Leveraging ChatGPT for Effective Sales Meetings

Intense brainstorming, informative dialogues, and pitches that turn into sales deals—it all happens during sales meetings.

However, meetings can drain resources and zap energy. In a study by Dooly, 55% of respondents said internal calls or meetings take valuable time away from selling. Zippia also highlighted how only 11% of meetings are productive, and most employees struggle to focus on meetings.

Enter ChatGPT: a cutting-edge technology to revolutionize your sales meetings. AI integration streamlines your workflow, cuts meeting time, and reduces manual labor. In this article, you’ll learn how to use ChatGPT to make the most of your sales meetings.

What are the two types of sales meetings?

A sales meeting gathers attendees, including representatives, prospects, and other stakeholders, to discuss sales objectives. It can be an external meeting (with prospects and leads) or an internal meeting (with colleagues). Sales meetings discuss strategies, track performance, and motivate representatives to hit goals.

Both meetings require attention to detail and preparation. Being well-prepared could mean the difference between a productive meeting and a misstep that delays project completion. Sales leaders need to be strategic in their choice of topics and the way they run meetings to ensure maximum engagement and productive outcomes.

The problem with sales meetings

Lack of plan, failure to stick to the schedule, and deviation from the main agenda are common problems plaguing sales meetings. Most workers spend more time than necessary in meetings. Internal meetings, especially, could be more efficient when information is conveyed in other formats (such as email or Slack) rather than scheduling a meeting.

External meetings still do relatively well in this area—sales teams want to present their best selves to the customers and stick to an agenda. While these can sometimes deviate from the primary purpose, i.e., the customer, representatives often have less leeway to improvise.

Internal meetings, however, are more informal. This informality is a double-edged sword, unfortunately. While sales team members, especially remote workers on Zoom or Google Meet, need small talk to build rapport, these conversations can distract from the primary objective if they eat into the meeting time.

The objectives of internal sales meetings

An internal sales meeting is a check-in between sales managers and representatives that creates alignment, reviews progress, and improves performance. It should be a two-way dialogue where both parties discuss ideas. Internal sales meetings include:

Strategic planning sessions: Planning out strategies for upcoming sales goals and objectives
Pipeline review meetings: Analyzing the current sales pipeline, identifying new sales opportunities, and predicting future closings
KPIs review meetings: Tracking progress toward key performance indicators and identifying metrics that lead to closed deals
Success story-sharing sessions: Celebrating wins, rewarding top performers, and helping each other learn from mistakes
Education and training meetings: Helping sales representatives learn new products with role-playing exercises and briefing sessions
Problem-solving meetings: Solving sales performance issues and addressing customer feedback and complaints

The objectives of external sales meetings

External sales meetings could be a sales call or pitch, a one-on-one meeting with a potential customer, or an online presentation. The key difference between an internal and external sales meeting is the goal: external meetings build momentum toward a sale.

External meetings build relationships with customers, understand their pain points, identify opportunities for improvement, and generate customized solutions.

An initial sales pitch or call is about asking questions. The focus is less on proving credibility and more on listening, discovering pain points, and relieving that pain. Regardless of what you call this meeting, people don’t like being pitched-they like conversations. Hear your prospect out. Ask questions, diagnose, and understand the problem before offering a solution.

The key to successful external sales meetings is delivering value through every interaction: from preparation to follow-up. Build trust and establish relationships to create more potential sales opportunities.

What makes a sales meeting effective?

The worst thing attendees can feel during a sales meeting is that it wastes time. A study by Dialpad also highlighted that meetings without a conclusion or progress (24.5%) and those that drifted from their original agenda (28.59%) were two of the leading causes of unpleasant meetings. Research also suggests that the value of meetings that require input from all parties can decrease with 12 or more participants. Additionally, attendants can sometimes interpret the same thing differently, leading to more confusion and misunderstanding.

Keeping this in mind, here’s what makes an effective sales meeting:

Set clear objectives: All parties need to know why they’re there and what’s expected of them. Do you want to plan a strategy, review progress, or discuss customer feedback? Plan this in advance.
Create an agenda and stick to it: The agenda delineates who will talk about what and when. Stick to it, even if the conversation leads elsewhere.
Prepare collaboratively: Involve all participants in the conversation, even if it’s a presentation-style meeting. Encourage everyone to come to the meeting prepared with questions and insights.
Limit the attendees: Invite only those who need to be there. Limited attendance keeps the meeting focused and ensures maximum value.
Follow-up after the meeting: Follow-ups provide clarity, especially to those who didn’t attend the meeting or had to leave early. They reiterate critical points and help reinforce an action plan.

Building an external and internal sales meeting agenda

A meeting agenda helps sales teams prepare in advance and guide the conversation. It clarifies the objectives, timeframes, and sales meeting topics and fosters collaboration and engagement. Here’s how to build a sales meeting agenda that squeezes the most out of limited time and resources.

Research background information

Dive into ongoing issues and analytics to inform your discussion points. For example, is customer feedback suddenly dropping? Are sales pitches not converting?

Remember: your customer is at the center of all meetings. Browse through your prospect’s LinkedIn profile and understand what they do. Does your value proposition align with their needs?

The other side of the coin is your salespeople. Have you noticed burnout? Are complaints or conflicts cropping up?

Happy salespeople translate to better customer experiences. A people-first strategy helps you retain top talent and ensures that customers always receive the best service.

Establish objectives

Objectives form the backbone of any agenda. They keep your meeting on track and prevent it from going wrong. These objectives may vary based on when the meeting is scheduled.

Weekly meetings for the internal sales team may focus on reviewing the previous week, tracking progress on outreach efforts, and planning for the upcoming week and next sales meeting. A quarterly sales team meeting may discuss recurring roadblocks, new initiatives, and how to address key challenges.

Meeting with a prospect could involve discussing a new product, resolving customer queries, or getting feedback on the product. It could also be a sales pitch where you get to know the customer’s requirements and suggest a solution.

Structure time for discussion

Structure ensures that everyone can voice their opinions and clarifies how long each agenda item should take. It ensures you cover each topic on your list within the time you have available.

To create a structure for your meeting, include time frames and responsibilities for each agenda item. It's important to allocate enough time for conversation and dialogue, while also making sure that the meeting stays on track and covers everything that needs to be discussed.

In addition to a structured agenda, it's helpful to include icebreakers at the beginning of the meeting. These activities build trust and encourage team building, and they can also help participants feel more comfortable and engaged.

Finally, consider using an AI note-taking tool like Supernormal to capture important takeaways from the discussion. This ensures all relevant information is recorded for future reference.

Distribute the agenda ahead of time

Confirm all attendees have access to the agenda before they show up. If you’re working with remote teams, send calendar invites and use asynchronous mediums such as Slack to circulate the agenda.

Sharing the agenda also encourages collaboration. You get input from the sales team and allow them to suggest topics or request modifications. Distribution helps you identify blind spots before you get to the meeting.

For external sales meetings, access to the agenda gives your prospects a chance to contribute. They might even tell you what topics they’d like addressed or any questions they have in mind. Sharing the agenda also acts as a reminder, which increases attendance rates.

Leveraging AI in sales meetings

While only one-third of sales organizations currently use AI, the results are obvious: AI-assisted sales teams are more productive and successful.

Sales teams using AI noticed improvements in multiple areas, including forecasting accuracy, prioritization of leads, understanding of customer needs, and personalization for customers. Most importantly, though, eight in 10 sales leaders and ops professionals using AI say it has improved the use of representatives’ time.

ChatGPT technology creates detailed meeting notes without human input. This tech lets representatives focus on the conversation without worrying about scribbling notes. For example, Supernormal records every meeting you attend and delivers a complete transcript. Reps can review this data later and follow up with customers promptly.

AI technology also saves time in every meeting when you automate note-taking and send data directly to your CRM, whether it's HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Salesforce. You can then update your records in real time and flag any potential issues or opportunities.

The importance of managing lead relationships in a CRM

A report by the Sales Enablement Collective highlighted that 80.2% of sales enablers chose Pipeline management/CRM technology as one of the top three types of technology their sellers currently rely on to do their work.

A CRM serves as a single source of truth and provides a comprehensive view of every interaction with the client. For example, how many times did you meet the client? What was the outcome of those meetings?

Modern customers are more demanding, and staying informed on target accounts is the tip of the iceberg. Cultivating customer relationships requires active engagement. CRM systems provide accessible records of customer interactions that representatives can refer to.

From sales meetings with prospects to customer service calls, CRM technology helps break down silos and ensures everyone agrees. It tracks progress, so representatives can review performance and adjust strategies accordingly. It improves communication, collaboration, and customer service and automates mundane processes.

This is where AI can help. Tools like Supernormal integrate with your CRM and feed into the same system. This way, you can easily track activities and conversations related to your sales meetings. You can better understand who was invited, what actions were taken, and what issues were discussed.

An updated CRM helps representatives focus on revenue-generating activities such as prospecting and closing deals. It provides a holistic view of customers allowing representatives to tailor their presentations to suit their needs. The result? More successful meetings and better customer relationships.

Post-sales meeting follow-up tactics

Follow up with a summary of what you discussed and agreed upon. Following up in internal and external meetings ensures critical aspects remain top of mind and reiterates their importance. Here are five post-meeting follow-up tactics you can use.

Follow up within 24 hours. After a meeting, reach out with an email thanking attendees for their participation and outlining the next steps. A quick follow-up reminds them when the meeting is still fresh in their minds and keeps the momentum going.
Schedule a follow-up meeting. If the conversation revolved around developing strategies or making decisions, schedule a follow-up session to review progress. For external meetings, especially, only 2% of sales happen during the first point of contact. Another meeting lets deepens the discussion and strengthens the relationship.
Summarize key takeaways. Share the meeting’s minutes and highlight the areas of agreement reached during the conversation. Supernormal has multiple templates to help you prepare summaries with ease and accuracy, after which you can distribute this document to everyone in attendance for easy reference.
Follow up with action items. Before the meeting ends, capture those ideas and any action items. Make notes of everyone’s commitments in writing to track progress. Then, assign action items after the meeting. Supernormal creates a list of action items, such as creating plans, gathering information, and preparing presentations, from a transcript which ensures each attendee has clear instructions on what to do, who’s responsible for what tasks, and when the next check-in will happen.
Share additional resources. Add more value to nurture the relationship by sending resources relevant to the discussion. These resources could include whitepapers, case studies, or videos—anything that can help move the conversation forward and support the sales process.
Ask for feedback. Ask attendees what worked well and what you could improve. The goal is to create an environment of continuous learning and improvement.

Get the most out of your meetings with Supernormal

ChatGPT technology can turn sales meetings into productive conversations that increase revenue and result in happier customers.

With Supernormal, you maximize your efficiency and focus on what’s most important—your customer. Never miss a crucial detail again, and get the most out of every sales meeting with Supernormal.

Try Supernormal today to see how AI can power your sales team’s success.

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