Running a weekly sales meeting isn’t always as smooth or efficient as it should be, but really there are only three questions you should be asking yourself, and those questions should yield actionable responses. In most cases, these questions aren’t that easy to answer, but with pipeline analytics, it becomes possible for you and your team to quickly adjust to changes, and make sure everything is on track. Here are 3 primary questions that should be at the core of every weekly sales meeting:
- Where are we now and are we on track?
- Where are we going and do we have sufficient coverage to make the plan?
- What’s changed and how does our progress compare to prior periods?
Using pipeline analytics, uncover exceptions along the way, drill into the details and determine the root cause. Knowing the root cause, and potential effects will enable you to quickly develop an immediate action plan. To get you started, here are specific details you should consider when asking and answering these questions.
Where are we now & are we on track? Look at performance by region/rep - QTD, YTD; compared to quota and compared to forecast.
Where are we going and do we have sufficient coverage? Look at remaining pipeline and commit and determine coverage – is it healthy? Identify problems; drill into region/deal details to investigate root cause, develop actionable remedy plan, drill into commit and other open deals to gauge accuracy, likelihood to close – if at risk, develop action plan, defer?, close?, etc. Determine, what the strategy is to drive closure? What’s the strategy for handling coverage shortfalls; add deals from pipeline to commit, increase value of current pipeline deals, accelerate next quarter’s deals, work with Marketing to find new deals, next quarter’s health – compare to current quarter at the same relative time, size of pipeline (#/dollars), % of committed deals, deal distribution, etc.
What’s changed and how does our progress compare to prior periods? Review changes since the prior meeting, start of the month, start of quarter; celebrate wins & understand loss reasons, deal amount changes – are they expected? Deal deferrals – identify risks and develop go forward plan, new deals added – where did they come from – is the close date feasible? Period to period comparisons (same relative time)- Q/Q and Y/Y – do lightweight benchmarking to determine health and focus resources (quota achievement – win conversion stats, size of pipeline – healthy? Size of commit – sufficient? Pace and pipeline erosion – compare to prior quarter, win rate, loss rate, deferrals, new deals).
