Uncommon Sales Meeting Exercise That Boosts Selling Productivity

Imagine a sales productivity tool for your selling professionals that enhances their productivity for years to come. When I first learned this exercise from a "crusty old" sales manager, I was skeptical until I met several sales people who worked for him 15+ years ago. This is something you could be using in your next sales meeting.

While there isn't enough room here to go over this exercise step by step, let me share with you the basics. I first was introduced to this exercise by a sales manager, who in my first opinion was out of touch with todays sales people. He doesn't even know how to use a computer.

There are a lot of things a company wouldn't like about him, however, he more than knows what he's doing ... not by exaltation and voice, but by hard sales numbers. His "students" sell volumes in a commodities industrial market with lots of competitors.

Now it's not important to share his name, in fact, for privacy I won't. However, here is the exercise he performed for more than 20 years with his sales people. Now take this seriously and it could be worth hundreds of thousands to your bottom line ... It's ...

Book reports!

Now I hear you saying, "Book reports, What am I in high school or something?"

That's exactly what his sales people would mutter, however, any one of them who did as instructed noticed a significant increase in sales almost immediately. I met three of his students, each in their industry for more than 15+ years. Each stating, this sales managers book report exercises where the most valuable they have ever seen.

In a nutshell, these book reports are one page covering what a sales person learned from a particular book and how they were going to apply it before the next sales meeting. This manager also worked with his teams habits ... helping sales people to incorporate what they are learning into enhancing their behavior.

Books selected improved sales skills, marketing, enhanced product understanding, identified trends, selling classics, and personal development. I've put together a list of some of these books for members of my Sales and Marketing Classics program. A good rule of thumb is to have them read classics first, but it's more about action than reading.

This exercise literally conditions sales people to think about how they can improve their own performance, and introduces them to ideas they can put into action now. As a benefit to his staff, this manager would buy a group of books (you'll be surprised how inexpensive this can be) because he knew this method would increase productivity.

I've carefully studied this method by interviewing 5 of his past students, each top selling professionals in their field. You'll be surprised by the things I've learned, and will share with you in future answers.

If you want more information about what I found, write SALES MEETING THEMES, Dept GB-0605A, PMB 6618, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste 120, Wilmington, DE 19808. I just couldn't share here just because of lack of space, plus he used a number of forms that make the book report writing fast for sales people so they spend more time on implementation.

What was amazing about this exercise is that after 15, 18, even 22 years seasoned selling professionals attribute it to their success ... and still perform this exercise for their own personal development. What are you doing with sales meetings to improve sales performance?

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