What is a stand-up? What specifically is
a sales stand-up? Should I employ a sales stand-up with my team?
In the world of software development
(and similar types of industries) there is a process/belief/methodology known
as Agile. Very similar to other concepts in management, like Lean, the premise
of Agile is transparency in all steps of your business. This includes sales. My
company employs Agile at the core of everything we do, and have for a few years
now, which includes how I manage the sales team. The practice of Agile includes
a brief daily meeting known as a “stand-up” and I have begun to teach this
technique in my own freelance work.
So, let’s begin with the most important
element to a sales stand-up, and that is transparency. The concept of
transparency, at least on the surface, is rather straight forward. Each sales
person is an open book on every single aspect of activity and performance. That
is to say, each and every sales person must know exactly where every
opportunity, prospect, proposal, PO, email, etc. is in the sales process for
each and every client and prospect. Now, here is the tough part, the sales
person must be 100% open and honest about these aspects of their sales, meaning
they must not sugarcoat the chances of closing the business. And, all of this
information is presented daily in front of the entire sales team and management
team.
Being transparent seems easy and it is
once you become accustomed to being an open book. Think about this for a
moment: if you forget to make a phone call to a prospect, you answer for it
openly to your team, by admitting you “forgot”. If you are being blown off by a
prospect, you acknowledge this openly to your team. If you were told to pound
salt and never call the prospect again, you acknowledge this openly to your
team. Then and only then are you going to become truly transparent.
So, back to the original questions, what
is a stand-up or sales stand-up? A stand-up by basic definition is a meeting. A
quick meeting where everyone “stands up” in a circle, hence the name, and
randomly gets 2 minutes to talk. The sales stand-up is done daily, first thing
in the morning, and should allow each sales person an opportunity (again in 2
minutes or less) to share with the team (1) what they accomplished yesterday,
(2) what is on the schedule for today, and (3) what they need help/support on
from other team members or management.
Naturally trying to get a sales person
to talk for less than 2 minutes can be a challenge. We’re sales people, we love
to talk. But, this is not time for idle chit chat. In my office we pass a
football from one team member to another. As soon as the sales person catches
the ball the clock starts. A typical sales stand-up includes 7-8 people and we
are done on average in 13 minutes. Most important thing – these meetings are
driving success.
Going back to transparency, the fact
that we move quickly through our sales “happenings” in a brief amount of time
every single day, there has been a reduction in short notice “hey can you help
me” meetings. Planning for all team members, especially management, has
improved. Including non-sales folks when need be has also improved, because the
others within the organization have advanced notice when they may be needed.
I’ll wrap up with this final note and
that is team bonding. All too often sales people go, go, go and find they only
communicate with their fellow team members in a weekly sales meeting or
sometimes only monthly. Taking a few minutes every morning, even though the
sales person is speaking briefly, builds comradery among the team members. Each
person will come to realize they are not alone in the trenches. Give the daily
sales stand-up a try. If you need more advice or guidance getting started,
shoot me a note.