1. Planning the Meeting — Ask the question, “What do I want the sales force to do as a result of the meeting that they might not do if they hadn't attended?” Too often companies use sales meetings as a forum for administrative issues. If you could have sent a memo, ask yourself if the sales meeting is the best use of time for your people.
   
2. Outline the Meeting — Distribute the outline prior to the meeting and have it available on flip chart or handout. Ask attendees to prepare in advance.
   
3. Give Ownership — Give ownership of the meeting to your salespeople. Allow them to change the agenda if it makes sense. Assign individuals specific topics to cover with guidelines.
   
4. Be Consistent — Hold regularly scheduled sales meetings. Announce the meetings well in advance. Don't cancel meetings on short notice. This will imply that they really aren't very valuable in the first place.
   
5. Tie meetings to Incentives — Make sure that the contests are fair, that everyone has an equal chance of winning. Reward participants for active participation.
   

Sales Meetings are perfect opportunities to enhance skill development.

Here are some examples:

Objections Drills. Distribute two index cards to each sales person. Ask them to write an objection that they have heard since the last sales meeting on each card. Collect the cards and redistribute them. Now, ask the sales persons to write responses to the objections on the back of the cards that they received. Collect the cards again and redistribute. The drill begins with a salesperson stating the objection on one of their cards and calling on a person to answer. The responses are then reviewed by the group.