How often do you meet with the sales team?

I meet with someone in sales, in some capacity, every few days. Before I hopped into this AMA, I was listening in (live) to a roundtable discussion with some key customers hosted by a product leader. Even though I was in “listen” mode, it was great to hear directly from customers about what they are thinking and how we can solve their problems. The key challenges raised by our customers can directly translate into prioritization of where we spend our time enabling the sales team as well as the sales assets we create.

For me personally I meet with the sales team at a minimum on a weekly basis. This is usually time well spent as I get visibility into the deals they are working and where there may or may not be roadblocks. It also gives me an opportunity to discuss content, enablement, and GTM plans with the team.  

That said, I would say that during most weeks, in addition to these weekly meetings, I meet or have ad-hoc discussions with the sales team several times over the course of the week.  

I have a couple of weekly touchpoints with my sales team. We hold a weekly pipeline review where all of marketing and sales leadership sit together and review the state of our pipeline and try to get ahead of any major problems before it’s too late. This is typically a sales-driven meeting, but is a good way to make sure we can spot challenges before they become overwhelming. The second touchpoint is a weekly “standup”. Let me be honest, it’s not a standup like most of us know. It’s a weekly commitment from our sales leadership and product marketing to align on any high priority initiatives or work we need to track. We have the time held every week, but do not always meet. If there isn’t anything to review or this can be done asynchronously, we opt for that.

There are a few principles that I think are pretty important to keep in mind to make sure you are staying plugged into sales without setting your team up to be constantly responding to field requests.

1. Make sure there is full representation in any regular check-ins with sales. If your company is global, make sure you have a time where all regions can be present. Also, it is easy for your largest customers to get the most attention—this sucks for more junior reps. Have leadership representation from all of your sales segments when you meet. For me, it is our global team leads from the strategic, enterprise, and growth segments to be sure I’m hearing from everyone.
2. Do not set up weekly 1:1s with a specific manager. This is a really easy way to skew your own resourcing and get out of sync with your wider customer base. It can be tempting, but I really discourage it!

Whenever possible, go to existing sales meetings. Your sales team’s time is super valuable. Anytime they are not engaging with customers is time away from driving revenue for the business. Keep that in mind as you schedule time. For me, it’s usually easier to ask for 20 minutes of an existing meeting vs. finding a way to schedule something new. What time already exists in your sales team’s weekly engagements, and how can you take advantage of that?

I find meeting with the larger team separately not to be an effective use of time. Instead my team tags on to existing sales meetings regularly when they have it, and request a few minutes ahead of time if there are any questions to ask, or quick announcements to make. The most effective meetings are in smaller groups, with the sales managers, and with individual reps who can add value to your research.

Our product marketing team meets with the sales team fairly regularly. We have a few formats:

1. Monthly 'sales feedback panel' meeting
2. Monthly marketing/sales showcase townhall (where marketing walks through the latest/greatest assets and how to use them)
3. 1:1 or 1:few meetings whenever kicking off a new asset or campaign to gather sales rep feedback and input to help guide the direction

And beyond those, our leaders meet with sales leaders regularly to align on strategic priorities for the business

Several folks from Marketing (including myself) attend weekly sales meetings, and we have a Demand Marketer who meets 1x1 with our enterprise reps frequently. We also hold semi-annual territory planning sessions, which Marketing attends. I wish I had time to meet with reps 1x1 more often - as we grow, I hope to carve out more time for it!