We’ve all been there: a sea of people, pulled together from across the country or region, locked in a windowless room with artificial light, seated at round tables with mints and water. We patiently wait for the parade of presenters to finish their ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations so we can get to the coffee station during the day and then the bar at night to start really engaging with our colleagues.
During the day, some relief can be found in the smartphones everyone will be less and less discreetly looking at, checking messages and social media for something to actually engage in as the show drags on.
Every now and then the boredom is punctuated by some lively motivational speaker who tells us ‘you can do anything!’ (insert FIST PUMP); ‘Just believe in yourself’ (insert HIGH FIVE); ‘Be positive and great things will happen for you’ (insert VISUALISATION EXERCISE); ‘Now turn and tell the person next to you and say why you are so awesome and deserve endless riches’ (insert GROUP ACTIVITY); ‘Think about the challenges you have overcome that made you who you are’ (insert STORYTELLING). And so on.
This interlude is like a sugar hit – it perks people up for a short while, and then fades again.
The sales conference may have a big awards night or extracurricular activities – an entertainment extravaganza filled with lots of fun things to do, lots of food and drink, lots of prize giving, etc. That is fine and can be appropriate. On top of that, participants simply might enjoy the location, the hotel, meeting colleagues, getting some time out. But is this what the conference should be about?
So let’s start to rethink why and how we run sales conferences.
They are expensive to run and time-consuming so we had better make it worth our while. Be clear about what you are actually trying to achieve. If the purpose is to get people together, interact, have a good time away from work, that’s fine. But if it is about selling, sharing or generating knowledge, or any other topics relevant for everyday work, you cannot leave achieving such a goal to chance – or PowerPoint.
There must be an overarching purpose to running a sales conference – a meaningful story and context that people can relate to.
Set clear goals. What are you trying to achieve by running the sales conference?
Have a plan. A good conference follows a logic thread, a storyline, it systematically builds something up and guides people to this result.
Make sure you are very clear about what you are trying to achieve. Any motivational speakers you bring into the mix must serve this purpose and context. Any extracurricular activities can still add flavour to this mix if planned and done well.
There are a number of simple guidelines to follow to get your sales conference right:
I have helped many companies turn around their sales conferences into dynamic, actively engaged events that ignite opportunity and lead people to the future where they feel a sense of ownership and can-do moving forward, beyond the conference.
Designing activities that stimulate communication and tap into the wisdom of the room in more concrete, meaningful ways is key.
Here is an example:
Recently, we started working with a new client who had just taken over the role as head of sales. We helped him prepare the new sales strategy, including the value proposition, sales messaging and a new solution sales approach. He had an upcoming sales conference for 150 people to kick off this new strategy.
This was a make or break situation as the previous sales strategies and sales conferences had fallen short of expectations and went nowhere in the long run. Yet his people were desperately wanting direction and purpose; they loved their company and wanted to see it succeed.
Our client wanted the sales conference to deliver the following:
Our client wanted to hear people saying:
“That was the best and most inspiring sales conference I have ever been to.”
“I know where I fit in, and what I’ve got to do, and I’m excited about the future.”
And that is what he got.
We designed a sales conference that was full of enriching activities that all linked back to his goals for the team. Day one set the scene and day two became an active ‘marketplace’, a beehive of purposeful activity, focused on starting the transition from a culture of transactional selling to a solution-selling culture.
Case study driven and focused on diversity, teamwork, learning and active communication, the teams were empowered to learn all about what their company offered their clients – products, services, solutions, people and value. Instead of enduring a dozen slideshows about company division, products and services, 150 people worked simultaneously and actively in small teams across the day assessing situations, solving problems, learning about new opportunities and solutions, learning from each other, getting to know each other.
As a side-effect, they also gathered all the information that otherwise would have been presented to them in the traditional way. But in the context of real life case studies they could immediately contextualise and use this information. It stuck right away. The owners of all this information were also happy, because they had the opportunity not only to present, but to engage and interact with their audience and hence position themselves much more effectively.
At 4.00pm on day two, the conference was still pumping. People were on task, actively engaged and supporting each other. The energy was focused and aligned. It never waned from 8.30am on day one.
We had many people come to us saying how wonderful this was and how happy they were. This energy has carried over into the workplace. Active work is now happening to bring about the changes needed, and everybody is on board and wanting to make it happen.
A sales conference can’t change everything overnight but it can ignite opportunity, purpose and agency. It’s about engaging the very people who attend and making them the active participants and leaders of change. When sales conferences are designed with the participants in mind they can:
Remember everybody lives by selling something.
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Sue is a selling better strategist and advisor, sales philosopher and speaker, sales trainer and coach, writer and activist. Sue is chief executive of forward thinking sales advisory Barrett and online sales education and resource platform www.salesessentials.com. Barrett develops sales strategies, standards and education that help people and businesses sell better.
