Model Success at Sales Meetings

By Renee Houston Zemanski

There are many ways to use a sales meeting to train a rep to up-sell and cross-sell, says Craig Harrison, founder of Expressions of Excellence, which provides sales and service solutions. He suggests using brainstorming sessions, contests, games, role-playing, and participation to help reps identify up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. Here are some of his suggestions:

1. Look at sales as a service. It’s about helping clients grow or save money and succeed.

2. Ask seasoned reps to share their success stories at meetings. Then dissect the stories to discover what made them successes.

3. Role-play customer/rep scenarios. Break meeting attendees into groups of two and ask them to re-create that success story.

4. Review product and service lines and show how they interrelate. List all of your products and services and look at migration paths for each. Different migration patterns will emerge.

5. Think of up-selling and cross-selling on cancellations, reorders, technical-support requests, or general information inquiries.

6. Practice bridge statements with games and activities. Play a game called “The Progressive Story.” Start a story and define its scope – perhaps a story of a sales call during which you are refilling an order. Take the conversation so far, and then point (or toss a ball or bean bag) to someone in the “hot seat.” This person has to come up with a logical bridge to another service or product. This rep then points to another person, and so on.