I agree that many–probably most–sales meetings are a waste of time. As Nancy points out, meeting for the sake of meeting is pointless. If you want your meeting to “STICK,” make the meeting stickable.

1. In some organizations and in the Military, when you have a Project, Pre-op or Pre-Flight meeting, it is always to explain the project/mission, and everyone is focused – mainly because their lives and livelyhood are hanging in the balance.

2. General meetings many times end up with folks saying the same thing with maybe a vowel added or removed, just so it appears that they have a comment or input. These are the meetings that everyone hates, and can probably tell who the offender will be.

Really, these meetings get to be worse than an interview with the President, over whatever issue is hot that day – Everyone wants to ask the same question, or offer the same comments, without making it sound like the same question or comment.

Maybe they are challenged in some way which prevents them from comprehending what the moderator and others have said, or they have had too many Starbuck’s and/or trips to the Coffee pot.

Someone once said there will be a lot of meetings in hell. The gloom surrounding sales meetings though, as you have point out, has more to do with reluctance to waste time, fear of punishment and fear of unwelcome change. Those who have experienced purposeful, productive positive sales meetings look forward to them because they provide another opportunity to experience growth and reinforcement rather than agonizing boredom or defeating negativity.

Thanks for the Stick!

Don F Perkins