Things are never easy for a company’s sales team. But even a cursory glance at the issues facing businesses today suggests prospecting and closing sales is more challenging than ever.
That’s why CEOs and business leaders should commit time and resources to firing up their sales teams—both to show appreciation for their hard work and to facilitate more activity within their sales funnels.
Here are tips on motivating your team to achieve greater results:
Value sales team behaviours over results.
Of course, you want salespeople to successfully complete sales, but other behaviours are almost equally important—pursuing quality leads, encoding sales data into the company’s dashboard, looking in creative ways for the next promising batch of prospects, and so on. Encourage all these sales-related activities, rather than just focusing on end-results.
Be sure your goals are crystal-clear.
Sales-people sometimes get discouraged when they get mixed messages about priorities from their managers or others at the top.
It’s not enough to say: “Our goal is more sales.”
Drill down for more concrete objectives, such as making a specified number of cold calls per month or getting several new prospects into the sales funnel every quarter.
Automate sales tasks, where possible.
One demoralising element of sales are the constant administrative demands. Here are just a handful of ways to help lessen the burden on your sales team:
- Enable sales reps to send out emails with a customised template that can be used in numerous cases.
- Schedule client appointments through CRM software.
- Leave pre-recorded voicemail messages with prospects.
- Log outgoing sales calls through automation.
When sales reps are caught up admin tasks like preparing status updates and creating manual reports, “they are not working efficiently,” notes the US Chamber of Commerce.
Sales automation “helps managers lead their teams and helps sales representatives better manage their time.”
Give feedback to the sales team (including from your customers).
Nothing is quite as motivating to sales-people as receiving praise—and constructive criticism—from their managers and others in the organisation.
You can wait to offer feedback until the salesperson’s annual performance review, or you can coach and guide them on a more frequent schedule. This sends the unspoken message that you value their work on behalf of the company.
And look to your satisfied customers for additional feedback. “Share these stories with your team, send them in internal newsletters and post customer testimonials on your walls,” suggests the computer software firm Centrical. Keeping the sales team aware of customer satisfaction “can be a strong source of motivation.”
Promote continuous learning.
Your best salespeople are individuals with talent, ambition, and a thirst for knowledge. To keep them motivated, investigate ways to extend their range of sales expertise. Plenty of online sales classes and webinars are available (or you can invite sales veterans to make short presentations on-site).
Many such learning programs can be tailored to meet a company’s specific sales needs. Your team will appreciate opportunities to hone their skills and develop fresh insights into the sales process.
Offer team building off-site.
A team works best when it’s cohesive and internally aligned. Consider hosting an off-site team-building event—or simply just a “fun activity” like bowling or attending a football game—to facilitate stronger bonds between sales team members.
At the same time, Forbes cautions, sales reps (like the rest of us) are still contending with challenges wrought by the global pandemic. “After-hours activities are fine as long as you do not convey an expectation that attendance is mandatory,” Forbes cautions. The key is offering something that’s “safe and fun [while remaining] sensitive to everyone’s varying level of comfort.”