Friday Afternoon Sales Meetings
Fortunately, I receive daily phone calls from people in my OOH network and readers like you, asking for advice. Whether it’s asking for contact info for agency planners or OOH questions, I welcome your requests and am happy to share everything I can to help you succeed in; ‘More, better OOH.’
Yesterday, I received a call from a new sales manager asking about Friday afternoon sales meetings.
My first response was, ‘You have to trust your people’. For about an hour we discussed the pros and cons, arriving on an answer she was comfortable with: Don’t!
What day of the week do you have sales meetings?
Later in the day, working through emails, my daily ‘dose’ of Seth Godin came up. http://www.Sethsblog.com
Ironically, Seth Godin’s blog for Friday, provided wise advice for having sales meetings on Friday afternoons.
Godin’s last two sentences were:
“Work is no longer time-based. It’s now project based.
Act accordingly.”
I doubt Godin had sales meetings in mind when he wrote his blog or maybe he did. For me his blog works in answering the question, about Friday afternoon sales meetings. His Friday June 8th blog starts below the Vermont Billboard.
What day of the week do you have sales meetings?
Seth Godin Friday June 8th blog below.
Synchronize your watches
Time zones are a recent invention. It used to be that local time was different everywhere. Each village had its own high noon.
Factories required synchronization, so that workers would all show up at the same time (which probably led to the alarm clock’s invention as well).
Today, of course, two things have happened:
- Everyone knows what time it is, all the time. Precisely the same time, to the second.
- It matters less. More work is asynchronous. The work itself now tells you when to start working on it, as the project is passed from desk to desk, from account to account.
Work is no longer time-based. It’s now project based.
Act accordingly.
More about Seth Godin
sethgodin.com Official Site
on Google (videos)
appearances on podcasts
Akimbo podcast
Bio
Hi. I’m Seth Godin. I’m a teacher, and I do projects.
For more than thirty years, I’ve been trying to turn on lights, inspire people and teach them how to level up. This blog has been appearing daily for more than a decade. One day, if we meet, I hope you’ll share with me your favorite posts. Even better, I’d like to hear about how a book or course helped you interact with the world differently and make a difference.
I’ve spent most of my professional life as a writer. I’ve published more than 18 bestselling books. These books are a great way to go deep into a concept, and I think many of them stand the test of time.
Along the way, I’ve found countless detours, interesting projects designed to inspire and entertain you as you continue to do your work.
My latest book is called Your Turn. It’s illustrated and shareable and provocative. I hope you’ll invest a few minutes to see what you’ve been missing.
In 2015, I created the altMBA. It’s a life-changing 30 day workshop and it’s entirely possible it will change your life.
More than 60,000 people have taken my online courses, including The Marketing Seminar and several on Udemy.
I’m in the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame, the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and, just recently, the plain old no-modifier Marketing Hall of Fame. Which is pretty cool.
You can read my free ebooks on the placebo effect and education. And there are five TED talks.
Go, make a ruckus.
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good bite sized info. i agree in the project based work, though there is the regular 9-5 grind we need to be aware of also 🙂
As I read the lead story about Friday Afternoon sales meetings, I thought about what my first boss ( John Settergren) in OOH told me once. If you make sales on Friday afternoon, you will not have to worry about any competition, most sales people take off at noon on Friday.
I thought of the stories about a company called Creative Displays, they were known for having daily sales meetings in the morning. The sales staff couldn’t leave the office until they had ALL of their calls approved by the sales mgr and a list of the people to call on. I believe the sales staff had to have spec art ready for each client also. When they returned to the office that same day, they had to make a full report about their sales that day. If any former Creative Displays people have a different memory, please correct me.
I wonder how the current sales staff at OOH companies large and small would react to this type of sales discipline if it was enforced.
I believe in a Friday afternoon sales meeting. Maybe every other Friday.
Hold the meeting outside the office
Maybe on a billboard site
Maybe in a safety meeting
Maybe at a golf driving range
Hold the meeting at 2 in the afternoon and when finished send them home for the weekend
You will be surprised how many will still go back to Office
You will also be surprised on how many stick around on Friday waiting to find out where next Friday meeting will be
The every week set in stone sales meeting is set for Tuesday at 9 am
Work does not always have to be work
Mixing it up, keeping it fresh.
Tom Torrey, was Creative Displays successful with this management style?
Regarding, taking Fridays off and Settergren’s comment, we whole heartedly agree.
Thank you Jean-Paul.
Does it have to be a grind?
Are sales really a 9 to 5 vocation considering the hours their prospects keep?
Regarding how or if Creative Displays was successful, I will leave that answer to any former Creative Display employees. I believe that a few employees of CD left and started other Billboard companies. Hopefully there are a few still alive.