As a sales trainer I have had close contact with many different sales teams. Before I became a trainer and coach, I spent fifteen years in sales and business development roles. As such I experienced working in different teams. If you’re a business owner or manager with a sales team, it’s crucial to remember that their performance is directly linked to company growth and profitability. A high priority, therefore, should be to continuously assess their performance and skills, and crucially, figure out how to actually motivate them.
How to motivate your sales team
Sales professionals often share a particular set of personality traits. Often they are extroverts, good communicators, intelligent and highly competitive. To truly motivate your sales team you need to understand the drives of your people and what will make them feel energised and keen to succeed.
Here’s my top 5 ways to provide motivation.
1. Company brand and culture alignment
I have seen many sales managers hire excellent staff without taking the time to integrate the new hire into their business. If you want your staff to represent your business to the best of their ability and demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for your products or services, they need to feel a strong emotional connection to the business.
To make this happen, you should have a well-structured induction programme for new starters. This should include meeting fellow employees from other teams, product knowledge sessions, and a chance to get to know their close team members.
It’s also important to include your sales team in discussions, new ideas and growth conversations on an ongoing basis: after all they will be the ones selling your services!
I would always recommend two-way feedback in which a sales executive can voice his/her thoughts. They should feel listened to and respected and will, in turn, feel much more confident and involved when selling.
2. Targets
Almost all sales team will have sales targets. But to truly motivate your sales team to achieve these, they need to buy into the whole idea.
I have witnessed managers plucking a figure seemingly out of thin air, and then expecting their team to work tirelessly to achieve it. I have also witnessed business owners changing the goalposts by increasing sales targets without consultation, which is highly demotivating.
When setting targets, I would always encourage the person setting them to explain to the team why the sales target is what it is and how you expect them to be able to achieve it. I have seen that a narrative around previous years’ sales, industry changes, company investments and staff recruitment really helps a sales professional to feel motivated. The reason is that they have a much greater understanding of what their role is and why they are being asked to hit a certain target.
3. Incentives
Harvard Business Review published an article about some research which indicated that people’s satisfaction with their salary is mostly independent of their actual salary.
This isn’t to say that this applies to everyone, but sales team incentives are generally highly focused on monetary incentives (such as commission and bonuses).
And while these can work well, there should be other incentives to motivate your sales team. Schemes such as additional days off, vouchers, or employee of the week can seriously boost motivation, wellbeing and job satisfaction.
How to motivate your sales team
4. Training and investment
Many salespeople are expected to perform at a high level with surprisingly little training or educational resources. The way people buy and want to be communicated with has dramatically changed in recent years. I have seen how much sales and refresher training courses can significantly boost motivation and skill. Furthermore, the actual act of being on a training course boosts motivation. Employees feel invested in. And they are given an opportunity to mix with their team and share ideas. The cost for training is comparatively small given the results it can bring in terms of motivation.
5. Resources and software
Many salespeople I have trained are not given appropriate resources to do their job effectively, which results in feeling overwhelmed and demotivated. This includes a CRM (plus appropriate training on how to use it effectively), sales materials, a company phone, laptop and car (if necessary). This kind of support seriously motivates sales professionals to perform at their best.
All materials should be regularly reviewed with input from the team, so they feel they have the best resources to do their job.
In conclusion, it’s important to make your team feel empowered, valued and understood. And that is how to motivate your sales team.
If you’d like some help and support with your sales team, please contact me.
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