How to Motivate a Sales Team
Sales have always been one of the major concerns of any type of business. Generally, sales are directly proportional to the success of any business, i.e., if the sales go up the business does well and if the sales arm is week, so is the business. So after hiring people for the job the most important thing which needs to be dealt with is – How can they be kept motivated so that the sales number doesn’t go down? In fact the graph of success should be a line with its nose up in the air.
Few steps that will help you motivate your sales team follow:
1. To Have a proper plan:
A proper plan should be laid before you even hire any sales person. Because if you don’t have a plan, for your sales team to follow, motivating them would be of no use as they won’t know where they are heading. So a clear vision and action plan will ensure that the complete sales team is focused on a common end result.
2. Assign roles according to aptitude:
As a manager you should talk to your employees and discuss with them their natural inclinations. Accordingly, suggest for that individual a new or modified role. This is a useful exercise as this way you will not only fill in the talent voids in your but also the open job title. Moreover, your employees will perform much better for the company.
3. Sales Training:
Training is generally overlooked as a tool for motivating a sales team. But providing right training is very important. This will give a boost to their confidence and equip them with the tools they need to reach personal and company goals which are interlinked. The process of training should not be one time, but held at regular intervals with the entire staff. Training should comprise of sales techniques, team building strategies, exercises, attending tradeshows and seminars and encouragement to pursue different avenues for their personal development. Investing in your employee’s growth, means investing in your business.
4. Proper Communication:
One of the major causes of the failure of a sales team is that employees are clueless about what is expected of due to improper communication by their leader. Make it a point to have a clear understanding about what you need. Just like the e-mail’s, status report and meetings , meeting and talking with team members is necessary and important specially when they are not performing and falling short of goals set for them.
5. Offer a base salary:
Generally people appoint a sales person on commission basis which creates a high level of stress and thus leads to quick burnout of the employee. However, if you appoint your sales team on a salary basis in addition to their commission it helps you to retain talent and along with it the obtain work solely for your company instead of from the person in question rather than have him working for two companies at the same time (which is the normal trend in the case of commission basis work). Apart from this, the sales team will concentrate on activates that will lead them to a higher sales rate rather than spending more time pursuing stronger leads than your company.
6. Set achievable goals with competitive benefits:
If setting of goals is important for success, then setting up of achievable goals is even more important. You might be the cause for the failure of the sales team by setting lofty goals for them. Concrete goals are essential everywhere be it sales or any other genre of work.
To achieve these goals the sales person should feel that you support him and value his inputs. One of the best ways to do this is by providing all your employees with competitive benefits. In the benefits you can include anything you like from health insurance to a retirement plan or give them a generous vacation with family if they were amongst the outstanding performers.
7. Celebrate and provide positive feedback:
Achievement of goals or surpassing any milestone set for your sales employee deserves credit. Celebrating this accomplishment highlights the value that each person brings to the company and also motivates other team members to achieve such a milestone.
Your positive feedback or a pat on the back is also necessary for primarily achieving such a feat. Many managers speak to their sales personnel only when they fall short or commit a blunder. A positive feedback from you once in a while won’t hurt you and will motivate your sales team to do wonders for you.
8. Open-door policy:
Last but not the least, make yourself available for any of your sales people if need to share any of their concerns or grievances or need some constructive advice because if they feel that they cannot share their concerns with you it will lower their morale which is not good for any company.
