Expert Advice: How to Run Weekly 1:1 Sales Meetings

Alyssa Goulet Contributor, Sell to Win Last updated on: December 27, 2024

Conducting 1:1 sales meetings provides sales managers and sales reps time for reflection and goal setting. It’s also an opportunity for both sides to raise their concerns about any issues or challenges faced.

As a manager, you shouldn’t look at your weekly individual meetings as simply a time to go over sales numbers. Your responsibility is to foster professional development for your reps and arm them with everything they need to be successful in your organization.

Download our Sales Manager’s Survival Guide!

Ready to become the best sales manager for your team? Get 70+ leading tips and strategies from the experts for sales management success with our Sales Manager’s Survival Guide.

DOWNLOAD IT FREE

What is a 1:1 sales meeting?

A 1:1 sales meeting, or one-on-one sales meeting, is when a sales rep meets with their manager or coach to discuss challenges and strategies in a private setting. The rep’s manager or coach will also use these meetings as an opportunity to workshop solutions, strategize, and motivate the rep to boost morale and performance.

Conducting regular 1:1 sales meetings can help you improve your sales processes, enhance sales rep productivity, and increase your sales revenue.

Essential 1:1 sales meeting steps

The key to successful 1:1 sales meetings is preparation. Before heading into a meeting with your sales rep, make sure you have all the sales performance reports and a list of recent won, lost, and prospective deals on hand. 

Then, draw up an agenda so you both have a meeting structure to follow. This should keep both parties on track and help you cover all the important points before your meeting time is up.

We’ve created a basic agenda for weekly sales meetings to help you get started. Let’s take a look.

1. Performance overview

Estimated time: 5 to 10 minutes

Start by giving your rep a rundown of their overall performance. This is a great way to set the tone for the rest of the meeting and ensure you both have a clear overview of the rep’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Discuss their progress over the week, month, and quarter and any standout KPIs. Focus on areas such as deals won, current prospects, new leads, pending deals, and activities logged, such as calls, meetings, etc.

2. At-risk deal deep dive

Estimated time: 15 to 20 minutes

Next, you’ll want to review any prospective deals that may be at risk. The idea is to learn more about the interactions your rep has had with the prospect and understand any roadblocks they may be facing.

Allow your sales rep to ask you questions, too, and work together on possible strategies and solutions to minimize the risk and bring the prospect closer to closing.

3. Bigger picture strategizing

Estimated time: 10 to 15 minutes

Diving into the details of each prospective deal is helpful on a per-deal basis. But you and your sales rep also need to spend some time developing overarching strategies to help them reach their targets and goals.

Ensure your rep understands the resources they have available to them to help them close a deal. Let them know that you’re there to support them and that, when necessary, they can call on you and other senior managers to actively participate in meetings or calls with a prospect.

4. Forecasting and evaluating

Estimated time: 5 to 10 minutes

Once you have a better idea of which deals are more likely to close, you can tally a more accurate sales forecast for that specific rep. This is a great time to compare the forecast to their weekly, monthly, and quarterly quota and determine whether they are still on target.

Provide your rep with coaching and guidance on how best to nurture the stronger deals currently in their pipeline toward a win. And offer them advice on how to implement past strategies that have worked for them to generate more leads and close more deals.

5. Determining the way forward

Estimated time: 5 minutes

The last step is to draw up a list of action items based on your discussion. Remember, these are actions the rep should take to nurture and close those open deals and generate more leads.

Ensure the list is saved somewhere easy for the rep to access, and include deadlines to make sure these tasks are scheduled and completed in good time.Keep the resulting list of to-dos to a minimum—three to four action items are more than enough.

Need more Leads?

Invest in professional marketing services from WebFX and kick your company’s growth into high gear.

Learn More

Expert tips for running successful 1:1 sales meetings

So, what makes an individual meeting between a manager and a rep truly effective? We gathered advice from six sales professionals on how to run a 1:1 sales meeting and how to maximize the face time you spend with your reps.

Related: Five tips for holding a productive sales team meeting

1. Start by listening

1:1 sales meetings are an ideal time to learn for sales reps and sales managers alike. Both parties should go into these meetings ready to listen and work together.

“The sales manager’s job is to provide resources and guidance to each salesperson,” says Diane Helbig, owner of Helbig Enterprises. “The only way to do this effectively is to first listen to what they are experiencing. This way, sales managers can address specific items with that salesperson.”

Helbig stresses the importance of making these meetings unique to each of your sales reps. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing,” she says. “People work in their own way and have their own unique needs. They require different levels of assistance and attention. Effective sales managers understand this and approach their 1:1 sales meetings with this in mind.”

The moral of the story? Before you create a mental checklist of all the things you want to accomplish in your one-on-one meeting, start by listening. This will ensure that you’re addressing the specific needs and concerns that are coming up for your salespeople, some of which you might be completely unaware of. Listening gives you a better picture of what’s going on in your business and makes your individual meetings more collaborative.

2. Focus on skill development

“You’re only as good as your last performance” is a common attitude in sales, and it’s one that causes undue stress in many sales reps. Without ongoing professional development, it’s hard to beat that “last performance” or acquire the tools that will help you improve as a seller.

Sharpening skills can benefit sales professionals at all levels. Managers should focus on coaching during 1:1s with reps and put effort into understanding their reps’ baseline skill levels and identifying what needs work.

“You should take the time to evaluate and sharpen your salespeople’s critical thinking skills,” advises Carol Archebelle, a former advertising sales manager and current Digital Media Manager for Foundations Wellness Center. “For instance, your salespeople need to know how to size up potential prospects: Are they a good fit for what we are selling? Can they afford it?  Are we asking them to switch from someone they are currently doing business with, or would this be new for them? If it’s a switch, how can we do better? If it’s new for them, how do we demonstrate value?”

The 1:1 meeting gives sales managers a valuable opportunity to coach according to individual needs in a way you can’t with a team meeting. Each rep will have their own strengths and weaknesses in sales and may need coaching in different areas.

Related: Resources to Develop Your Sales Skills

3. Discuss and understand your reps’ motivators

We all have different motivations, and what drives us can have a huge impact on how we perform professionally. Sales managers can use their 1:1 sales meetings to better understand what their reps are motivated by.

“Sales managers need to coach their reps based upon their ‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ motivators,” says Cynthia Barnes, Founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals. “Push motivators are those that encourage us to accomplish basic survival goals (paying the rent, buying groceries, etc.). Pull motivators, on the other hand, draw us to a higher level. Once a rep is secure knowing that his/her basic needs are met, those same push motivators will not propel them to the next level.”

According to Barnes, knowing where your sales reps are will help you meet their needs and understand their motivators. “Someone who’s worried about whether they’re getting evicted next month isn’t thinking about the President’s Club or being on top of the leaderboard.”

This point is often overlooked, but it’s one of the most critical factors in sales success since motivation has a huge impact on how sales reps work. By understanding what motivates your sales reps, you can help unlock their true potential.

Related: 115 Sales Motivational Quotes to Drive Your Team to Success

4. Look for new opportunities

A 1:1 sales meeting is more than a chance to discuss what’s working and what isn’t. It’s also a chance to look for new opportunities for improvement and growth. Some sales managers think they don’t have time to do a 1:1 meeting with each rep, but in reality, managers benefit from this process as much as their reps do.

According to Steven Benson, Founder and CEO of Badger Maps, “The manager benefits from this regularly scheduled touch-base because it allows them to gather the information they need to update their forecasts for accuracy. They can learn which deals are progressing faster or slower than expected and which ones are new, closed, or lost deals. The 1:1 meeting allows them to spot areas of improvement for the rep in terms of bettering his or her sales craft. Finally and most importantly, the manager can spot patterns that uncover opportunities for improvement for the whole organization.”

Of course, there are plenty of benefits for reps, too, as it gives them a different perspective on the entire process. “It’s a great excuse to step back and look at all the deals from a zoomed-out view, which inevitably reminds the rep of some deals that need attention,” Benson continues. “Also, it allows them to spend a few minutes and get a fresh pair of eyes on their territory. Salespeople have their fingers on the pulse of where deals are at, how the company is doing in comparison to its competitors, and what the customers want from the company.”

1:1 sales meetings present a regular opportunity to open the lines of communication between the sales manager and each sales rep, which leads to new ideas and improvements in the team’s sales process.

5. Provide resources

Another important thing sales managers should be ready to do in 1:1 meetings is provide tools and resources to make their reps more successful.

Heather Vreeland, Owner of Occasions Media Group, shares how she begins each 1:1 meeting. “Before I ever get started with what I need, I ask them, ‘What do you need from me?’ I ask what obstacles are they currently encountering with their prospects, and then together, we troubleshoot from there. I want them to start their week with their coach and feel empowered to overcome the inevitable ‘Nos’ of sales so they can charge through without disappointment to the ‘Yeses.’”

Sales managers can make the most of 1:1 sales meetings by supporting their reps in anything they might need. These meetings are about goal setting and accountability, but they’re also for learning about what your reps might be lacking and what roadblocks you can clear out of their paths.

Related: The 50 Best Sales Resources You Can Find on the Internet

6. Have a little fun

The weekly (or monthly) 1:1 sales meeting doesn’t have to be a total bore. Sales professionals should use this time to connect with each other and humanize the process. Everyone needs a minute to breathe, and a 1:1 sales meeting should allow for that as well. In fact, according to David Goldsmith, Sales Manager at ezCater, having fun can actually make these meetings more productive.

“We work hard, all day. When I let each member of my team know through my actions that I’m not taking myself too seriously, they will follow suit and loosen up. This leads to more productive conversations, more transparent feedback, and a meeting culture that is far more attractive than its counterpart.

“It’s a rallying cry to lead by example,” Goldsmith continues. “If I’m prepared, if I’m transparent and communicative, if I’m ready to commit, if I’m having a great time—my sales reps will be too.”

Related: How to use Slack to motivate your sales team

Motivation is the name of the game

Bottom line: Use these individual sales meetings to energize your sales reps and have fun doing it. Your goal for these meetings should be to motivate your reps first and foremost.

1:1 sales meetings should leave your reps feeling good about themselves and about their work. One of the best ways to make that happen is by making the meetings a little more relaxed.

This article is part of our Playbook for Managing a Sales Team.

See Nutshell in action!

Try Nutshell free for 14 days or let us show you around before you dive in.

free trial contact sales

BACK TO TOP