Having fun has been linked to numerous benefits for both the speaker and audience, yet it is alarmingly neglected in most sales meetings. Your sales team represents your business and they work hard to make sure that your clients are happy. After years of experience working with clients and making their meetings more exciting, we want to extend the same help to you. That’s why we’ve put this post together for you, to show you how to incorporate entertainment into your sales meetings and explain the numerous benefits it has.
Why it Matters
When going into a sales meeting, the last thing you want is to be lectured, yet that is how most sales meetings are structured. While its vital to go over sales figures, new products, marketing, training, and more, that doesn’t mean it has to be a boring process. This is where entertainment comes into play. Not only will it combat a dull meeting but it will also help with much more.
Entertainment is revitalizing sales meetings everywhere. The excitement will keep the energy high at your meetings, boosting company morale, enthusiasm, and stimulation. The enthusiasm will continue post meeting as your audience will be eager to apply what they learned, therefore boosting sales across the board. This will also generate anticipation for future meetings. In addition to excitement, entertainment breaks up routine which prevents listeners from becoming restless and fatigued.
For annual meetings such as end of the year celebrations and start of the year sales kick-offs, entertainment is especially important. If executed successfully, these meetings will invigorate and energize attendees. They’ll leave eager to conquer and exceed their sales goals, using the knowledge they received at the meeting. Using entertainment will achieve this because a stimulating presentation reinforces learning, increases memory retention, and builds excitement for future meetings. Interactive environments help people to learn and will keep attention focused on the presentation. The success of the attendees depends on the success of the sales meeting.
Entertainment targets:
- Excitement
- Motivation
- Learning
- Long Term Memory Retention
- Attention/Focus
- Energy
- Sales Profits
- Morale
How to Incorporate Entertainment at your Meetings
The easiest and most effective way to incorporate entertainment is through team game activities. Team activities get your audience sharing ideas, collaborating and improving communication skills. The competition also brings out the competitive nature of sales people, making it more relatable. These activities can include popular TV style games, scavenger hunts or other interactive games that open up discussion and critical thinking amongst the team members. This is the most effective form of entertainment because the active participation and communication promotes learning and memory retention. The best way to incorporate these games is to use a PowerPoint add-in tool with integrated audience response technology. This eliminates the hassle and time of using pen and paper responses and ensures a smooth game play. If your meeting is smaller, try making it an individual competition. You should add prizes for the top teams or top players for added incentive and recognition.
Another way to add entertainment is with an inspiring and unique meeting theme. Steve Martin, a leader in sales training, strongly recommends incorporating a theme to your meetings to help the audience make strong connections with the topics and information at hand. To have a truly prosperous meeting, he suggests using a theme that your team can relate too and will help to facilitate the points you’re making. These themes can further enhance your games by making them more dynamic. Some themes to consider could be survival, game shows, or sports that have a lighthearted tagline, such as “One Team One Dream”. Customize the games, prizes, and other aspects of the presentation to match the theme for a more cohesive meeting. This also promotes an upbeat environment because teams can create their own unique names to go along with the theme. Having teams receive prizes with the company name and with their group names will promote morale and comradery.
If you’re not planning on doing all the talking, try finding a well-known sales speaker. It’s their job to deliver an excellent and captivating presentation. It’s important to have vendors that will get to know your company and situation better, allowing them to customize a presentation specifically for your sales meeting needs.
If you want to incorporate entertainment that is more unique, you can try musicians, performers, comedians, or artists. Be careful when considering one of the above forms of entertainment. To use entertainment successfully in a meeting it is best to choose something that fits into the theme or topic of what your sales meeting will center around. That way the entertainment isn’t out of place or distracting.
In short, use these to incorporate entertainment at your next sales meeting:
- Interactive Games
- Quiz Games
- TV Show Style Games
- Scavenger Hunts
- Puzzles
- A Theme
- Guest Speakers
- Giveaways/Prizes
- Comedians/Performers
Entertainment transforms tiresome meetings into a fun and unforgettable experience. Your audience will thank you for putting together such an enriching and unique event. Not only will it make your material more exciting but it will create strong learning connections in your attendee’s minds. Start increasing your ROI by incorporating entertainment into your next sales meeting!
Check out our interactive gaming modules that will add the perfect element of entertaining and learning into your next sales meeting!
