7 Ideas to Draw Workers Into Your Sales Huddles

No sales operation can thrive in isolation. There needs to be fluid communication between all teams to ensure that the company's sales targets can be met. This requires frequent meetings between relevant people so that the broader vision can be realized.

This might elicit a collective groan from people who just despise meetings. Yes, if meetings aren’t run effectively, they can be soul-crushing and an absolute waste of time. That’s why more effective sales organizations prefer a sales huddle instead.

What’s a Sales Huddle?

A sales huddle can best be described as a condensed meeting, often referred to as a stand-up meeting, it's held on a frequent and on-going basis. The idea behind a sales huddle is to provide the sales team with a clear picture of their ongoing operations and what direction they're supposed to be taking in the future.

It's fundamentally different from a conventional meeting which can usually go on for hours without much being achieved. There's no idle chit chat or wide-ranging discussions about a variety of topics.

A sales huddle is extremely focused in its objective. This short and disciplined huddle, often held at the beginning of every work day, is to foster communication with the sales team with the clear goal of producing more sales.

The members of the sales team get to learn from each other during a sales huddle. They can understand how different clients respond to different approaches, what pitch works and what doesn't, if there have been any complaints about the product or service, etc.

All of that information can then be quickly utilized to make decisions that will help achieve the end goal of increasing sales. The huddles are also a great way of creating accountability within the team. Nothing is going to motivate the salespeople to perform better once they know that their goals and progress will be tracked in front of everyone.

The key to a successful daily sales huddles that doesn't drain the life out of the team before the day has even begun is to ensure that it always starts and ends on time, no one individual dominates the conversation, team wins are celebrated enthusiastically, everyone participates and no undue criticism is meted out in public.

7 Ideas to Draw Workers Into Your Sales Huddles

If you put some thought into planning the sales huddles, there's a greater chance of your sales reps being excited about them. Think of it this way, the huddle is already off to a good start when everyone that’s present was actually looking forward to being there.

Here are 7 ideas that you can use to plan and prepare your sales huddles that your reps like to attend and also help drive results for your business:

Create a standardized agenda

Given that talking about sales is really the only point of a sales huddle, create a standardized agenda for every meeting and then stick to it. Your sales team should come into the huddle knowing full well what to expect, what sort of information they need to have on hand, and how quickly they will be done so they can go about their day and start making sales.

This is key to an effective sales huddle. Once a standardized agenda has been created, try as much as possible to make sure that it doesn’t need to be changed. What that agenda is going to look like depends on your business and the goals that you have set for sales.

It may include asking reps about the strategies that have worked and if they would like any changes made to the pitch or the sales material. It can also involve going over the performance of the team as a whole and quickly cheering them on if the goals have been met or exceeded.

Discuss sales metrics in detail

Again, a sales huddle is all about helping the reps do their job and bring in as many sales as they possibly can. Make the huddle interesting for them by discussing all sales metrics in detail.

There needs to be a reiteration of the daily, weekly or monthly sales targets, depending upon whichever you have chosen as the benchmark for your team. This is also where the team gets a progress report to see how far along they already are in the pursuit of that target.

Discussing about sales metrics also gives you an opportunity to provide the sales reps with more insight. If you’ve been studying the data and something stood out, share it with them. If one product is performing better than the other, tell them, so that they can focus their energies accordingly.

Talk about what the competition is doing

Nothing motivates sales people more than beating the competition. Talk to them about how your competition is doing, what strategies they have been using, and how your team can adapt to compete with them more effectively.

This has the added benefit of keeping the team motivated, once they have a target in sight and know what they have to do, they will inherently feel a push to perform better than the competition.

Heap praise on sales reps

The sales huddle is a great place to heap praise on the sales reps that have been performing exceptionally well. Most people like to be recognized for their accomplishments among their peers, it boosts their morale and pushes them to perform even better.

This also provides motivation to other reps because naturally, they would want to compete with the person that’s performing the best and do a better job so that they may also be recognized in front of the whole team.

Lend an ear to their questions and concerns

Is your sales team concerned about how a product has been performing or do they have any questions about how they will be recognized for exceptional performance? Don’t close the door to communication.

It’s of vital importance that you lend an ear to any questions and concerns that your sales team might have. If they feel that their opinion carries weight and that they have been heard, they’re much likely to do a better job and remain interested in attending the sales huddles.

Invite experts to give a pep-talk

Once in a while you can switch up the sales huddle by inviting experts in the subject matter to give a short pep-talk to the team. If they’re someone well-known, your team will likely be very excited and energized about that meeting.

Not only is this a great way to ensure that the huddles don’t start feeling monotonous, but it also provides your team with a chance to learn from the best in the business and apply that knowledge in generating more sales for your company.

Show your appreciation

Lastly, it’s always good to end the sales huddle by showing your appreciation for the work that they do. Nobody likes to feel that they have been toiling for no good reason, because commissions alone aren’t enough to leave them fulfilled. Make them feel that their efforts are not in vain, make them feel good about themselves and the job they’re doing.

Showing your appreciation will also help boost the morale of the team, given them an incentive to perform even better and just promote an all around positive vibe within your company. Once everyone is in a good place mentally about their position within the team, they’ll be more inclined to give the job their best shot.

Use the Right Sales Software to Get the Most Out of Your Sales Huddles

A sales huddle wouldn't really be of any use if you don't have actionable data to share with your team. That's why a sales software tool is so important and few measure up to OnCourse, a full-featured CRM that's preferred by large and small businesses alike across a wide variety of industries.

OnCourse offers powerful features which include a built-in sales dialer, automated lead scoring, a full suite of tracking and reporting tools while supporting a host of integrations with tools like Gmail and Google Calendar.

This sales software is well-regarded because instead of limiting its functionality to a specific niche, OnCourse has something to offer for everyone. Whether you're in the real estate or retail sector, food service or high fashion, OnCourse offers highly customizable tools that allow your business to have the maximum impact in your industry.

Its tracking and reporting tools can inform you precisely how well each member of the sales team is performing, how your products are performing, and that data can then be used to make decisions during the sales huddle.

So if you’re looking to bring more insights to your daily sales huddle and you want your team to have the most accurate data possible with them when they go out to make their sales, contact the team at OnCourse today. Talk to them about their custom solutions and they’ll be happy to tell you how their full-service CRM can help your sales team achieve their targets.