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MT Community,
I lead a business development team of 3 people, and we hold monthly sales meetings with our insurance underwriters that last an hour. These meetings are meant to share updates from the field and identify new opportunities and areas for cross-selling. We need to gather sales data for discussion during these meetings. I'm looking for ways to make these meetings shorter and more effective. If we're spending half the time going over what's already in the slides, maybe we should put the slides on SharePoint for everyone to read before the meeting. Also, how can we encourage people to share their feedback before the meeting? I'm really open to any suggestions you have. These meetings are getting repetitive, and senior management has started to notice. Plus, these meetings are a mix of in-person and online. I appreciate your help and ideas.
Give a Head's up and go for it
I would just send a quick email to everyone about how the meeting can be improved, with an updated agenda. Clearly state what will be different, and follow your new agenda. Something as simple as "Hi everyone, I think we can all agree that there is a lot of duplicate effort in this meeting when we review the slides that we've already read. I'd like to try a new tactic next month. Please make sure you read the slides and are ready to discuss in advance. In other words, WE WILL NOT BE REVIEWING THE SLIDE DATA IN THE MEETING ITSELF, we will just be interpreting it. That way, we can spend less time in the meeting, and the time we use will be more valuable."
Then make sure you actually push people to follow your new agenda. If they are a particularly recalictrant bunch, you can contact each person personally in the days leading up via a phone call to make sure they are aware of the change. Or, if you don't have the power to make that decision, offer it as a suggestion by adding something like "would you be open to this change?", or "is there a reason we can't try this at our next meeting on April 14th?" (People want to be seen as open minded, and have an easier time saying "no" than saying "yes", so framing with these questions can help).