10 Cheap Ways To Motivate Your Sales Team

Transcription

1 10 great hacks to motivate your sales people. Low cost ways to get the most from your sales team. Month 20XX

2 1. Working environment Sales is all about communicating so make sure your work space encourages this. A silent room or where everyone is sectioned off is a killer environment for a sales person. Tip - if you only have one or two sales people and it gets too quiet strike up a conversation. You'll lose a little bit of productive time but I guarantee it will pay off in increased productivity. Idea - if you have people that need to concentrate, give them a red / green card. When they don't want to be interrupted they display the red side. If it spends too much time on red, look for opportunities to turn it over - when they're getting coffee or surfing the web. 2. Job satisfaction To be satisfied with their job an employee has to know what is expected of them. A simple job description goes a long way and needn't be a pain to produce. Sales targets should be agreed, clear and public. Once you both know what s expected you can easily spot when an employee is struggling. Tip - make the job description a living document rather than filing cabinet fodder. Put it in a place where you and the employee can easily access it. Idea - take the job description to the 1-1 meetings so the employee sees that you care about it. 3. It s all about the team Great teams have team meetings. Yup - another meeting! Keep it light, on purpose and regular. This is the place to do your public recognition and make sure no-one grandstands. If you have an office based sales team, then make it weekly and short. Choose the golden metrics for the team and task each employee to prepare and present their metric. Tip Always have an agenda. Not a piece of paper but a regular format that gets stuck to. Also, watch the clock; never go over time. Idea At the end of the meeting check with every attendee anything else you want to raise? Document title : Month 20XX : Page 2

3 4. Recognition Selling is tough, all those rejections, so a little public recognition goes a long way. Don't forget, sales people are typically outgoing and gregarious so make it public. When sales are scarce; keep the praise rolling by making it more granular. Tip - encourage peer-to-peer praise. Find a way for employees to praise each other. They will notice the smaller things that you miss and get a kick out of giving and receiving. Idea - start giving 'recognition' in your weekly sales meeting. Don't add it to the agenda, just start doing it. 5. Right tools for the job If you give a great sales person lousy tools they ll struggle. If you give a lousy sales person lousy tools they ll have a great excuse. If you invest in the right tools your team will show that you respect them and want them to succeed. The main tool for any sales person has got to be a CRM system of some sort. Tip Involve your team in the selection of tools but be clear what the budget is and set an expectation that they need to deliver against the investment. Try to separate the needs from the wants or would like. Idea Look at other high performing teams and see what they use. This is often better than going through a long drawn out selection processes. 6. Gifts We all like to have good work recognised so think about what would work with your sales people. Don't just have on big reward at the end of the quarter - give little gifts along the way to mark key milestones. Think about rewards that people can share with their families. Tip - buy the gift and make it visible as this sets an expectation of success. Even better, if you design it in a way that lets the sales person help themselves. Idea - A doughnut for every 20 calls or a bottle of bubbly for the first sale of the week. Document title : Month 20XX : Page 3

4 7. Everyone's a winner Create a program that allows everyone to win at some level. Competition is great but it can lead to superstars who get everything band solid performers who get nothing. People aren t stupid if they figure that they can t compete they will just give up. Tip Look for opportunities to reward the whole team or find ways to share the winnings when someone gets a result. Idea Offer two prizes for the weekly or monthly sales targets: One for the top sales person and another for the top team. Remember the prizes don t need to be expensive; a well thought through prize will go down well. 8. Peer pressure Most people respond to a little competition or challenge. If your team can take it then publicise league tables - sales, margins and conversion rates. The chance to get their name up in lights will lights will motivate most people. Tip - to make this work you need to understand your team. Applying too much or too little pressure will be counter-productive. Idea - set some small challenges for members of your team. Take a break every 25 calls. Last one to x makes the tea. 9. Keep it regular Feedback is the friend of any sales manager. I've covered recognition but feedback about the less good stuff is just as important. Rule number one - never in public. When you see something going wrong jump on it straight away while it's manageable a quiet word at the right time works wonders. Tip regular feedback is welcomed but irregular or ad-hoc feedback is often kicked back. Always get to the point and never use the feedback sandwich technique (surrounding negative feedback with two positives). Make it a habit of, just part of your week. Idea get into the habit of regular 1-1s with key employees. If you never have 1-1s then taking someone aside will make it stand out. Document title : Month 20XX : Page 4

5 10. Fix the niggles There s nothing more distracting than a persistent niggle. It might be a bug in the system or a coffee machine that doesn t work. If you don t jump on them quickly they blow up into major dramas. Tip It s not your job to fix everything but sometimes you need to give direction and make sure it is followed through. Idea Once a problem is identified make it clear who is tasked with fixing it. If there are lots then make a list and review it at your regular meeting. About breathehr breathehr a SaaS-based HR software solution that helps SMEs take control of HR Admin and Performance Management. Online tools include online holiday booking, sickness reporting and online document storage. Performance management functions include linking objectives to company goals. recording one to one meetings and actions. 14 day free trial and simple pricing plans tailored to your business size. Document title : Month 20XX : Page 5