Advanced Industrial Sales Meeting Topics for Skill Development: Part 2

While Part 1 focuses on immediate performance, the second critical function of an industrial sales meeting is to ensure skill development. This section explores advanced industrial sales meeting topics dedicated to professional skill development, coaching, and training.

1. Role-Playing

• Overcoming Specific Objections: Choose the top 1-2 objections the team is facing (e.g., "Your price is too high," or "We're happy with our current vendor"). Have team members role-play a challenging scenario, and then have the group critique and refine the responses. 
• Deep Dive on a Stage of the Sales Cycle: Focus a meeting entirely on a crucial but often neglected stage, such as discovery or needs assessment. Review best practice questioning techniques and discuss what information must be gathered before moving to the proposal stage.
• Sales Closing: This is the last step in the sales process. Role play how to finish a call or meeting. Practice gestures, words and responses to give your industrial sales team more confidence in the closing stage.
• Sales Scenarios: Have your industrial sales team members partner up, one pretending to be the customer. Provide each team with a list of different scenarios to act out. For example, negotiating contracting terms. Then, have a discussion about how the activity went. 

2. Tools, Tech, and Process Optimization

• CRM Data: Review common errors in CRM logging and train the team on new or underutilized features. A clean CRM leads to better forecasting and more personalized customer engagement, making it an important process topic.

3. Future Focused Thought Leadership

• Goal Setting: Ask your industrial sales reps to create a list of short and long term goals. Discuss these goals and what steps can be taken to achieve them.
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Workshop: The target industrial customer profile should evolve. Discuss what has changed in your target market. Are new titles or industries becoming decision makers? Refining the ICP is an advanced sales strategy topic that ensures the team is moving in the right direction.

During every meeting, don’t forget to stay focused, organized and positive in order to improve skill development. Have an array of topics that are both positive and negative (for example, don’t only focus on customer objections. Bring in some positive goal setting and achievements.