We usually think of a Sales Team as a “packed up” concept, as if it is formed by a group of individuals that behave the same exact way and must be handled with a unique strategy. Well, nothing is far from the truth.
Most Sales Managers develop a strategy to motivate their teams without taking into account that while one rep might be motivated by money or tangible rewards, another might be more interested on positive reinforcement or new challenges. Because motivation is a huge part of sales performance, sales reps perform better when are properly incentivized and celebrated for their everyday work.
So if you are looking for a key strategy to improve your business sales execution, you need to focus on this:
Every sales rep is unique and must be coached based on their individualities to ensure maximum productivity.
Every sales manager has the responsibility to understand his sellers and determine the best way to get from them desirable results over time.
But how to make it work? What happen when you face sales teams with more than 50 reps?
Here we have 5 recommendations to ensure you have a highly motivated and effective sales team:
1. Short the list
Whether you have a numerous sales team or not, if you set key indicators and keep a track of them it is possible to identify points of attention and decide how to deal with them. In every sales team, only a small group of reps need guidance to improve their performance, so if you short the list by reading the KPIs, you can give these reps some proper coaching time. Find out what moves them and set a strategy of goals and rewards according to the gathered information.
2. Keep a healthy competition
Maintaining a healthy competition between sales reps can build trust within the team and their sales manager. Compliments are made in public, complaints are made in private. Keep this in mind and make it clear to the team. Don’t ever discredit a sales rep or compare one to another. This is just an adult form of bullying and is definitely a team spirit killer.
3. Encourage autonomy
Make autonomy a winnable thing. Autonomy means trust and power and it can be earned with time by showing a good track on goals completion. Encouraging your reps to be autonomous in their decision making gives them the opportunity to show their abilities and worth to the team. It doesn’t mean your reps won’t get direction in terms of assigned tasks, It means that you should release the rope a bit, exactly where is convenient, to let them work “freely”.
4. Create a Smart rewards policy
Let them pick!. Keep you options open when encouraging your sales team members and let them choose how they believe should be rewarded. By letting them tell you what is important and makes them keep going, you can set a rewards policy specially design for your team making them feel considered and motivated by their true interests.
5. Invest on proper tech
It is a fact that most sales teams have trouble with downtime and the main reason is related to the equipment they use and the software they rely on. The decision over these subjects has to be think thoroughly and can not be taken based in terms of money saving. If the equipment is cheap and fragile it will get damaged easily causing inactivity. If the software doesn’t understand the sales process or the data is not transferred properly, additional work will be needed to complete the tasks. In both cases time will be lost and “time is money”, so the bottom line is: do not hesitate in investing on the appropriate technology your sales team need.
Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash
