How to Keep Your Sales Team Motivated
Motivating your sales team is a never-ending task. While the basics begin with training and offering financial incentives, beyond that, the manager and the rest of management has to keep pushing the sales team for generating more sales into the funnel.
A motivated sales team can lead to better customer loyalty, which can be measured as part of the key performance indicators by using repeat sales as a parameter.
Besides the work being done by sales and marketing teams, the HR can introduce other incentives to get the sales team motivated. The following are some examples.
1. Lunch meeting with the CEO.
This hour can be a great time to exchange ideas and be beneficial for the sales person to understand what direction the company is taking. Besides, the sales person would want to ask questions about the CEO’s climb to success. This activity is not just flattering, but educational as well.
2. Going out on calls with the manager.
This is a great motivational activity for sales persons, especially when they are in a slump or having difficulties. The manager can show how it is done, or it can also be a mentoring experience.
An informal critique can also be part of the activity. This does not need to be done for the whole day. It can be done by the sales manager about once a month with each member of the sales team.
3. Creating a game.
Gamification is the strategy where the process is treated as a match, which can be very helpful for the sales team. Among its advantages is the standardization of activities for the sales team. For another, if there are groups, this can be a great way for the team to bond and help one another.
4. Commissions.
Most sales personnel are into sales for the commissions. They really like it and appreciate it when management puts out new incentives which pay out better than the regular commission scheme.
Further, you can up the ante on commissions with the use of rewards programs like those from Avail.it, which implements an automated rewards program via an e-commerce platform.
These would not be just monetary rewards, but also items which the sales team would want to have since prizes can be more enticing than cash.
5. Periodic awards.
There are usually quarterly and annual awards given to sales people. If you are not using this method, then you are missing out on a lot of possibilities. With awards, you can have awards nights where the sales team members are given due recognition and rewards for their labors.
Using various non-monetary rewards to motivate the sales team requires a good understanding of the individual members and a lot of creativity. Nonetheless, there are a lot of ways to motivate them once their personalities have been understood.
Sales teams are not just teams with a single mind. Instead, they are individuals with own needs and are people with motivations. Therefore, it is crucial to have a rewards program that will address their personal needs.
