Sales and marketing teams need to be on the same page to build a company’s brand and drive sales forward. In other words, marketing efforts affect sales and vice versa. The thing is, ineffective meetings waste everyone’s time. A study by Verizon business shows that nothing wastes more time at work than meetings.
Time management is why it’s essential to think it through before adding yet another sales and marketing, AKA smarketing, meeting to the calendar. Smarketing meetings can easily get off-topic without guidelines. However, the whole thing can be super simple and productive by following an agenda.
The Importance of a Good Agenda
A well-structured meeting agenda results in greater focus and more participation. Providing the information ahead of time enables the team to prepare for the meeting and add value to the conversation. Plus, they have an opportunity to give feedback. It’s essential to know what topics the team members want to focus on to get maximum participation.
Start with an agenda sample and use it to create a meeting agenda template. Then simply fill in the template with the new talking points each time. As questions arise, they’ll give way to motivational sales meeting ideas and out of the box sales meeting ideas that come from team members.
There are five components to a solid basic meeting agenda:
- Welcome and summary section
- Provide a succinct list of topics
- Establish a reasonable time limit per topic
- Set up smaller group sessions for niche topics
- Save time to discuss next steps
These sections work for a variety of meetings including the sales and marketing departments. Additionally, each type of meeting requires specific components and questions to answer.
The Components of a Sales Agenda
A first sales meeting agenda or a first sales team meeting agenda is a roadmap for the meeting. The components of a sales agenda help a salesperson to stay on track as they learn about a prospect and their business. Additionally, the questions need to be open-ended to keep the conversation going and also keep the meeting on track. Regardless of if it’s a client or company meeting, the goal is the most vital piece to a sales meeting and topics agenda.
What’s more—a business meeting agenda sample or a first sales meeting agenda sample should always include five minutes to build a rapport before jumping into the bulk of the meeting. Follow the same guidelines in determining how to set an agenda for a sales call. A sales call agenda template should work the same basic way as the one-on-one sales meeting—there should also be time built in for a pause to allow the other party to speak.
Ultimately, knowing how to start a sales meeting is key to gaining the audience’s attention whether it’s a one on one sales meeting agenda or a sales strategy meeting agenda.
In developing the quarterly sales meeting agenda, or any of the other meetings types we’ve discussed, the planner can save time by using sales meeting agenda examples or creating a sales meeting topics agenda, weekly sales meeting template, or a sales prospect meeting agenda in a meeting tool like Docket. Once the agenda is set, it’s also easy to email as a sales meeting agenda PDF or using a tool like Docket to provide a professionally branded agenda via email to all meeting guests.
The Components of a Marketing Agenda
Similar to sales, the first marketing meeting agenda or marketing quarterly meeting agenda must be goal-oriented. For example, a brand meeting agenda is going to have a different set of questions to answer than an advertising meeting agenda. To that end, a branding marketing agenda template will include different questions and outcomes than a marketing committee agenda. Use a marketing meeting agenda example and get creative with marketing meeting activities such as ice breakers that will get everyone motivated to collaborate. Then customize the marketing team meeting agenda sample each time with updates from the previous meeting and goals to reach before the next marketing meeting.
What Is Smarketing and How an Agenda Can Help
Smarketing is a way to build rapport and collaboration between the sales and marketing departments. Combining the sales and marketing agenda can keep the departments and company aligned. This is a vital first step to help the departments gain an understanding of how they can help one another. A marketing and sales agenda should include questions for both teams that align with company goals and success strategies, transforming it into a smarketing meeting agenda.
Follow these steps to determine how to facilitate a strategic planning session.
First, define the strategic planning session agenda by creating a list of goals. Regardless of the end result, a strategic planning workshop agenda that’s effective, breaks each meeting down into a series of goals.
Next, create a sample agenda with the strategy meeting objectives and a list of strategy session questions for a discovery meeting and send it out to the departments. Now, incorporate the strategy meeting ideas submitted by team members that align with this first meeting’s goals. Once the team has checked off on it, save the sales and marketing meeting agenda pdf and email it to the team.
Make Your Meeting Count
There’s nothing more productive than a well-planned meeting. If you’re looking for more ideas on how to plan for strategic meetings, read more on the blog at Docket.
