Crush Your Next Virtual Sales Meeting

To build an effective virtual sales meeting, let’s start with this premise: A virtual meeting is not an in-person meeting held virtually. Sales leaders should not simply overlay the same in-person meeting template over the virtual one and hope for the best.

The key is to use learning theory to host effective virtual meetings.

There are hundreds of theories to choose from, but David Keller’s ARCS motivation design theory works well for this type of setting. The acronym stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction.

Get Their Attention

People are naturally preoccupied. An article in Inc. magazine, “Harvard Psychologists Reveal the Real Reason We’re All So Distracted,” notes that people’s minds are programed to wander. A study with 2,250 adults concluded that people spend almost 47 percent of every waking hour “mind wandering.” Design the meeting from the outset knowing this information.

Do these three things to keep your teams’ attention:

1. Reduce the number of virtual stage presentations.

Use recorded addresses before the meeting. Send the president’s message three days before the meeting and the sales executive’s two days before. This is the 30,000- foot view to the runway approach. It eases the cognitive load and leaves the representative fresh and ready to receive the training.

2. Use meaningful language.

Say this to your salesforce:
“Use these proven tactics to hit your targets.”

“Run this report to find the best accounts.”

You get it—everything said provokes action. Action words get attention. Solutions to problems get attention. Everything else is just information. Information gets tuned out.

3. Cut out the fluff

Try this and make your point.

1. Practice your delivery and make your presentation livelier. Use humor but not too much. Make the points brief and keep the meeting moving.
2. Use short stories to engage the audience.
3. If the session is recorded, edit out the extraneous portions for the playback.

Make It Relevant

Do this to make the meeting more applicable:

1. Build on current experience. “We have learned a lot from our customers. Today we are going to share that insight and make adjustments.”
2. Review the skills that will help today. “We observed our sales leaders, and these are the tactics they use to grow.”
3. Show the future worth. The colleagues who use these strategies are on track to achieve quota.
4. Model the behaviors. Feature top performers and have them walk through their system. Make sure it’s something the average performer can repeat.
5. Freedom of Choice. Representatives should be given the room to be authentic and use the proven sales tactics.

Build Your Team’s Confidence

State achievable goals. If your team thinks they are unrealistic, they will determine the effort to upgrade skills is not worth it.

Here are steps that build confidence:

• Be clear on the objectives. The training, including prerequisites, should be outlined thoroughly.
• Celebrate small wins immediately. When quizzes are used, reward the salesforce instantly for correct answers. Deposit the reward in their account in real time.
• Provide feedback along the way. Design the program to be broken into smaller groups to allow demonstration of understanding of the material and receive coaching immediately.
• It’s like going to the gym and working out. There is a feeling that your increased fitness is a direct result of the time and effort you put in. The same principle applies to the training—build time into the program to allow the participant to practice and see the results.

Make Sure the Meeting Gives a Sense of Satisfaction

An employee is likely to repeat a tactic if it satisfies a need. A goal of the meeting design is to tap into the intrinsic and extrinsic needs of the rep.

Know this: Some participants will never be reached, while others will find pearls of wisdom even in a poorly structured event. In Learning and Development (L&D), people attending workshops are classified as explorers, vacationers, hostages, the distracted, and the experts.

• Explorers: They love to learn and are eager to dig into the material.
• Vacationers: They see the training as a break from work, not as work.
• Hostages: They want to be anywhere but at your workshop.
• The Distracted: They are constantly checking their cell phone and thinking about other things to do.
• The Expert: They think they know everything and challenge the facilitator often.

Sales executives fall into the trap of designing their virtual meeting as if everyone attending is an explorer. This is a BIG mistake! Here are some tips to increase the sense of satisfaction throughout the meeting:

1. Use rewards purposefully. The reward should be equal to the task. Don’t patronize the rep by over-rewarding for easy tasks or for off-topic participation. It’s fun to play games that are off topic, but not so much when you are sitting at home and the meeting is competing with other tasks.
2. Encourage senior leader praise. E-mail a list of names to executives so they can send a text to participants. Example, “Hi, sales rep, I am so glad you are participating in this meeting. The training will help you meet the upcoming challenges. Thanks!”
3. Ask participants to turn their cameras on and unmute. Check in and ask what they will use in the field? This works well in small to intermediate settings.

Hopefully these tips will help with your next production. Use the ARCS model and transform your next virtual meeting into a true action-oriented experience.