Motivate Your Sales Team and Improve Productivity in 8 Simple Steps

What motivates salespeople? I’m guessing the first thing that’s coming to mind is something like “MONEY!! MONEY BUYS STUFF AND STUFF MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY!” That sounds about right, doesn’t it? Well, it’s sort of right. You may already be offering your sales staff great money, but they’re still not motivated. Maybe we should take out the stethoscope for a closer look…

High sales targets, poor sales leads, low commission, and bad pricing can be tender points for many sales teams. Rolled up into one is enough to flatline any team out there. It might be time to breathe some new life into your team and reset the rhythm!

Freddie Herzberg, the famous clinical psychologist to the stars and pioneer of ‘job enrichment’, outlines some of the factors that result in extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction within the workplace. The factors resulting in satisfaction are labeled motivators, while factors resulting in dissatisfaction are labeled as fundamentals.

Fundamentals

If these areas are not managed well, the team’s morale will drop, productivity drops, complaints arise, and revenue declines. I gather that this is NOT the kind of road you want to embark on. Sales managers need to focus on improving the fundamentals so the team will no longer be dissatisfied. But it doesn’t end there; just because they’re no longer dissatisfied, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily ‘satisfied’ either. In other words, having good working conditions doesn’t actually encourage motivation, it merely minimizes dissatisfaction. Managers must also address the factors that actually increase satisfaction for the team. This is where the motivators come in.

Motivators

These are the factors consistently associated with increased results and a happier team. If you focus on the areas in the table above, you will see an increase in sales performance and an improvement in employee satisfaction and team morale. Yipee!! But hang on, don’t start moonwalking across the office JUST yet. It gets better!

Your 8 Steps to a Motivated Sales Team

What really gets the blood pumping through the veins of your sales team is a combination of sales challenges, recognition, personal achievement, and growth. So the key here is to develop a good management plan to achieve this. Here are my top 8 tips:

1. Monthly competitions and award ceremonies to acknowledge achievement
2. Improved quality and volume of sales leads so your team has greater opportunities to hit sales targets, allowing them to shine
3. Personal development plans to help them improve the soft skills that can convert them into a high performing sales rep
4. A mentoring program to help them learn from more seasoned and experienced staff
5. If you have an in-house sales team, move them around every few months. Pairing new staff/weak performers with strong performers can increase productivity and assist the salesperson in achieving better personal growth; it’s important to learn on the job
6. Allocate more challenging customers that have bigger commissions to the salespeople who have demonstrated improved skills
7. Send a congratulatory email to each individual when they on-board a great customer
8. Walk the sales floor each day; get to know your team. A warm thank you goes a long way

Unlocking your team’s potential is necessary for the bottom line. Although it might look like a lot of work, we can help with one tip which is: generate those sales leads that will motivate your team to win the next big customer!

Don’t let your business flatline, give TAMI a try. Let us help you to get that rhythm back…

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