Like about 1/3 of you, I am an introvert.  We introverts operate in an extrovert’s world.  In general, extroverts talk to process their thoughts.  Introverts need to quietly prepare.  Your sales team includes both types of people.  As a sales leader, you need run meetings that allow everyone be as creative and effective as possible.

Brainwriting generates many more ideas and honours everyone’s style. It’s a little easier to do in person, and you can totally do it on zoom. To prepare, create a worksheet and email it to your team prior to the meeting. The worksheet is titled with the topic like: How to Generate More Leads. There is a table with everyone’s name, 3 columns next to each name, and a few extra rows.

The gist is that people write down their ideas before having a discussion. To generate ideas, here’s a 3 step process.

Step 1: Each person has 5 minutes to write down 3 ideas in the columns next to their name. You, the leader, do not contribute to the ideas. You manage the zoom process.

Step 2: At the end of the first 5 minutes, you put people into pairs and send them into a breakout room for another 5 min.   Pairs share their ideas and write down the other person’s ideas on their paper, next to the appropriate name. Then, each person silently builds on the other’s ideas by adding new thoughts in a blank row.

Step 3: Repeat this process up to 6 times, mixing up the pairs each time.

When you’ve completed the rounds, give everyone another few minutes to look at their sheet and offer up the best 3 – 5 ideas for the whole group to consider. Bring everyone back to the main group and ask each person to record the best ideas in the Zoom chat feature. However, ask everyone to save their worksheets so you don’t lose track of all the ideas.

NOW you have a lot of ideas. Everyone has participated equally. NOW you can have a group discussion to start figuring out what to do with the ideas.

As an introvert, I really appreciate brainwriting. I’ve talked to extroverts, and they like the process too. As a leader, you will have served your team well and will have gotten the best out of everyone. You can do it.

One more thing. I invite you to consider becoming a member of the SalesWise Academy. Our goal is to help sales managers build stronger and more effective sales teams, and to help salespeople become more skilled. Our program is built on virtual and bite sized modules, focusing on the challenges sales teams face every day.