Transform Your Sales-Team Meeting from Obligation to DestinationIf salespeople look forward to your meetings as worthwhile collaborations then everybody wins.

At many organizations, everybody is part of building and growing the business. Whether a company is just starting off or looking to grow in a new market, team members often spend a lot of time out in the field, connecting with clients and prospecting for new ones. A weekly or even a monthly team meeting can feel like a precious hour stolen from the most important part of the job: engaging customers and prospects.

But if you set it up well, a regular team meeting to talk about sales can pull in far-flung team members for a welcome respite from selling, a time for camaraderie with like-minded souls, and a chance to recognize recent successes and collaborate toward future accomplishments.

Here's how to make these get-togethers worth everybody's while.

Quickly unite the team toward a common goal.

If the sum is greater than its parts, then a team gathered to tackle a shared task should deliver exponentially more valuable results. Eliminate distractions like laptops and mobile phones so members connect with, learn from and inspire their colleagues.

Shawn Daley, the executive vice president of business development and innovation at Concordia University, has his team useBamboo smartpadsto capture, shape and share ideas distraction-free. WithBamboo Folio and Bamboo Slate, Daley and his team can write as they would normally with pen and paper and, with the touch of a button, save their work as digital files. When synced with a tablet or smartphone, these files can be accessed from anywhere. Suddenly those brainstorm notes can take on a new life beyond the conference room walls.

Recognize what's working.

All of us love to shine: to have others see that we've done a job well, helped the company prosper and personally hit our sales goals.

If you consistently recognize outstanding performance and goals being met, every team member is motivated to be the one called out for excellence next time. You can expect everybody to aim higher and to look forward to being identified as a role model. Plus, you're sharing valuable insights that others can apply to better their own performance.

Maintain efficiency.

Just as potential clients lend their valuable time away from their business to meet with salespeople, the salespeople themselves sacrifice valuable time in the field for internal meetings. They shouldn't have to burn that valuable time retyping notes and follow-up actions.

Bamboo smartpadsconvert hand-written notes to digital files that can be shared and worked on later. With an Inkspace account, team members can enhance their experience and convert handwritten notes to text, annotate and mark up documents, even turn drawings into scalable vector files.

Make the most of togetherness.

Even if your team members go it alone in the field, the goal of getting everyone together is to come up with new strategies by sharing what works and what doesn't. Rather than going around the table with updates, assign a point person who will lead discussion of a specific topic and encourage others to chime in with their experience, so all participants stay engaged.

Keep everybody on the same page for the next meeting.

A timely recap updates anyone who had to miss the meeting and reminds those with action items that they're on the hook. Content recorded on a smartpad is cloud-enabled and available anytime, anywhere.

For salespeople who spend their time on the road and away from the team, a sales meeting has the potential to strengthen their connection to their manager, to the company and its products or services, and to their colleagues. More productive and efficient meetings can lead to more sales—the No. 1 priority—which help your business grow. If team members look forward to these meetings as worthwhile collaborations then everybody wins.

Interested in hearing how Bamboo can help you and your organization meet your sales goals? Head toBamboo at Work.