Boost Sales By Finding Your Blue Door

How to Boost Sales with Employee Engagement Strategies.

Have you seen the profoundly moving film Brooklyn (2015)? An Irish immigrant "Eilis Lacey" comes to America in the 1950's and arrives in Brooklyn. As she enters America, the U.S. immigration officer tells her to "go through the blue door" and she is bathed in a bright light. This image wonderfully symbolises the tremendous optimism and opportunity in America with a promise of a better future and yet the journey through is not easy.

In efforts to boost sales in the company we often have to leave behind the comfort zone and make very difficult choices. In doing so we go through a personal journey or what I call a "blue door experience" that helps us grow as individuals, find our purpose, find our passion, our values, our home and if they are aligned with the company goals and values we become the most powerful factor that can boost sales, a highly engaged, effective and motivated member of the team.

Employees want to feel valued by their leaders. happy employees = productive employees = increased sales.

These are my 5 blue door strategies for this year to boost employee engagement

1) Revamp recruitment process to ensure employee is engaged from the start. In the recruitment process seek to really understand the candidates true motivation values and aspirations and show them real examples of the company goals and values. Don't just interview them in a room for two or three rounds, but introduce them to team members, show them their work location, invite them for a team lunch and show them things you are proud of that reflect your organisation and personal goals. This includes inviting team members onto interview panel so they feel engaged as they can contribute to the success of the team.

2) Reward and recognition for all, celebrate accomplishments - Create an environment where all employees, not just the sales team can be rewarded and recognised for finding, winning or introducing a new client or helping a client achieve their goal. Create a mechanism to reward any employee who introduce a friend to a job application and is successfully recruited. Make time to celebrate their accomplishments.

3) Give them time to Volunteer for projects with Zing - (that they are enthusiastic about) In recent heavy rains in Ho Chi Minh City more than 1000 motorbikes were damaged at a local University by flooding. Our team rushed up to me and were passionate about volunteering to help. They were given time to volunteer to help students get an oil change and service and get their bikes back on the road. You can include inspiring projects into the on-boarding process during the probation period.

4) Implement the 1,1,1,1 program - Assign one staff member to adopt one customer and allow them to visit/call that customer atleast one time per week and to assist customer to achieve atleast one goal.

5) Chatter - empower people with the amazing power of a social network platform such as Salesforce Chatter to connect employees, give them access to experts, improve information sharing, encourage collaboration in teams and share performance. Chatter learns your interests and helps you discover experts, files and groups you should know. Chatter Groups can also include customers with private branded communities Chatter is proven to increase employee engagement by up to 34%.

If you’re a sales leader in need of fresh inspiration. Dare yourself to channel Eilis Lacey, and find your Brooklyn. Lets go Blue Dooring!

Some of the ideas in this post were inspired by articles. Through The Blue Door by @LorneRubis and 5 Life Lessons Every Woman Can Learn From The Movie Brooklyn by Katie Scheu.

About the author: Paul is passionate about boosting Sales and working with sales teams, energising and equipping them with Zing. Contact Paul on Linkedin and follow him @PaulBardeleben 

Please comment below if you have used any of these strategies or have some ideas on employee engagement.