It’s important for sales managers to motivate their team in order to get results. A bored and uninspired team can get stuck in a rut and performance levels can suffer. But knowing how to motivate them can be a challenge.

We’ve put together a list of 10 ways you could motivate your sales team:

1. Clear direction: Giving strong management and leadership and offering supportive feedback can make a real difference to how your team work. If you’re a good sales manager, they’ll want to hit the targets you set. If you’re not, they won’t be as motivated.

2. Training: Make sure you’re getting the best out of your team by ensuring they have all the resources they need to succeed. Talk to them regularly about any training or career development courses they feel could benefit them.

3. Pay incentives: As mentioned in our previous post Salary vs. Commission, commission is an important part of a salesperson’s life. Setting a structured and well thought-out commission scheme can motivate competitive selling behaviour.

4. Team building exercises: Classic team building days out can really bring a team together. It’s all about discovering how people think and work together. You can use the insights you learn for future planning and team structuring.

5. Hire motivational speakers: The best motivational speakers have learned from experience and aim to influence, inspire change and boost morale. Getting advice from someone outside of the team can bring a fresh perspective.

6. Find out what motivates individuals: Recognising individual success, rather than a commission scheme can often motivate people more. Some people are motivated by money, others aren’t. Find out what’s going on in your sales team’s lives and ask them what they want as a reward.

7. Competition: Contests and ‘buzz days’ where the whole sales team spends the day calling prospects and customers in the office can generate excitement and add a new lease of life to a stale and repetitive sales process. Invite all levels of your sales team to compete, from new starters to the big boss, and see who might surprise you.

8. Public recognition: By publically posting conversion rates and targets, you can utilise a little friendly peer-pressure, as well as a desire to be recognised (and bragging rights!)

9. Get creative: Change the way you think about motivation. Hand out random prizes or certificates for things other than hitting targets, like ‘person who closed the impossible deal’, or ‘team member who went the extra mile’.

10. The little things: Never underestimate how much people will appreciate small rewards, such as buying lunch for your team, playing music in the office, or a team night out.

How do you motivate your sales team?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

A successful Business Development Manager should be the driving force behind generating new leads; devoting their time to business development and making their organisation a success. As a Business Development Manager, you’re likely to spend a lot of time visiting clients and attending networking events. But what kind of qualities should a good Business Development Manager have?

1. Charisma: A good Business Development Manager should be likeable. Charisma is an important quality that can help you accomplish things faster, develop relationships and imbue enthusiasm in others. It helps you work with your team as well as your customers.

2. Strong communicator: Communication is key. Delivering sales pitches and convincing prospects to buy new products can be tough if you can’t deliver your message effectively. If you can confidently get your message across, you will gain respect and the selling process will become much easier. Communication skills can often count for more than qualifications in this role.

3. Passion for product: You need to believe in your brand and have a real passion for whatever you’re selling. An obvious passion for what you do will be visible to your customers and help build a sense of trust, belief and integrity.

Do you have the required skills to succeed in business development?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

A sales forecast is an essential tool in managing any business. It is an opportunity to identify and plan for any problems or opportunities that may arise in the coming year.

Some people believe that forecasting takes training, maths and advanced qualifications, whilst others have suggested that forecasting is mainly educated guessing or a process of trial and error. Either way, a sales forecast is a prediction based on past sales performance and expected market conditions.

There are a lot of desktop software and Web-based services built to generate sales forecasts, but here’s a simple example of how to calculate your sales forecast:

last ­year's annual sales + (last year's annual sales x rate of inflation) = next year's sales forecast

“If you are in business, you are in commission sales. When your product sells, you make money. When it doesn’t you don’t.” – Bob Burg 

Commission is an important part of a salesperson’s life, but which type of plan is best for you? And which will allow you to take home the highest reward? No sales commission plan fits all salespeople or all companies and whilst the opportunity is available, there are no guarantees when it comes to achieving financial success through commission. It takes self-discipline and hard work.

There are 3 basic salary/commission plans:

1. Salary Only: Usually used when a new salesperson is brought into an organisation.

With a base salary, you know you’ll always be taking home a steady amount. This type of salary plan mainly attracts security-focused sales people or those who are new to the industry. It’s easy to administer but may not motivate salespeople to reach as high as they can.

2. Straight Commission: This is a great way to motivate competitive selling behaviour. 

Straight commission usually offers high commission rates, more freedom and more opportunity. If you’re a highly motivated performance hunter, this could be ideal for you, but beware, earnings and job security can be unstable if you don’t hit your targets.

3. Combination Sales Commission: A basic salary with an incentive based on sales made. 

Potentially the best of both worlds – a stable salary with added rewards. Whilst this is a popular choice as it provides the security of a salary but also offers a little extra to strive for, a combination plan can often come at a price – a significantly lower commission rate.

Salespeople need to be motivated and focused in order to make a living, whether on a basic salary or a high commission rate. If your commission plan isn’t right for you, then it might be time to recalculate to see which will give you the greatest reward and look for a new opportunity which will accommodate your needs.

Which commission scheme do you prefer to work with and why?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Key account management has been one of the most important innovations in B2B selling over the past two decades. The number of companies who now wish to introduce a key account management system continues to increase. The appeal of this approach is clear; more sales, higher profits and increased customer satisfaction. However, for key account management to succeed, it is vital to find the right person for the job.

The best salespeople will often not make the best key account managers. The skill set required for key account management is slightly different and the role is often more suited to technical people and project managers. The required skills include financial, consultative, planning, interpersonal and influencing skills. While salespeople will often focus on their immediate targets and commission, key account managers need to focus on keeping their clients satisfied in the long term.

A successful key account manager will also need a high level of commitment to the role. You need to spend a lot of time with your client, getting to know their needs and the business issues that matter to them. You should be an advocate for your client within the company as much as you represent the company to your client. This requires a strong ability to influence others in order to keep both parties happy.

Finally, you need to make sure you have the support of your company and that processes are integrated correctly. For a key account management programme to succeed, organisational change will be required. The programme will need to be closely reviewed on a regular basis, and management will need to understand that you should not necessarily be judged by the same metrics as other salespeople. This can be a difficult balancing act, but can be extremely valuable for the company and the key account manager if implemented correctly.

Are you a successful key account manager? Find out how our highly skilled consultants can help you in your career by visiting our website.

Recent good news in manufacturing suggests that this will be a good year for the industry. Chris Loveridge, Specialist Technical Sales Consultant at Hays, shares his thoughts on what will happen this year. An expert in all aspects of technical sales, including manufacturing, engineering and industrial markets, he would be happy to hear from anyone interested in this post by email (Chris.Loveridge@hays.com) or on LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/hayssales. 

There have been a few pieces of good news for manufacturing sales in the past few weeks. According to a recent YouGov survey, “Your Outlook for 2013 – a business survey”, over half of UK manufacturers are confident about 2013 prospects and two fifths expect to see an increase in sales this year.

The positive feeling from UK manufacturers is supported by the fact that manufacturing hit a 15 month high in December, according to the CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Index. The general feeling is that the economic recovery is gaining momentum, and that manufacturing will clearly play a big part in this. The hope is that manufacturing can be a catalyst for an investment-led recovery.

However, the YouGov survey also showed that 57% of UK manufacturers perceive Eurozone economic concerns to be the biggest threat to their business in 2013. The ongoing uncertainty continues to have a negative effect on the market. But while this is a concern, there is still potential for companies to thrive, particularly by focusing on non-EU markets and particularly Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The general trend is positive for manufacturing and we think it will be a big year for UK manufacturers. This is great news for manufacturing salespeople, meaning they should be able to capitalise on this and make more sales this year. It is also creating some fantastic opportunities for experience manufacturing salespeople, particularly those with strong experience of relationship-building.

How will you ensure that 2013 is a successful year for you?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Salespeople will naturally resist any activity that will take them away from their customers, but this will make them less productive in the long run. Proper sales training can make a good salesperson great and a great salesperson spectacular. But how do you get them to take notice?

First, you need to make sure the training offers real value. Good salespeople will recognise if their time is being wasted and will zone out. The training needs to be extremely practical and make it very clear how this will impact their bottom line in the long run. Generic sales training is not useful – make sure the training targets specific behaviours that work in a specific environment.

Remember that motivational speaking is not sales training. While motivational speaking may give your salespeople a short-term boost, it will not change their behaviour or improve their sales in the long run. Make sure to praise them yourself, but if you are investing in training, make sure it will bring real change to the team.

It is also important to make sure the training is tailored to your company and industry, but without being watered down. Often, when training is adapted it becomes almost identical to what a company has previously been practising. This will not bring change to the sales team and will not be useful in the long run.

Even the best salespeople need someone to give them pointers and keep them on track. If you make sure you train them on a regular basis, and offer them something that is timely, relevant and realistic, you should see a noticeable improvement in their figures.

How do you get the most out of your sales team?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Sometimes it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything you need to do: prospecting, returning phone calls, travelling, team meetings, updating your CRM system, keeping up with industry knowledge, training… You might start to feel like you don’t have enough time to actually sell. A recent survey found that sales people tend to divide their time as follows:

• 41% selling 
• 24% generating leads 
• 19% team meetings and admin 
• 16% other tasks – training, service calls, etc. 

It’s really important to make sure you make the most of your time, so that you spend the maximum amount of time possible actually selling. Here are three ways you can make sure this is happening so you are not losing sales.

1. Create a schedule

Think about when you are most likely to be able to get things done. Is there any point calling a list of prospects on a Friday afternoon? Could you spend this time catching up on your admin work instead? Review when you are usually most effective and task your work accordingly. Unexpected work may still come up, but by creating a schedule, the workload should feel more manageable. Assign time limits to each task, and if you are spending far too long in one area, look at how it could be made more efficient.

2. Optimise your travel

You’ve had a call from a potential client. They’re several hours away and it’s only a small sale, but you can’t just ignore it. Make the most of this journey by planning your route carefully. Are there any clients on the way that you haven’t seen for a while? Could you drop by on a potential contact you’ve been meaning to call anyway?

3. Let others help

Salespeople spend a lot of time alone. They are also heavily invested in what happens regarding their clients and are likely to believe they can do everything better than everyone else. But in most companies, there will be a support team there. Utilise these resources. If a client has a question about invoicing or shipping, forward these to the appropriate department rather than getting too involved. If you have an in-house product specialist, make sure you are making the most of them. This will free you up to spend time on more productive areas.

What one change could you make to help you spend more time selling?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Cloud computing and mobile devices have both played a major role in IT sales recently. Matthew Lloyd, Specialist IT & Telecommunications Sales Consultant at Hays, shares his thoughts on how these two trends may have influenced each other. An expert in all aspects of IT sales, he would be happy to hear from anyone interested in this post by email (Matthew.Lloyd@hays.com) or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattitandtelecomms.

Cloud computing has been around for a little while now, and its popularity continues to grow. IT cloud service sales are expected to grow by 18.5% every year for the next 5 years. Amazon generated about $1.5 billion in revenue in 2012, with cloud believed to be a top contributor. Technologies such as software as a service, storage as a service and applications as a service are fuelling this growth.

At the same time, sales in mobile devices have continued to increase. A recent IDC report suggested that global IT spending will increase 5.7% this year, and mobile devices will make up about two thirds of this growth. While PC sales have gone down by 8%, there are predictions that tablet sales could grow by 1,000% in the next few years.

The way that people use devices such as tablets is very well-suited to cloud computing. Due to the memory constraints of these devices, it is more convenient if the content is accessed through cloud-based applications. The development of new apps has rapidly increased to accommodate smartphones and tablets, and this has allowed for an increase in cloud computing.

Furthermore, both cloud computing and mobile devices are also both indicative of a larger trend: the need to be always connected. Cloud computing is starting to release people from the constraints of desktops and allowing them to develop their own personal cloud. At the same time, tablets and smartphones are seen by some as the first step towards a world where all kinds of devices will be able to access the internet – and connect to our personal cloud. This means that it seems likely that the demand for both tablets and cloud computing is only going to increase.

Do you think the rise in cloud computing is connected to increased sales in mobile devices?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed having a rest over Christmas and are now back in the office and ready to make this year the best year ever. We've put together a few tips on how to make sure 2013 is a great year for your sales team.

1. Reflect on 2012

What went well last year? Where could you improve? Be brutally honest with yourself and think about what you could do differently this year. At the very least take some time out for some personal reflection. Ideally, arrange a meeting with your sales team (perhaps over lunch) and talk about your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Create an action plan

Now you know what you need to do, how are you going to do it? Put together a plan with some clear goals. These need to challenge you and your team to have any effect, but they need to be realistic to make sure they are not demoralising. Make it clear what success looks like and how it can be achieved.

3. Get the team on board

The best way to do this is usually through a beginning of year meeting. Get the team together and get them excited about what you have planned. Make sure they understand your action plan and are clear about what is expected of them. Inject some fun into the meeting to make sure everyone is on board.

4. Review and reinforce

A third of New Year’s resolutions are broken before the end of January. Make sure your sales plan sticks through regular reviews for your team, both formally and informally. Offer extra incentives for those who excel. Where salespeople are not meeting your expectations, find out why and offer support.

Could some new salespeople help you succeed in 2013? Or have you been thinking about a new role yourself? To find out how our highly skilled consultants can help you, please visit our website.