Imagine a team sales meeting to brainstorm how to:
- Better identify real prospects from non-buyers.
- Quicker identify decision-makers.
- Increase the price point of a product or service.
A brainstorming meeting like this will often consist of each person sharing their opinions around a vague structure hoping to stumble across some magical insight.
Unless anyone in the room is an expert at sales, identifying decision makers, or has a proven track record of increasing the price point, the meeting is simply a cluster of opinions from which to make a decision (and if someone is an expert, let them make the decision).
I’d use the same time instead to research the best way to achieve these goals. This means each person talks to experts they know, researches the topic online, reads a book on the topic and then presents their best ideas a week later.
You can then discuss the feasibility of each idea in the meeting and come to an informed decision really quickly.
You can save a lot of time and come to much better meetings if each person is properly informed.