is864461646 sales mtg largeIs your Monday morning sales meeting stale? Maybe you need to shake things up. Check out these 12 innovative ideas to spice up a stale sales meeting.

Do you dread the start of a new week because you know it's going to start out with a boring meeting? If you dread it, there's a good chance your employees do too.

Let's face it, no matter how much someone likes sales, a sales meeting can be boring. But it doesn't have to be.

Meetings can get stale very quickly if they aren't done in the right way. So how do you keep yourself and your employees engaged?

You've got to keep things interesting. Ready to give it a try? Here are 12 ways to spice up those boring sales meetings.

  1. Start with an Ice Breaker

Instead of jumping right into the business of the meeting, let everyone attending take a minute to let loose and get comfortable. You can do this by posing an icebreaker question.

What does an icebreaker question look like? Here are some ideas:

  • What's the coolest place you've ever been?
  • What's your favorite movie?
  • What's your favorite sport?

If you're thinking these sound simple, it's because they are. Icebreaker questions don't have to be thought-provoking. In fact, they shouldn't be.

Give your team a chance to focus on something casual. As an added benefit, they'll get to know each other.

  1. Don't Forget Introductions

Introducing new team members is important. It affects both the existing team and anyone who's newly joining it.

Plan ahead when it comes to introductions. Don't just say, "Hey, this is so-and-so and he's new."

Allow new team members to introduce themselves if they’d like. If they’re comfortable with it, let other team members ask questions.

Get new employees involved with the team as quickly as possible. A simple, "Hey, this person's new," doesn't do that. Get them interacting instead.

Let your new team members know ahead of time that you'd like to introduce them. This will reduce the chance of a flustered new employee who doesn't know what to say. If you'd like, encourage them to share info that will promote questions or conversation.

  1. Make it Interactive

Nobody likes to just sit and listen for an extended period of time. Give your team a way to interact with you and with each other during the meeting. This can be ongoing, or a single activity.

Instead of just letting your team know that something isn't working, show them. If possible, get them on the platform or program, have them use it, and let them see the problem in action.

Interaction keeps people involved. If you only offer presentations, you run the risk of employees disengaging or even falling asleep.

  1. Use Multiple Presenters

Don't hesitate to use multiple presenters throughout your meeting. The change in voices and presentation styles will help things feel less monotonous.

If you know one presenter likes to use humor and another is more serious, put them back to back. Don't put all your most engaging presenters right next to each other. If you do, those who are harder to follow will end up going one after another, too.

Allow your presenters to use various styles. Don't insist on them all presenting the same way, or you run the risk of a very boring meeting.

  1. Use Multiple Presentation Tools

PowerPoint presentations are great, but a team can only take so many of them. An hour of staring at PowerPoint slides can put anyone to sleep.

Instead, use different presentation methods and tools. Use video, imagery, games, and more to mix things up.

  1. Add Humor Breaks

Humor can make a big difference in any meeting, and there's plenty of ways you can implement it.

This can be as simple as a humorous slide or short video in the middle of a presentation. Or it can be the presentation of hilarious or strange facts related to the topic you're presenting.

As a rule of thumb, it's a good idea to stay away from religious or political humor. Otherwise, you may just cause offense.

And remember to not incorporate humor that is made at anyone's expense. Belittling or mocking any team member or employee within your company is not the way to go.

  1. Use Games

Are you presenting a bunch of sales figures? Then why not throw them into a game?

Allow team members to guess or perform other activities in a team-wide game, or split up into separate teams. A little competition can really go a long way.

Have a reward for the winners at the end. Little candies, an extra break, a casual dress day, or an additional 10 minutes added to lunch all work well.

If you don't want to have only a couple teams, allow each team member to compete against everyone else. Doing so encourages individual creativity and allows the team members to playfully banter with each other.

  1. Don't Get Long-Winded

Long meetings aren't fun for anyone, even if you do incorporate games and treats. Be courteous to everyone and their time by keeping things short.

A sales meeting doesn't have to be long to get the point across. Go over numbers or whatever you're presenting as quickly as you can while still providing all needed information.

If you need to provide more detailed training or information for certain employees, do that in one-on-one meetings. Don't waste other team members' time by going over things they already know.

If you do need to cover already-known content, do so in an overview fashion to eliminate wasted time. Or make sure employees know why the topic is being covered again and present it in a different way than last time.

  1. Make it a Ticketed Event

To really spice up your next sales meeting, make it a tickets-required event. Do this by giving each team member a ticket. In order to enter the meeting, their ticket must include an idea or suggestion related to a current problem or topic.

To do this, you'll need to let your team members know the topics being discussed ahead of time. And you may need to offer some encouragement. This will require some employees to get out of their comfort zone, but it can really help with discussion.

This method of getting ideas eliminates the need for putting employees on the spot. You'll get better ideas if you give employees more time to think through current issues.

At some point in the meeting, discuss everyone's ticket solutions. Do so anonymously, if needed.

  1. Fire Everyone

Okay, so you shouldn't literally fire everyone. That would just leave you without a team. But try this activity to grab your team's attention quickly.

As your meeting begins, tell everyone they're fired (or ask them to imagine it, if you'd rather not cause any heart attacks). Now that they're "fired," have each employee re-apply for their job.

This activity gets your team's minds on the roles of their job and what they should be doing. It also reminds them of their own knowledge and abilities and how they should be using them.

If nothing else, this activity should wake up any sleepers, thanks to the initial alarm.

  1. Provide Hands-On Product Time

If you're looking to enhance the sales of products, let your team have hands-on experience with what you're selling. Whether that's toys, electronics, or something else, let your team give them a go.

Hands-on interaction will help your team see the benefits and downfalls of each product. And it will help them write better descriptions since they know the product first-hand.

Plus, the play break will be appreciated and will give your team a chance to get to know each other through play.

  1. Role Play

Some team members may not appreciate this activity because it gets them out of their comfort zone, but stepping out of the box never hurt anyone. Instead, this activity will help your sales team see where they need to improve.

Pair up team members or let them do it themselves. Or simply ask two people to demonstrate while their team members observe.

Have one team member perform their regular role on the sales team and have another play a customer. If desired, give the customer a specific problem to present to the sales team member.

Once the role play is done, ask for everyone's observations on how to improve. You may find that your sales team member needs to work on persuasion. They may just nail it, too.

Spice Up Your Sales Meetings with These 12 Tips

Sales meetings don't have to be boring. In fact, they shouldn't be. To keep sales up, you need a team that's engaging and interested in the topic at hand.

Use these tips to create sales meetings that are interesting and interactive. When you do, you'll quickly lose that stale feeling and love the improvements it brings.

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