The Benefits of Virtual Sales Huddles for Sales Teams

It’s not easy to manage a sales team. Driven by quotas, salespeople are usually motivated by a return on their performance and need freedom to perform. Though sales managers can explain the goals and set parameters such as ideal customer profiles and pricing floors, there’s not much else they can do beyond “train and trust.”

Or is there?

According to McKinsey & Company, the current macroeconomic environment forces sales organizations to run lean. Rather than generate growth, sales organizations must now focus on generating profitable growth—building “productivity engines,” if you will, wherein inefficiencies are eliminated, and every dollar invested in sales yields the maximum return. To build these engines, McKinsey reports that top-performing companies forego traditional sales workflows and KPIs and instead provide in-depth marketplace and account information and business-specific direction to concentrate and control sales reps’ activities. Examples include real-time customer insights, sales journey-aware recommendations, and technology to predict and prevent churn. And they’re using this information in a regular cadence of sales huddles to align sales activities with high-value opportunities, de-prioritize low-value engagement, role-play customer conversations, problem-solve collaboratively, and brainstorm the best ways to support specific sales actions.

However, a regular series of sales huddles can be challenging to pull off, especially considering that most sales forces are remote. While sales managers acknowledge that virtual sales huddles are cost-efficient and easy to scale, they often struggle to develop sales team huddle ideas that keep attendees engaged and worry the “forgetting curve” is steep without in-person cues to reinforce learning.

Advantages of Virtual Sales Huddles for Sales Teams

Virtual sales huddles are changing how sales teams engage in communication toward the aim of shared success. They are short and focused meetings on a regular basis that allow virtual sales teams to align with goals, strategies, and results. As more businesses adapt to remote and hybrid work scenarios, virtual sales huddles are quickly finding their place within high-performing sales teams everywhere.

1. Increased Accessibility and Flexibility

One of the biggest advantages of virtual sales huddles is their increased accessibility and flexibility. Many times, sales teams find it difficult to coordinate in-person meetings due to geographic distances, tight schedules, or the need for extensive travel. Virtual huddles remove these barriers, making it easier to bring together remote or globally dispersed teams for quick check-ins.

Whether team members are in different cities, countries, or time zones, one can always schedule a virtual huddle at a mutually agreed-upon time. Not only does this save time and resources, but it ensures that no team member is ever left out of important discussions no matter how far away he or she may be.

2. Improved Communication and Collaboration

Effective communication is key to sales success, and virtual sales huddles provide the ideal environment for open, real-time discussions. With tools like video conferencing, instant messaging, and screen sharing, sales teams can share ideas, insights, and feedback seamlessly, no matter where they are based.

These meetings also encourage collaboration across departments, including marketing, product development, or customer success. Virtual huddles involving other functions enable teams to align on strategy, share customer feedback, and drive toward common goals that strengthen the overall sales strategy.

3. Improved Focus and Alignment

Regular virtual sales huddles keep teams focused and aligned on their objectives. These are short, recurring meetings that afford a structured opportunity to review key metrics, discuss progress toward sales goals, and adjust strategies as needed. This frequent check-in ensures the team is on track and can make a quick turn if any challenges or roadblocks come up.

Moreover, virtual huddles provide a platform for discussing important priorities, such as upcoming product launches, promotions, or key accounts, ensuring that every team member is aligned on the next steps and knows exactly what to focus on.

4. More Efficient Use of Time

Time is one of the most valuable resources for sales teams, and virtual sales huddles help maximize their efficiency. Unlike traditional, in-person meetings that can often run long or require significant time spent on travel, virtual huddles are typically shorter, more focused, and easier to schedule.

With fewer distractions and no need to travel, team members can get to the point, discuss priorities, and move on with their work more quickly. This increased efficiency means sales teams can meet more often to ensure continuous alignment and progress without taking valuable time away from core sales activities.

5. Improved Team Morale and Engagement

However, with a remote workforce, having great morale within the teams ensures strong performance. Virtual sales huddles are avenues whereby team members get to involve each other, share successes, and celebrate wins in developing an exceptional environment.

These regular meetings also help build relationships among team members, even if they have never met in person. With the right technology, virtual huddles can encourage a sense of camaraderie and belonging, helping to combat feelings of isolation that can sometimes accompany remote work.

By holding space for open dialogue, team members are more likely to feel heard and supported, increasing overall engagement and motivation to achieve their sales targets.

6. Real-time Feedback and Coaching

Virtual sales huddles provide an unparalleled opportunity for real-time feedback and coaching. The managers and team leaders can immediately guide the sales tactics, strategies, or specific deals to make sure the team is rightly informed and supported to achieve success.

Virtual huddles prevent minor issues from becoming big ones by discussing challenges or areas for improvement in a timely manner. Sales reps can ask questions, share concerns, and get advice that helps them close deals more effectively.

In addition, these meetings offer a platform for peer-to-peer learning. Reps can share best practices, success stories, and tips, promoting a collaborative environment where everyone is continuously learning and improving.

7. Leverage Technology for Better Sharing of Data

Sales teams can use technology to share and present data more effectively in virtual settings. Using CRM tools, performance dashboards, or sales tracking systems, sales teams can present real-time data to the team in virtual huddles.

These tools allow teams to consider KPIs, sales forecasts, and achievement of goals in a collaborative and data-driven manner. Sharing live data enables teams to make informed decisions faster because everyone works with the same facts and can adjust their approach accordingly.

8. Increased Productivity and Sales Results

The end result of virtual sales huddles is increased productivity and better sales results. More focused, better aligned, and better-communicating sales teams operate more effectively.

More frequent virtual huddles would keep teams at the forefront of goals, thus instilling in them a sense of urgency to meet targets and strive to do better. Teams could then sustain momentum, accelerate the closure of deals, and eventually improve overall sales performance through early address of challenges and rapid adjustments.

Virtual sales huddles can help bring about many positive changes in the dynamics and performance of a sales team. By offering greater accessibility and flexibility, improved communication, collaboration, and alignment, these quick meetings provide the perfect venue for keeping the teams connected, focused, and motivated.

By incorporating virtual huddles into their routine, sales teams can ensure maximum productivity, high morale, and, more importantly, better sales results. As the business world keeps on changing with every passing day, the adoption of virtual sales huddles could be among the most effective ways for sales teams to stay ahead in a digital-first environment.

How to Host Virtual Sales Huddles?

Once you’ve set the stage for digital-first sales meetings with a virtual SKO, you can schedule a regular cadence of virtual sales huddles to communicate updates, facilitate productive conversations, reinforce training, and sustain motivation. These huddles should be short, ideally no longer than 30 minutes, and take place at the same time each day or week, depending on your preferred cadence.

Here are some sales team huddle ideas:

Set the Right Goals

Set a goal for the day, week, or until the next huddle and anchor your agenda to this goal. The goal could be an activity, i.e., increase prospecting emails by 10%. Or maybe it’s an outcome goal, i.e., ensure all enterprise deals forecast for the quarter close on time. You could also set a learning goal, i.e., educate all reps on the new contracting process. Consider asking your reps for their sales team huddle ideas to increase engagement and reinforce accountability for performance.

Remember that regardless of the goal, it’s important to use the sales huddle to motivate the team. Don’t be afraid to get creative and play games or launch quizzes that align with your goal. The right virtual event technology will allow you to easily pull this off and keep your reps focused.

Invite the Right People

One of the benefits of a virtual sales huddle is that you can invite any number of people to attend from anywhere in the world. This means that if your goal for the huddle is to educate reps on the new contracting process, you can easily invite someone from the legal department to answer questions.

It also means reps have an unprecedented opportunity to meet and connect with their colleagues without waiting for an in-person meeting. Lean into this benefit and create moments that foster connection. For example, require attendees to turn their cameras on and kick your huddle off with an icebreaker. Or ask each rep to share a win or success and then celebrate as a team. Be sure to leverage the chat feature in your virtual event technology and set an example for the team by using it yourself. Remember, too, that it’s your job as the sales manager to ensure everyone speaks. Pay attention to group dynamics and reign in reps dominating the conversation. Likewise, invite reps who are not participating to share or comment.   

If you’re struggling to bring your team together virtually, don’t hesitate to ask your reps for their sales team huddle ideas. Many customer meetings now take place virtually, and chances are they have good tips and tricks for relationship-building.

Build the Right Agenda

A best practice is creating template(s) for your virtual sales huddle based on your goal(s). For example, if the purpose of your sales huddle is to motivate the team to close all forecasted deals before the end of the quarter, your template could include:

• Share wins and successes

• Set goals

• Motivate the team

Alternatively, if your goal for the virtual sales huddle is coaching, your agenda template could include the following:

• Ask an icebreaker
• Share wins and successes
• Review the sales dashboard and discuss KPIs
• Coach for challenge(s)
• Play a game
• Motivate the team

Creating an agenda becomes easy once you have your template(s) in place. What can be difficult, however, is sticking to it. Remember that a virtual sales huddle is different from a traditional sales meeting. It should be brief, compelling, and focused. This is not the time to hold an in-depth review of the company’s go-to-market strategy and such topics should be reserved for meetings outside the sales huddle. Similarly, be prepared to moderate conversations for time and invite reps to meet with you outside of the huddle for anything that requires an extended discussion.

Create the Right Experience

The last thing you want is for your sales reps to view virtual sales huddles as a nuisance or a waste of time. In contrast, you want them to leave these meetings fired up and wanting more, so you must be thoughtful about your chosen topics and activities.

Here are some sales team huddle ideas to get started:

• Celebrate a “rep of the huddle” based on your chosen performance criteria. Reward the rep with company merchandise or cash and recognize the rep on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, inviting others to congratulate them.
• Speaking of LinkedIn… assign one rep to post something on LinkedIn between huddles and ask the other reps to engage with the post (like, comment, share, etc.). This will raise awareness for the sales rep, which can help with social selling and increase your brand’s reach.
• Offer a “tip of the huddle.” Pick one tip to share with your reps. For example, you could offer a response to a sales objection or an example of a cold call introduction.
• Create a contest. This could be activity-based, such as the highest number of prospecting emails sent from one huddle to the next, or outcome-based, such as the best email response rate from one huddle to the next. You could also ask each rep to record their answer to a question, such as “What’s your response to XYZ objection?” and post the videos to your virtual environment, asking the group to vote for their favorite.
• Give quizzes. Topics could focus on product or sales process knowledge.
• Conduct a features-to-benefits exercise, wherein reps are asked to create a benefits statement for a specific product feature.

Once again, ask your reps for their sales team huddle ideas. Career salespeople will have participated in countless meetings and training and can be a good resource for activities that make an impact.

As with an SKO, you also want to mix things up and employ different formats for your virtual sales huddles. For example, in one meeting, you might invite a guest speaker to present; in another, you might conduct a survey. Differentiating the structure of your huddles will allow you to experiment and test what works to hold reps’ interest over the long term.

Embrace Virtual Sales Huddles

Virtual sales huddles are a secret weapon in top-performing sales organizations. Done right, they can create and sustain momentum, establish and reinforce best practices, continuously improve performance, and ultimately drive more revenue. And by partnering with 6Connex, you can not only mine our experts for creative sales team huddle ideas but also leverage the latest in meeting and event technology to hold huddles that are constructive, interactive, and engaging to keep your reps excited—not exhausted—by the experience.