One of the best things I did this year, or perhaps have ever done (with regards to running my business), was to institute a daily sales meeting every morning at 9:15 in our sales department.

Several business advisors over the years have made the suggestion to do this, but I always balked because I thought a) it would take away valuable time from selling, and b) my team would think I was micromanaging them.

Then in December another advisor suggested I hold a daily sales meeting, so starting in January, I finally decided that we were going to take it for a 30-day test drive to see if it would help motivate us or yield any results. At first there was resistance from the team (with the primary complaint being lost selling time), but I held firm and after the first week, not only were members of the team discussing sales strategies, they were also encouraging one another.

It's been three months and now we all look forward to the daily meeting. I bring in examples and stories from other businesses that I find in local papers and magazines, and they do a great job sharing their ideas, stories and sales successes.

We just closed our spring issues and had the best editions ever for both magazines, so I know it's working.