Lisa Thal - Three Word Meetings: A Simple Strategy to Engage, Inspire, and Empower Your Team

Managing corporate sales for Major League Baseball for over a decade, I struggle to create new ways to motivate and inspire my staff. Lisas three-word approach is a simple yet effective tool that renews focus and helps reach goals.

Bill Reinberger, Vice President, corporate sales, Cincinnati Reds

Sales meeting content is something every sales manager has struggled with. Three Word Meetings gives you great ideas on how to create a little fun, with a motivating tone everyone can rally behind. These are useful no matter what industry you are in.

Bryson Lair, Sales Manager, Cincinnati Bell Business

Ive been in sales for over thirteen years, and in our industry, you have to think quickly, move quickly, and react quickly. I have often found that sales meetings slow me down. That is, until our first three-word meeting with Lisa. As a former sales person herself, she is able to keep our team focused without wearing us out with too much information. I find that Three Word Meetings stays with me throughout the week, inspires me to be a better sales person, and keeps me moving forward in my fast-paced world. Three words: Buy this book. It could change your meetings tomorrow!

John Williams, WKRQ-2060 Digital

As a busy account executive, Ive often felt there were better ways for me to spend an hour of my day than attending a sales meeting. Lisas Three Word Meetings changed my opinion on this and, instead, provided me with a weekly meeting time to refocus and engage on a topic that delivered a meaningful and relevant message in a concise manner. No matter what the topic, I always find it insightful and relatable to my business.

Sara Minda Reardon, thirteen-year veteran Account Executive for WREW; WKRQ

Who wants to sit through another meeting? Three Word Meetings is a simple way to inspire and engage your audience! I walk out of every meeting thinking of better ways to improve my path. It offers a strategic way to think about my day and encourages me to reevaluate my systems and to improve my processes. I always leave meetings motivated and inspired.

Jason Budzik, Senior Account Executive at WKRQ-2060 Digital for eighteen years.

There are so many ideas that can be summed up in three words: You did it! Go for it! One more try! I had never put much thought into the significance three words could have on my motivation for both work and my personal life, until I began working with Lisa. The way she elaborates the meaning behind three simple words always gets me to think differently, to open up my mind. Sales can be a frustrating job day to day, but solutions are just three words away in the eyes of Lisa. Are we prepared? Consistency pays off. Seize the moment. Lead the way. I owe a lot of my success to Lisa and the way she coaches me on finding a way to stay relevant with my clients and build those relationships, and she usually does it in three words or less. Thank you, Lisa.

Emily Martin, WKRQ2060 Digital Senior Account Executive

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Published by River Grove Books

Austin, TX

www.rivergrovebooks.com

Copyright 2016 Lisa Thal

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by River Grove Books

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group and Sheila Parr

Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group and Sheila Parr

Cover image: Shutterstock / ihor_seamless

Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-63299-096-9

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63299-097-6

First Edition

This book is dedicated to all the managers, leaders, and clients who took the time to care about my career and to invest their time and talent in me. I am grateful. Thank you for making a difference in my career and my life.

Instructions for success:

1) Read this book.

2) Implement the ideas.

3) Buy more copies.

The future of your organization and the performance of your team can hinge on one weekly sales meeting. Its a simple theory: The people we engage, inspire, and empower each week can determine our success. This realization came to me while participating in a meeting where I witnessed various attempts to capture the attention of those in the room. So how can we create weekly meetings that give the salesperson value, purpose, and fun?

What I have come to know over my thirty-year career is that leaders want to engage and empower others. They want to be able to navigate the various personalities in the room and lead them with one common goal in mindto inspire them! The content and words we choose so carefully are critical to capturing our teams attention and encouraging them to do more than they ever thought possible for themselves. I wrote Three Word Meetings to help you become more productive and consistently create excitement around your weekly meetings.

Each chapter focuses on three words to use as a discussion prompt during your sales meetings. In each chapter, I discuss the concept of the three-word phrase and how you might implement it. Next, I share a case study about how those three words were used in the field. Then, there is section titled For You, which walks you through how the three words apply to you, the team leader. Finally, there is a section For Your Team, which provides a series of questions to encourage your team to engage with how the three words apply to them and their clients.

During my career in media, I understood the power of marketing. I was most impressed by concise taglines that conveyed action: Nikes Just Do it; McDonalds Im lovin it; and GEICOs 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on your car insurance. These marketing phrases had me lacing up my running shoes and heading to McDonalds in my car, while saving 15 percent on my car insurance with GEICO.

I realized that if I could find a way to engage my team each week with a simple and focused message, then perhaps they would be inspired personally and professionally to do the same with their clients. Each week I evaluated where my team was and then determined the three words I might use during our meeting. If they needed inspiration that week, I would use Live Your Dream! If they needed focus, then I would use Win the Day! I would build my entire sales meeting around those words. I would share the three words, go over our business needs, and then circle back to the three words and what I wanted to achieve that week. The meetings had purpose, they became fun, and the sales team started looking forward to them.

It has become my mission to help other leaders create better weekly meetings. I understand the daily demands on managers, and I hope this book will help you save valuable time and inspire you along the way. It is my hope that you find the book to be a simple yet major resource for you.