At some time during the year, most companies will conduct a sales meeting or similar event. And often, these organizations will throw these gatherings together haphazardly; not fully aware of the positive impact a successful meeting can have on its sales force—and therefore its bottom line.

Much thought will go into developing marketing initiatives to sell consumers or the trade. But substantially less effort goes into selling the sales force.

Your sales force is an important audience because they, in turn, sell to distributors, brokers, retailers and wholesalers even to the public. If your sales force isn’t sold, then sales to your ultimate customer won’t be maximized.

Partners & Levit Inc. has produced many sales meetings.

We’ll describe some in a moment. But first, a critical observation: Someone has to be in charge, yet typically no single executive is. It doesn’t work to assign each product manager or senior sales executive a time slot and have him or her do their own thing. Your meeting must have continuity and an underlying message. Everything must work together. If it doesn’t, a lot of content can be wasted for lack of form.

The person in charge (the producer) should be responsible for assuring continuity from distribution of airline tickets and teaser mailings through every general meeting, breakout session and cocktail party—to the flight home and return to the office. The producer is responsible for making sure each speaker fits in. For making sure no presenter speaks too long. For assuring each session keeps the attention of the audience in a tone consistent with the rest of the meeting. And for ordering the correct audiovisual equipment and assuring it is functioning properly and that the visuals used are professional, design consistent and readable.

Theme

A sales meeting generally has an overriding purpose which can be to introduce a new product line, to hone selling skills or to deliver an important new market position.

The theme created for the event will drive the primary message home. The theme should be meaningful, concise and creative.

Don’t get tempted into using a theme line that stresses the location of the event. Acme in Acapulco isn’t the message you want your sales force to take home.

The theme used for the meeting should be usable throughout the year. Think of the sales meeting as a place to kick off a yearlong stream of communication. So create a line that will represent your sales thrust for the year.

For example, to encourage interdependence among the sales force teachers and students, we created the line for Random House’s School Division. "If We Join Hands We Can Reach Twice as Far." When American Greetings introduced several lines of new products that would reinvent the identity of the company, they used The American Revolution.

These phrases are catchy and evoke imagery and emotion. And, more importantly, they summarize the primary message senior management wants each member of the sales force to take home. A great theme line is creative, catchy and telegraphic in it’s ability to communicate.

A great theme line is creative, catchy and telegraphic in its ability to communicate.