Monday morning sales meetings are among the best tools for building high-performance sales organizations. Done correctly, they help put everyone on the right track for the week ahead and help sales managers establish the discipline, control and accountability that every team needs.

They may occur on the phone or in face-to-face sessions. Regardless of the format, these critical weekly meetings will be more successful if everyone involved knows what to expect.

First, all salespeople should be prepared to share their actions and results from the past week and their plans for the coming one, including what appointments they’ve made. Next, you should work from an agenda, using the same format every week. This step helps everyone know what’s being covered and, of course, helps keep meetings on track and on time. Meetings should begin no later than 8:30 a.m., lasting no more than an hour.

Here are some tips on how to hold successful Monday morning sales meetings:

What’s on the Agenda?

Ask each salesperson to rate the previous week on a scale of one to five: This step increases accountability. Next, assign someone to take notes documenting any sales discussions and action items; plan to send them out within 24 hours of the meeting.

Move to the sales pipeline and forecast discussions: Engage salespeople in strategy discussions focusing on their individual monthly sales commitments and forecasts. Ask them to recommend potential tactical sales actions that other salespeople might take. This section is likely to take the most time.

Review your month-to-date and year-to-date against actual performance: Typically, this will give you the figures of sales versus quotas; these numbers may reflect sales goals by area or goals by salesperson. In addition, the sales manager should review all scorecards or other metrics that you’re tracking.

Discuss all marketing events planned for the next 60 days: This step gives everyone a heads-up about what’s coming and what everyone needs to do to make the events successful.

Talk about all sales training meetings and topics planned for the next 90 days: Summarize not just the dates and times, but what sales skills will be discussed and what product, industry and organizational knowledge will be covered. You may wish to have individual salespeople handle some aspects of training sessions.

Consider this the catch-all part of the meeting: Summarize any administrative or technical issues, sales contest information and other company topics that you may need to address.

Close the meeting on an “up” note: You might ask each salesperson for one PMT (positive mental thought). This step builds camaraderie and sets the right tone for the coming week.

Building a high-performance sales team takes work, energy and organization. Starting the week with a high-quality sales meeting helps everyone begin the week focused, organized and ready to execute as effectively as possible.