I am a strong believer in the power of having effective meetings. No matter how much people might say, "I hate meetings," everyone can agree on one thing: Meetings are incredibly valuable when they are conducted correctly.  

Out of the box sales meetings ideas are important and in my belief is that most meetings are not conducted correctly. So here are some out of the box sales meeting ideas and some suggestions for making your next sales meeting (or any meeting) more successful.

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Four Elements Of A Successful Sales Meeting

There are four elements of a successful sales meeting without which you won't get very far in improving anything with regards to improved sales performance; especially if you're looking to implement technology into the mix (which is really what we want). 

1). Commitment

You must have commitment to and support of the meeting from every person attending. If you don't, then why bother? Just pick up the phone and save everyone's time. 

Why waste everyone's time if you're not going to get their dedicated involvement, attention and proactive participation? Make sure that when people agree to attend your meeting, they intend on participating for its duration. 

I've seen meetings where only one or two people are actively involved while others flitter in and out of the room; hardly showing any interest at all. 

These types of meetings yield very little fruit; typically it is not worth the time invested by those who did show up and fully participate (which, as it turns out, was not very many).

"This one is a no-brainer.  Either you have the support of those involved or you don't.  If you don't, stop wasting everyone's time and just pick up the phone."

2). Agenda

As with any good presentation that you might give to a client or an audience, you need an agenda. Let everyone know what they can expect to get out of this meeting in clear terms (this should align with your mission statement).

Be specific about what will be accomplished by this meeting; what are the deliverables? Ask if anyone has any questions about how the information will be used to help them accomplish their goals. Oh...and make sure you actually use the agenda and stick to it. 

If an item is not completed or discussed, then circle back and do it another time (best practice is to avoid taking on more than three items in a 60-minute meeting). 

Getting people's buy-in before your meeting takes place helps get them engaged and focused from the onset of the meeting by giving them something concrete that they can look forward to accomplishing at that meeting.

"Agendas are important.  Stick to it."

3). Questions

After going over the agenda, ask if anyone has any questions about what will be covered in this particular session. This serves a few purposes:

a) It reinforces what everyone already knows about the proposed topics

b) it gets the people attending thinking about how this information will be used to help them accomplish their goals.

c) it closes off any possible knowledge gaps. If there are no questions, then you might want to take a moment to pose a question or two yourself before diving into your first topic.

"Questions equal engagement."

4). Feedback

Providing feedback is very important but usually overlooked in most sales meetings I sit through. Without feedback, how do you know if what you're doing or offering is helping? In order for these solutions to work as intended, they need to improve something! 

Let those who attended provide feedback about what was helpful and if there were things that could have been done better. The more specific the feedback, the more helpful it will be. You can further read about why feedback is important here, 4 reasons why feedbacks are important.

 "Feedback is necessary to determine if what you're doing is having any impact."

How To Prepare Yourself For A Successful Sales Meeting

Before we get into out of the box sales meeting ideas, let's talk about how best to prepare for your meeting by making sure you set yourself up for success.  The first thing I do before preparing for a sales meeting is…

1). Know Your Objective

Don't ever go into a sales meeting without knowing the objective of the meeting! You must have an idea of why this particular client or prospect needs to attend this specific meeting and what they want out of it (unless the client doesn't know themselves, then just wing it). 

This knowledge enables you to provide more value by understanding the context of what you'll be discussing as well as the implications of your recommendations. 

If your client doesn't know their objective, chances are they might not actually know why they called this meeting in the first place and that's a big red flag.

"Know why YOU need to attend this particular meeting; what is the end-game?"

2. Know Your Client 

The more you understand who your client is and what they do (and how it ties back to your objectives), the better prepared you will be for any questions or conversations that may come up during your sales meeting. 

There should never be dead air; anything you don't know/understand, make sure you find out beforehand so that it can be addressed as soon as it comes up.

"Don't be afraid to ask questions!"

In order for you to do this, make sure you have a good understanding of the things that affect your client's business and how those factors play into their decision-making process. 

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Here are some questions that should help give you insight: 

• Who is currently doing what my client does? 
• Are there any new competitors or alternative solutions popping up? 
• How will these alternatives affect my client? 
• Why does my client want/need this solution in the first place (what is the pain/problem they need solved)? 
• What about this solution makes everything better than before? 
• What positive outcomes may come from implementing this solution within their organization?

Remember...the more specific and actionable you can make your analysis, the easier it will be to communicate how a particular solution might benefit them.  

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In addition to being prepared, there are a few other things that need to happen in order for you to have an effective sales meeting:

a). Be In-The-Know : Make sure that everyone involved with this project is familiar with as much as possible about the client and what they do. 

The more familiar you all are with their company, their needs and who they are as people, the better prepared each person will be when entering into a discussion or debate. 

Knowing these things allows everyone to speak from a place of comfort and familiarity which greatly reduces tension and gives room for quality questions/responses.

b). Know Your Solution : The solution you are proposing should not be new to anyone who will be in attendance. 

If so, it's likely you didn't do a good enough job of explaining it on the phone or in your email leading up to the meeting, which means there is probably some more work that needs to be done before showing up. 

This also goes for knowing if any modifications have been made since that time as well - keeping everyone fully informed is always your best bet!

c). Be Prepared! : You need to know what you're talking about! Nothing derails an otherwise effective presentation like showing up ill-prepared; with no clear direction and/or information (we've all had those meetings...don't worry, no judgement here). 

Not only does this make you appear unprofessional and lacking in knowledge or expertise, it makes you look desperate too. Never sell yourself short by showing up not knowing what you are talking about - always be prepared! Read more here, How To Prepare for a Business Meeting

"Winging it doesn't cut it - know your stuff!"

d). Be Organized: So now that the client knows why they are attending the meeting, who is going to be there, and what everyone expects to get out of said meeting, you can move on to preparing for the actual event itself. 

The best way to do this is by being extremely organized! Taking an extra ten-fifteen minutes before a sales meeting to ensure that all your ducks are in a row will save you lots of time and effort that could be better spent on other things. 

3. Set Clear Objectives

As mentioned previously, having clear objectives will allow everyone to know what is expected of them at the meeting and why they are attending in the first place. 

Everyone needs to be on the same page - from your client to their assistants and even yourself - so that no one is left wondering and/or confused about their role and how it fits into what's going on overall. 

The easiest way to do this is by setting clear objectives for yourself (we'll get more into the client's objectives in the next section).

4. Be Professional

Last but definitely not least is to make sure that you are doing everything possible to make yourself look and feel like a professional at all times - this includes everything from your physical appearance, attire, hygiene habits (regular showers/baths people!), and overall demeanor! 

People tend to be very forgiving when it comes to small things such as bad breath or mumbling while speaking; however, they remember these details much better than any of your "hitting" information during your presentation. 

You want to come across as someone who knows what they're talking about which means communicating clearly - there should never be an instance where leaving out key information can cause confusion...it shouldn't happen!

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Out Of The Box Sales Meeting Ideas

9 Examples of Out Of The Box Sales Meeting Ideas to Try Today:

1) Company Trivia Night - Team Building Event

Get employees together for an interactive evening of friendly competition while allowing them time to get to know each other better. Once employees have arrived, divide them up into teams of ~5-7 people. 

Give the teams a few minutes to come up with team names and decide on their trivia competition strategy. Then give everyone their questions!

A live host can read out company trivia questions to all teams while they are competing against one another. 

At the end of the night, count up rounds won by each team to determine winners with prizes or rewards for everyone! Store this idea in your bookmarks as you may want to refer back to it later for future reference...

2) Icebreakers

Icebreakers are fast games designed to help individuals get more comfortable around each other, build rapport right away, and learn interesting things about colleagues they may not have known before.

Icebreakers are simple, quick, and to the point so everyone can get to know each other in a comfortable environment.

The rules for successful icebreaker games are as follows: keep the game moving quickly; keep it light-hearted but informative; do not let anyone dominate the game (encourage everyone to participate); give participants at least 5 minutes alone afterwards to discuss with their team members if they chose to do so or just allow time for mingling. 

You can find various examples of icebreakers here  and you could even opt out by doing 'the wave' - it's guaranteed to be good fun :)

3) I Never...

This is one of my favourites because it allows individuals to bond together through self-deprecation and a little bit of embarrassing personal information sharing.

Everyone sits in a circle, with one person starting by saying "I never..." and finishes the sentence e.g., "I never crawled through the mud at Mardi Gras." 

The next person has to say something they've done that is similar to what was said before them, followed by their own "I never..." statement (e.g., "Well I went through the mud at Mardi Gras"), which starts off another cycle until everyone is laughing hysterically about the random things people do (or used to do). 

A few moments for reflection are usually included as well; after all, life isn't all fun and games! Great way to break the ice and get everyone comfortable with each other.

4) Scavenger Hunt

A great team building activity where people work together to reach a common goal; most commonly something like finding items or points of interests throughout the city (or town, or industrial area).

You can start this activity off by splitting your employees into teams of 5-7 people per group and giving each group a list of tasks they need to perform. 

If you're not able to split up groups based on interests (e.g., 'techies' vs 'non-techies'), then try and at least separate them into male/female or any other groups that would be more likely to see things differently, providing fresh insight into the activities being completed.

For the actual game, each team has to complete as many of the tasks on their list as possible within a given time frame (e.g., ~1.5 hours) and return back to base where you can either choose your winning team or declare everyone a winner :)

You can provide prizes of some sort (for example for 'best dressed'), but make sure everyone is having fun first and foremost! 

Scavenger hunts are great because they encourage employees to think creatively about how to solve problems; whether it's working together across teams or thinking outside the box, no one ever feels like it's too much work.

5) Charity Event - Fundraising For A Good Cause

By involving your company in charity events, not only are you helping to make a positive impact in your community (which is nice and all), but you're simultaneously encouraging team building by getting everyone involved.

Team leaders can oversee the organization of fundraising activities, facilitating fundraising meetings and events with higher-level announcements and updates; while team members can focus on setting up booths at local events, preparing lunch or dinner for potential donors (with prizes for best dishes!), etc.

When it comes to picking what charity to support, pick something that hits close to home e.g., if an employee has children they could fundraise for autism awareness; if someone came from another country years ago they may want to fundraise for victims of their former country who have been displaced and/or affected by natural disasters; and if someone is a cancer survivor they may wish to fundraise for cancer research.

Depending on how much each team member can contribute, you could also opt to donate the money to charity.

6) Escape Rooms

For those who haven't heard of escape rooms before; it's basically a physical adventure game where groups (usually friends or family members) are locked into a room and need to solve puzzles, find clues, etc., within an allotted time period in order to escape. 

A popular choice among businesses involving lots of employees because not only does it encourage teamwork; but also provides some extra curricular fun!

Most escape rooms have a different theme such as solving crimes, finding treasure, working through medical trials and so on. 

To keep it more interesting you could try having a company specific theme for the escape room - e.g., an escape room where employees need to find out how they can work together better to become successful in their jobs.

7) Potluck - Bring Your Own Food For Lunch Or Dinner

By having pot luck events throughout the year employees get to try out new food choices while meeting with different people in the company which is great for networking opportunities. 

Employees just need to bring their best dishes that will keep everyone's stomachs happy :) You can also have company specific themes e.g., an Italian night or Asian Fusion night, etc.; so long as everyone has something they love cooking! Obviously this is a great one if some of your employees are picky eaters or have allergies.

8) Laser Tag

If you've never been to a laser tag arena before, they usually have several different maze-like rooms where teams work together to find the enemy and shoot at them with laser guns while completing various objectives along the way such as finding keys, hitting targets with lasers and defending/capturing bases. 

They're definitely not just for teenagers! If you can't get enough of it there's also paintball, airsoft and even zombie survival games.