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?
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