually a HUGE waste of time, give me the notes u want me to have and tell me to act on them

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Exactly! Why do we need so many calls when you can easily summarize it into 2 lines of text for each deal

YOTPO

Fire Starter

Account Executive

So easy to get off track and waste even more time.

SiliconBBQ

Politicker

The Metal Rooster

and focus on singular deals that can be handled between 1 rep and the manager outside of a team call

YOTPO

Fire Starter

Account Executive

Nothing better than spending precious time listening to other reps talk about their deals that have nothing to do with you. Lol

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Right! Like when I just want to check with my manager if he spoke with finance about a discount, and we end up talking about other deals or just our dysfunctional marketing team

YOTPO

Fire Starter

Account Executive

5 minutes can turn to 30 so quickly.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

And he never responds on Slack!

stratman

Politicker

Sales Engineer

I could use a few more meetings - I don't have enough pre-customer call prep calls with the reps.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Interesting! Do you want prep calls because you don't get enough context about the customer or want to strategize on how to run it together?

AutoSmiler

Arsonist

Account Executive

The stupid questions that get asked at the end and hold the meeting up even longer than it has to be. biggest pet peeve. And if it is a good question I have no issues with it, but when it is something that was gone over twice during the meeting and you have to ask to waste my time, it urks me.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

What's the most common stupid question you get? Mine is "are we on track with opp x" (I literally just asked for your help 5min ago!)

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Arsonist

Account Executive

Nothing specific that I am referring too, it's just those instances that can end up dragging a meeting on longer than it had to be. Short story is if you can get the point across in a team email, let's forget about a formal meeting!

Worf

Politicker

SDR

I think if you have a meeting, you need to have an agenda.

In the Army we always had an "After Action Review" done at the end of the day - it served as our agenda items.

"What went well?"
"What didn't go well?"
"What can we improve on?"

That was the agenda set after every training/exercise and it's how we grew. If your sales meetings aren't focused on actionable items, then it's just a shit show.

Instead of having constant meetings, why not reschedule them or cut down on the frequency to make it more concise?

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

I was in the military and hated those AARs after long nights of training.
No sure how you apply it to sales. Most meetings/calls I have are about deal updates, forecasting, and strategizing on how to close specific deals. Always forward looking.

Worf

Politicker

SDR

Fair enough, AAR's aren't loved by everyone, but I have seen the transition into the civilian world adapt easily - with success in college leadership and professionally when running agenda-focused meetings.

The way I'd apply AAR to sales would be simpler than you think.

"What's working right now?" (In regards to conducting meetings, outreach, calls, closings, etc.?)

"What isn't working for you guys right now?" (Is the quota unrealistic, what's broken/bugged, what forecasts/metrics are you not comfortable with, etc.?)

"What can we improve on? (What resources do you need, what can management do to support you, and what product features can we add that people have requested, etc.?

Just frame the narrative around an agenda item and I'm sure it'll at least be more constructed and focused than what you're going through now.

Maybe I'm missing the mark on what exactly you think the meetings should be focused on, or what obstacles you may face. Hope this helps/contributes, regardless!

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

Helps a lot! Thanks bro :)

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

Well it's fine as long as there is a MoM that can manage the productivity and helping you with struggles and what not.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

MoM?

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

Meeting Minutes or Minutes of Meeting

JuicyKlay

Celebrated Contributor

The only good internal meetings are the ones that only include the cool reps and no management.

Ace

Arsonist

CEO

And also too redundant

Westloopgal

Good Citizen

Account Manager

They go nowhere and are messing up my money! LOL

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

Bro, this is a trap. You can't win here.

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

I'm trying to push my team to move 50% of the meetings into Google sheets & docs. Writing comments about deals and action items instead of endless calls

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

I'm only one guy but I have yet to know of a VP sales that legit wants complaints given to him. That is a no-win situation if I ever saw one.

This is not a sales friendly culture.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

At times, similar convos being discussed over and again - hmm, pushes the mind set and spirit down!

GambitP

Good Citizen

Doing everything sales

What kind of convos? Pipeline reviews?

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Account level reviews with action points being same

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

The REAL problem with internal meetings is that that most "running" them do a HORRIBLE job of actually running the meeting. Executing on a well planned meeting is a skill, just like public speaking and a lot of selling skills -- but everyone with a damn outlook account can just plop something on your calendar. Here are my "rules for meetings"

1) Before a meeting maker is sent, ask yourself is this a "SHBAE" (Should have been an email).

2) If you get past 1, does your meeting invite have a clear AGENDA

3) If you get past 1 + 2, the person who put the meeting on the calendar OWNS the success or failure of it. Including, tone/pace/next steps, etc.

If this is happening regularly, document when someone (your manager) is missing on 1,2,3.....and then bring the specific examples to the VP. Simply stating "its taking up too much of my selling time" is a bullshit copout, and most leaders can see through it.

ChicagoCloser1717

Politicker

New Business Development Representative

so many meetings designed to just check box or make someone's job viable when their role isn't really needed

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

"Well, its not that I hate the boss paying us all to sit around and chit-chat, but the competition is out there closing business"

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GambitP

STOP internal meetings! Asked by VP why I hate it?

Why internal meetings SUCK?

49 comments

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