Sales Leaders Rule #29: Don't Chase Purple Squirrels

Purple squirrels are things that people throw into a meeting that has nothing to do with the topic. They are always a distraction from the real purpose of the meeting. Sometimes this is done on purpose but more often than not, it's genuinely something that someone wants to cover without considering the appropriateness of the topic for a specific meeting. And it's not limited to sales people, sales leaders often introduce their own purple squirrels into meetings.

The first step in eliminating purple squirrels is to have a clear purpose for the meeting and make sure that's communicated to the group. Sales leaders that call meetings without a defined objective are psychologically showing up with a big cage of squirrels because many unrelated things will be introduced during the meeting. These unfocused meetings will obviously be all over the place since the group never had a real understanding of what the intended goal was in the first place.

Once the agenda is established, set the stage for the meeting. Define the amount of time the meeting will take and re-state the purpose and agenda. Then ask the group if anyone wants to add anything to the agenda. If they say no, they've agreed up front not to introduce purple squirrels. Why? Because it's not part of the agenda. If someone tries to introduce something off topic in the meeting you can facilitate staying focused by referring back to the agenda to keep that purple squirrel from sidetracking the conversation. If someone does want to add to the agenda, gauge it's appropriateness right out of the gate. If it's related to the meeting topic, work it in. If not, then it's best to table it up front to be addressed at a more appropriate meeting.

At the end of the meeting, summarize all the key points. This helps you validate those specific topics and ensure everyone is on the same page. Staying focused on your intended topics and validating those topics naturally leads to assigning next steps to individuals for taking action on what was covered.

After each meeting it's important to self-diagnose. Ask yourself, "What could I have done better to stay focused? Did I establish a solid agenda and hold everyone accountable to staying on track?" It's hard to consistently keep purple squirrels out of every meeting so some reflection afterward will help you identify what you can do better in the future to stay on track.

Avoiding purple squirrels and keeping meetings focused will improve your efficiency and that of your company. But it has the added benefit of serving as an example to the sales team. People pay attention to well-delivered meetings and often think, "That's an organized process. That's the way I should be doing it." When you train and you coach on how to run a good sales meeting, and then use those same strategies in your own meetings, the team witness tangible results that they can leverage on their sales calls.

We don't want our salespeople coddling the purple squirrels that clients and prospects release on them. You don't want them to show up at a prospect saying, "Well, what would you like to talk about today?" No. You want them to have an agenda. You want them to lead the call because a sales call should have purpose and a process. If it doesn't fit the agenda, then don't let the squirrel in the room.

Stay focused and stick to the agenda during sales meetings with your team. Purple squirrels by intent or by accident are absolute meeting killers. Look out for them and have a process in place to keep them out.