There’s a clear correlation between active, healthy businesses and meeting attendance. Even though video-conference meetings are gaining popularity (because our teams are now more spread out than ever), in-person meetings still garner more enthusiasm and income-producing activity than any type of meeting. And it’s easy to see why – being in a room with other enthusiastic people, sharing ideas and successes, creates motivation and momentum.
Think of a concert – you could hear the same music on your stereo, iPod or laptop, but sharing the experience at a live event with others, creates an energy that simply can’t be replicated in any other way.
Regardless of your previous experience with monthly meetings, you can create an energy-filled atmosphere that will generate enthusiasm and momentum in your meetings. And having value-packed meetings is important because people have many choices for that they can do with their time, and they want to feel it was time well spent.
To help you execute a successful meeting, here are 7 different things you will want to incorporate:
- Motivation. Motivation is pumping people up and assuring them that they can reach their goals. Some people are natural encouragers, and almost everyone loves to be encouraged. The motivation segment of the meeting doesn’t have to be super long, but it can include a (planned) testimony from someone who has experienced success and what they did to achieve it. Another part of this is encouraging people to set goals. If the promotion that month is Consultants who book and hold 8 parties will earn a beautiful necklace, then encourage your team to achieve that goal by being enthusiastic and excited.
- Recognition. Recognition is an important part of meetings because it creates energy for your team. People love to be recognized for their hard work and often value it even more than financial rewards. You can recognize things like personal bests, highest party of the month, highest average party, best team sales, top recruiter, earners of monthly incentives and so on. If you find your top earners are always the same, you may want to open for the floor for people to share something new and exciting about their business. This way, they feel recognized for something they have accomplished, no matter how small, like posting their first video, doing their first online party, fundraiser and so on.
- Sharing information and important updates. At some point in the meeting, you will want to share with your team any important information from the company. Whatever you do, don’t read this info straight from the company newsletter or virtual office dashboard. Your team can read the newsletter anytime, anywhere. Instead, share the information in your own words. If the update is a new product or an incentive, you will want to make the training for that evening about that.
- Training. Linking the meetings training to a current promotion helps train your team to tune into the meeting, because topics build upon one another. That doesn’t mean you need to be an expert on every single thing, or that all the training rests on your shoulders. The training portion of the evening is one that can be delegated to other leaders who do an activity particularly well. The training section can also be project based. After a short training on customer care and follow-up, you could have the attendees spend the next 15 minutes making re-order calls or texts.
- Friendships. People look forward to meeting up with their friends and peers every month. Remember, even though your meetings are there to motivate and train your team, socializing is a very important aspect. This section is important for new leaders as well. When people are starting to build a team, they usually don’t know how to run a successful meeting or have the resources or knowledge to hold a training session. Monthly meetings can simply be a group of people in a room to socialize and brainstorm. Many groups choose to meet at a restaurant where they can eat and meet in the same place.
- New Products. At the beginning of a catalog or season, your meetings should have a portion focused on product knowledge This is where you share how to sett and demonstrate your new products. You want to give your teams tricks on how to use new products, help them with benefit selling and brainstorm some creative ways to share the products online.
- Culture of opportunity. At your meeting, it’s a great idea to create a culture where everyone brings guests. Your monthly meeting should always be a place for team members to bring potential recruits to hear you give an effective opportunity talk and learn more about the business. Having those potential recruits hear the other sections of the meeting, like recognition and training, shows them that this a fun and rewarding opportunity that is open to everyone. Show potential recruits that they’d be a part of a team who wants to see them succeed.
Want more awesome training on meetings? Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my latest book, Direct Selling for Dummies.