It’s a Tuesday morning at the beginning of the quarter. You find yourself at the front of the room with the Powerpoint set, clicker in hand. The sales team filters in, slouching in to sit at their seats, arms folded, and marginally interested expressions on their faces. About halfway through your well-thought-out presentation, you notice two or three are taking notes, some have the same expression as when they walked in and haven’t moved, and some have slouched further into their seats, seemingly asleep with their eyes open.
There has to be a better way to get your content across. This passive, “I present, you listen” method can’t be the best. Are they learning anything?
Probably not. Research shows that more collaborative approaches to learning are best for adult learners. Malcom S. Knowles, a pioneer in adult education, set forth a set of 5 “golden rules” guidelines regarding how adults learn. Understanding these rules and will help you design a far more engaging and valuable sales meeting.
1 - Give Autonomy
This may seem like an obvious point, but, adults want to be in charge of their own learning. On the contrary, when training or sales meeting attendees find themselves in a session that is set up “theatre style”, they automatically click into school mode and expect to be fed information and talked at. A great way to redirect them to self-responsibility is to task the attendees with outlining their learning goals for the meeting.
Give attendees a few minutes at the beginning of the session to consider what they want to get out of the session. Have them write these down on sticky notes and post them on a wall – or even better, use technology to have them send their objectives in, and then in turn, the other attendees can upvote or downvote different objectives for clarity, and help refine the objectives of others. As the session is underway, the presenter can check in, remind participants of their learning goals, and make comment regarding where they stand as a group.
2 - Sharing Experience through Participation
Get participants involved in the learning process, engaging them with one another; essentially inviting them to become a part of the learning process. Knowles’ research shows that, collectively, adult learners already possess 85% of the knowledge shared by presenters. The goal here is to have the participants become an active part of the teaching - sharing their knowledge with each other. If performed effectively, the instructor then only need focus on that remaining 15%.
Using immersive, collaborative activities and tech tools also keeps the participants focused. Several studies show that the adult learner only has a 10 minute attention span, and without engagement activities, you’ll lose them.
3 - Help them Achieve Goals & Solve Problems
Adult learners are goal-oriented. They are far more eager to learn when they know this new knowledge will help them reach their goals. You, as the presenter, should keep in mind that your participants are asking themselves, “How will this improve my work experience? Why do I need to know this?” Motivation is found when the presenter creates relevant, real-world situations for learning instead of using the abstract or theoretical.
Education scholar Allen Tough outlines how an instructor can achieve this motivation:
- State clear instructional goals
- Use experiential and interactive activities
- Incorporate individual learning needs
- Clearly define the benefits of learning the information at hand AND the costs of not learning it
4 - Keep it Relevant
Sales meetings should provide specific answers to the attendees needs. Failure to do this will result in the words “sales meeting” being met with eye rolls and grumbles that it’s a waste of time.
Using evaluation tools to demonstrate the attendees proficiency and understanding, gathering feedback from participants on future topics can help ensure relevance as well as determine that the content presented is at an appropriate level.
5 - R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Adult learners want to be respected as peers. They know they bring at least some level of experience and knowledge to the group, and want to be acknowledged for that. Feeling like they are being talked down to in an “I’m the teacher, you are the student” sort of tone will make participants passive, focusing more on the presenters “know it all” attitude than the actual content.
Developing an environment of mutual respect by treating the learners as individuals, being aware of language used so that participants are not put off, being open to new ideas and participants perspectives, and focus on collaboration over competition.
Helping create an interactive learning environment is just one of the many ways Option Technologies can move your corporate sales meetings forward. Contact us today to find out what we can do to help take your meeting game to the next level.
