At 9 A.M. on any given Monday morning, new-home sales associates across America are picking through trays of bagels and drinking lukewarm coffee before their weekly sales meeting. The sales manager might come in at 9:10, look hopefully at everyone and say, “So, how's traffic?”

The meeting will probably go downhill from there, with people griping about the marketing department not generating enough leads, or prospects who can't sell their houses, or how the builder down the street just slashed his prices by $50,000 and who can compete against that? And just when someone tries to turn it all around by talking about the sale he made, the division president will come in and use that very sale as an example of how a contract was screwed up.

That's not what should happen at a sales meeting—ever. That weekly block of time should be used for one thing only—to motivate the sales staff and give them the tools to be successful. Used to its full advantage, a year's worth of weekly sales meetings can give sales associates an in-depth set of skills. With on-going training, they'll be able to interpret their buyers' personality types, ask insightful discovery questions, give a dynamite model demonstration, show a home site, create urgency, overcome objections, and ask for the sale with every customer who comes through the door.

“If you only do two things right, what would you want them to be? Hire great people and run a great sales meeting,” says Atlanta-based sales and marketing consultant John Rymer. “If I've got great salespeople and keep them motivated, educated, and sharp, the rest of my work could be pretty easy.”

So, why do weekly sales meetings have a reputation for being deadly dull and, even worse, something to dread? Primarily, it's because the sales manager is still trying to figure out what he's going to say when he walks in the door.

“The average sales manager puts zero preparation into a meeting,” says nationally recognized sales trainer Myers Barnes of Kitty Hawk, N.C. Ideally, a manager should put in two to three hours of “intense preparation” during the week for a one-hour meeting, he says.

When Millie Allen Eubanks was vice president of sales for Ideal Homes in Norman, Okla., she would create a schedule at the beginning of the year and “then just start rotating” through a list of about 10 topics she wanted to cover regularly, such as closings, involvement questions, objections, and follow-up. She typically spent four hours a week in preparation, creating an agenda, finding good reference material, coming up with fun, interactive ways to present the topic, and assigning various parts of the meeting to different team members. “I think more sales managers should spend more time on it than, ‘Oh shoot, I need to do a sales meeting,'” says Eubanks, who now is an associate facilitator and coach for nationally known sales trainer Bob Schultz of Boca Raton, Fla. “You are the sales team's life's blood.”

To find out how sales managers can make the most of the weekly sales meeting, Builder asked six top sales trainers—Barnes, Schultz, Rymer, Eubanks, Nicki Joy of Gaithersburg, Md., and Denver-based S. Robert August—as well as sales managers at large and small builders around the country. Here is what they recommend:

Ditch the Monday morning meeting. This will probably be the most controversial recommendation of all, for no other reason than it's always been done that way. But the pros are fairly well aligned on saying that it makes far more sense from a motivational perspective to meet on Friday because that's when the sales team ispreparing for weekend traffic. They'll leave with some go-get-'em encouragement and new training tips to try out right away, instead of trying to remember on Saturday what was talked about on Monday.

If the idea of meeting on Friday seems “bizarre,” as one sales manager told us, think about this: When does a coach give his team a pre-game pep talk? The morning after the game, or right before the players take the field? As for the sales associates who say they can't come to a sales meeting on Friday because that's their day off, we like Schultz's answer: When they are the ones signing the loan papers that put their personal assets on the line, they get to make the rules. Meet on Friday.

Start on time, end on time. While the pros have some differing opinions on how long a sales meeting should last (half an hour on the short end, two hours tops), they are in total agreement that the meetings should start early (no later than 9:30 a.m.) and on time. Penalties for being late ranged from having to take the minutes or singing a song in front of the group to termination for repeat offenders, reasoning that a person who can't manage to make it to the sales meeting on time, when all their peers are there, is unlikely to arrive at the sales office on time when no one is there to monitor. “Three strikes and you're out,” Eubanks says. “That's just kind of dissin' your teammates. No one should tolerate that.”

On the other end, stay focused, stay on schedule, and get people out when you said you would. “If we demand they show up on time, we should respect their time to end on time,” says Scott Baughman, director of sales and marketing at Premier Homes in Pueblo, Colo. “I want salespeople to get out of a sales meeting and go sell.”

Do the “woo” clap. The first time someone mentioned starting a sales meeting with a cheer, we thought it was a joke. The second time, we decided they might be on to something. The idea is to put everyone in a great mood to kick off the meeting. You can start with upbeat, motivational music—Joy is partial to Aretha Franklin's “New Attitude” and William Woodard, sales manager at River Oaks in Richmond Hill, Ga., likes “fun, hip '70s disco”—and a rousing welcome. For Woodard, that means the woo clap, with woo standing for Window of Opportunity. Everyone stands up, claps their hands, and shouts, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Then they put their hands out and yell, “Woo yeah!”

“Then everyone's awake,” says Woodard. “When people first came on board, I'd see their faces and they were thinking, ‘Who are these people?' Now, if I don't do it, they call me out on it.”

Recognize successes. Without exception, the experts say that sales meetings should begin by recognizing and celebrating successes. “We hand out a lot of cash,” says Ron Morgan, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Scottsdale, Ariz.–based Meritage Homes. “We reward folks on a weekly and monthly basis on sales and customer service.” If there aren't a lot of sales happening, than celebrate efforts, such as setting appointments, making broker presentations, or creating innovative marketing programs. At a recent sales meeting at HomeLife Communities in Atlanta, vice president of sales Jack Stachura had one sales associate share how she walked apartment complex parking lots and put flyers on the car windshields of the renters who are their target buyers and the impact it had on traffic.

You can also recognize outstanding qualities. Adrienne Salerno, sales education manager for the South Coast division of Newport Beach, Calif.–based John Laing Homes, has a sales associate who will “drive anywhere and do anything with a smile on his face,” so she gave him the Most Mobile Home Counselor Award and a gift card for gas. “I want them to feel good about what they do and their contribution,” she says.

Cover administration and policy issues by e-mail. Discussions of changes in administrative tasks (new reports, changes in forms) and company policy can quickly become debates and gripe sessions. They also waste valuable time on topics that aren't really open to discussion. Handle them by e-mail. If people have questions, talk to them individually. “This is a coaching session and team building, not a report session,” Salerno says.

Barnes agrees completely. Sales meetings should be about developing the sales associates' skills and impacting their behavior, not filling out forms. “The sales meeting is people-work time,” he says, “not paperwork time.”

Make it fun. Training is most effective when it's interactive and enjoyable. For example, many sales associates would rather have a root canal than role play interactions with customers, but the experts agree that role playing should be a part of every sales meeting. But it doesn't have to be boring. Try role playing “American Idol”–style, with everyone voting for the best role player, and the winner taking home some cash. Set up a Wheel of Fortune with parts of the sales presentation on it and dollar amounts. Have associates spin for a chance to win money for nailing the presentation's script. Or do the Objection Face-Off, which is a version of the old hot potato game. One person tosses a ball to someone else as he calls out a common objection, such as “I can't sell my house.” That person provides a scripted response and tosses the ball to someone else, calling out another common objection. The catcher has to call out a response immediately or he's out. If he can't give the proper answer, he's out. The winner gets a prize.

Always end on a positive. Sales associates work in a high-pressure, increasingly difficult field. They face constant rejection and the knowledge that their income is directly tied, in large part, to industry forces over which they have no control. The sales meeting should give them a boost to face the obstacles and view them as opportunities. Leave them with a motivational story, a quote, an article, a movie clip—something that will pump them up and help keep them focused and energized.

“End on a high note,” Barnes says. “I want them walking out the door with the ability to go through the wall.”

SALES MEETING LOGISTICS

We asked the pros about everything from snacks to how to set up the room for a sales meeting. Here's what they told us.

  • Best day of the week: Friday
  • Best time of the day: Morning, starting no later than 9:30 a.m.
  • Best location: In the model, which is where sales associates work. It offers the best training opportunities. If you have more than one community, move it around so associates can see all the products the company offers. It really helps with cross-selling. From time to time, meet in the design center.
  • Room set-up: Skip the classroom setting. You want interaction, and you don't want anyone to be able to hide in the back of the room. If you're in a conference room, try putting the tables in a U-shape.
  • Food: Keep it light and healthy. This isn't the buffet at Shoney's. Bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, granola bars, and fruit are good choices, along with coffee, juice, and water. Skip the doughnuts and monster-sized muffins. An occasional big breakfast is fine, but offer it ahead of the meeting so people are finished and ready to work when the meeting starts.
  • At every sales meeting, you should: Celebrate successes. “A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae away from a kick in the butt,” sales trainer Nicki Joy says, “but it's miles away in terms of results.” Also, practice role playing. If the words “role playing” scare people, call it “simulated sales situations” or “scenario training.”
  • You should never: Humiliate a sales associate or use an associate as a bad example. Remember, praise in public; criticize in private.

SAMPLE MEETING AGENDA

Whether you send the agenda out 48 hours in advance or hand it out as people walk in the door, it's important to have an agenda and stick to it. If you're not sure what to include, here are a few suggestions:

  • Celebration of successes
  • Pre-assigned book review
  • Competitive analysis of another builder or community
  • Guest speaker on product knowledge, a sales technique, financing, or other pertinent topic
  • Individual customer progress reports; brainstorm ways to overcome objections and close sales
  • Sales training, including role playing; make it fun and interactive
  • Motivational message—maybe an article, a story, or a movie clip