Here are the five things that salespeople hate the most: contract cancelled; can't get sold deal financed; appointment doesn't include all decision-makers; appointment is a no-show; company sales meeting.

For those who put company sales meeting first, I apologize. Why are they so bad, and what can be done to improve them?

Sales Meeting Basics The purpose of your sales meeting should be to help salespeople sell more products for more money. Keep that in mind as you evaluate what happens during your company sales meetings.

Best time to hold your meetings? I like 9 a.m. Mondays. Attendance? Mandatory. How long should it last? Unless it's something special, most meetings should be finished in an hour. Who should be there? All salespeople and anyone involved in sales management.

What should be discussed? Now this is why most salespeople hate sales meetings: the content. As a sales manager/owner, what you should get from your salespeople at this meeting is their sales commitment for the week and how much they're going to collect on each job, if that's part of their responsibility.

Coaching Experience Now, what can you give them in that meeting? Help them sell more. Role-play different closing situations. Listen to a sales tape with them and then discuss it. Practice their sales presentations. Assign some part of the meeting to a different salesperson each week. Preparing will help them get better.

You may only have one sales meeting during the week, but if your goal is to help the salespeople sell more, sales coaching is a full-time job. It will require you to be available to your sales staff. Other responsibilities will likely pale in comparison to what helping one of your salespeople close a job can do for you.

Ask your staff to give you some feedback on your meetings. Bottom line: Are the meetings helping them make money? If not, what would the staff suggest? Salespeople hate sales meetings because they see them as a rerun of the week before. Make them interesting, informative, and beneficial to your sales staff. —Phil Rea has conducted more than 13,200 in-home sales calls and trained more than 1,750 salespeople. He shares his sales strategies each month with salespeople across the country through the MasterMind Program. For more information, call 866.441.7445.