The structure of thirty minutes
- Five minutes: the numbers for the period, with no judgement and no tone.
- Ten minutes: what gets in the way. The manager asks, the rep talks.
- Ten minutes: what can be done about it, from both sides.
- Five minutes: one specific agreement to carry to the next meeting.
Three questions that work
- What part of your work eats the most time and produces no result?
- Where do you most often not know what the right move is?
- What do I, or the company, do that makes selling harder for you?
The third question gives the most and is the hardest to ask. The answers usually concern lead times that get promised, documents assembled by hand, and prices nobody is allowed to quote.
One agreement, not five. Five agreements after a meeting get done by nobody, the manager included.
What not to do
- do not mix it with a conversation review: they are different genres
- do not use it to announce bad news
- do not postpone it: a postponed session reads as «you are not important»
- do not talk more than the rep does
How often
Every two weeks in steady work. Weekly with a new rep for the first month. More often than that is unnecessary: the agreements have no time to produce a result.