How To Motivate Your Sales Team: 10 Proven Strategies
OneUp Sales
Sales performance management & motivation platform for recruitment and sales teams ??
Is your sales team currently operating at peak performance, or do they need a motivational boost? Here are 10 proven strategies for how to motivate a sales team.
If you're in sales leadership, you know that a motivated sales team is a high-performing sales team.?
Yet the dynamic and competitive nature of the sales environment, coupled with the inevitable ups and downs of the sales process, can hugely impact team morale and performance.??
And in today’s highly competitive sales landscape, sales leaders must adopt enhanced motivational strategies.?
In this article, we’ll take you through ten proven strategies for how to motivate a sales team that addresses the root causes of demotivation.
Read on for practical, actionable solutions to implement immediately to foster a motivated, resilient, and high-performing sales team.?
What is Sales Team Motivation?
Motivation is a key skill for any sales leader.?
The most important part of their role is keeping reps driven and on track towards their sales goals.?
Your personal combination of these strategies will depend on your product or service, the state of the market, and the type of sales reps you’re trying to motivate.?
It’s a lot of work — but it’s worth the effort.?
Unmotivated sales teams are unproductive, unresilient, and unhappy, which inevitably damages the bottom line.?
But get the sales team motivation right, and you’ll see increased engagement, productivity, efficiency, team morale, and overall success.?
What Motivates Sales Teams?
When considering how to get your sales team motivated, most leaders would go straight to monetary bonuses.?
But, in reality, motivating your sales reps requires a thoughtful combination of a wide range of tactics.
These include:
When considering how best to motivate your sales team, it’s also helpful to understand some of the most common motivation styles.
1. Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation occurs when someone is motivated by internal factors.?
This could be doing something that aligns with your personal values or pleasures, such as completing charity work or attending a dance class.?
This typically occurs in the workplace when an employee has an inspiring manager or is working in a field in which they have a personal interest and a sense of purpose.
2. Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from external sources.
Your boss telling you to complete a task is a simple example of extrinsic motivation.?
While this is a useful type of motivation for simple tasks, it is ineffective at encouraging self-motivation.?
3. Introjected Motivation
Like intrinsic motivation, introjected motivation comes from within.?
But instead of being driven by positive feelings, it relates more to the pressure to perform.?
With this type of motivation, people will typically only perform a task to avoid the guilt they would feel if they failed to do so.?
Introjected motivation has one of two results.?
With an introjected approach, the employee’s self-worth is bolstered through completing the task.?
They are then motivated to accomplish tasks to gain positive reinforcement.?
Meanwhile, ‘introjected avoidance’ refers to when tasks are completed to avoid negative feelings of failure.
For example, if you commented on a goal a sales rep had failed to hit, they may work harder to meet that goal to protect their self-worth.?
4. Identified Motivation?
Identified motivation happens when a sales rep knows they need to complete a task, but they have yet to take action.?
Understanding these motivators can help you to tailor strategies to boost morale and drive performance across different sales teams.?
5. Social Motivation
Social motivation is derived from others based on relationships, influence or belonging.?
10 ways to motivate your sales team
Here are ten proven strategies to motivate your sales team that can be implemented immediately.
1. Building a Trust-based Relationship
If you’re wondering, “how do I motivate my sales team,” start with your own relationships with reps.?
A strong manager-employee relationship is the foundation for effective motivational strategies.
And trust is key.
Have you ever worked under a manager who you didn’t completely trust??
Perhaps you didn’t trust they could steer you and your team to success. Did you doubt their competency? Or maybe you didn’t trust they had your best interests at heart??
In those instances, it’s unlikely you felt particularly motivated to do a good job — and make that manager look good.?
This is why sales team motivation must begin and end with trust.
Active listening is a key skill for any rep in 2024 — and you should employ this when listening to your team and clients.?
Make it your business to gain a deep understanding of your reps’ personal and professional goals — and do everything you can to support them to achieve these targets.
For instance, if a sales rep shares a personal goal of buying a house before the end of the year, look for opportunities for them to achieve promotions, work overtime or bag extra bonuses.?
You could also implement an element of flexible working that allows them to attend house viewings during the working day.?
Alternatively, if you know one of your reps is keen to specialise in — for example — tech sales, then hand them any tech-related work that comes to the team and arrange relevant training for them.?
Furthermore, honesty and transparency are instrumental in building trust with your team.?
Be honest with your reps about your goals and capabilities and their performance, and back this up with transparent data accessible to all on the team.?
Promised your rep a promotion, a bonus, or some training?
There’s no quicker way to lose the trust of your team than failing to meet promises — even if you simply forgot.?
Instead, aim to over-deliver on your promises.
2. Tailoring Management to Individual Preferences
No two sales reps are made the same.
As a manager, it’s your responsibility to treat them as individuals with different ambitions, strengths, weaknesses, and personalities.?
And thoughtfully managing with these individual personalities in mind is a huge part of motivating a team.
For example, some reps are motivated solely by money and want you to help them make as much of it as possible.?
Others will value your professional expertise and support just as much as their bonuses.?
And some team members will be inspired by the camaraderie of being part of a strong team.?
Determining how each team member likes to be managed is your job.?
The first step is simply asking them about their preferred management style.?
There are also many free corporate personality tests you can use to delve deeper into how best to manage and motivate individual team members — for example, 16 Personalities , Personality Perfect , and Enneagram .?
One of the most important elements to discover is the level of autonomy and guidance each team member prefers.?
Successfully steering employees in the best direction without micromanaging is always challenging for a manager.?
But it’s easier if you understand how each team member will react. Ask them whether they prefer to work in a highly guided environment, with plenty of advice and support from day to day, or independently.?
Of course, it’s impossible to align perfectly with employee preferences always.
For example, a sales rep who prefers independence struggles to hit their goals.
However, understanding how they will react to your guidance will help you to customise your motivational strategies to each individual.?
When customising motivational strategies, consider:
As well as understanding what drives each team member, consider creating happiness maps for your team so you’re always aware of who needs a morale boost and when.?
Finally, make team motivation a part of your daily routine.?
This is more than worth doing — after all, it’s a highly effective strategy for how to motivate a sales team without money.
3. Goal Setting and Clarity
Setting SMART goals is instrumental to sales performance.?
Without clear, well-incentivised goals, sales teams can become directionless, disengaged, and lose morale.?
And with cutting-edge tech that illustrates individual and team performance in real-time, progress towards these goals has never been easier to track.?
Of course, effective and clear goal setting is central to motivation.?
But it’s important to set tiered goals, mixing short-term, easy-to-achieve objectives with the larger long-term targets.?
This way, the journey towards hitting the bigger goals is also celebrated, and sales reps get a good sense of progression day-to-day.?
First, ensure the team is already adequately covering their basic day-to-day tasks.
Now, set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for each individual team member — and the overall team.?
The daily and weekly goals will most likely focus on key sales activities — such as make [X number] of BD calls or book [Y number] of meetings.?
Monthly goals should focus more on outcomes, such as bringing in [￡X amount] of revenue or selling [Y number] of products.?
No matter its size, every goal should be:
When creating your monthly goals, look at your own targets and objectives and consider what each member of your team needs to achieve for you to smash your own objectives.
The daily and weekly goals will then cover the day-to-day tasks that feed into achieving these monthly goals.?
All goals must be attainable and realistic to avoid de-motivating your team.?
You also don’t want to go overboard: you need all the fundamental sales activities to continue, so consider how your team can fit working towards these goals around their basic duties.?
Goal setting is only half the challenge.?
Effectively communicating these goals to provide clarity is just as important.?
All team members must clearly understand your goals and expectations.
Be sure to go into the ‘why?’ of each goal, too — this will help each team member understand the importance of working hard to hit the goals.?
Explain team goals in team meetings and individual goals in one-to-ones.?
Support this with custom dashboards for each team member, facilitated by OneUp , one of the best sales productivity tools .?
Set up each rep’s goals on their custom dashboard, and watch real-time progress against their targets.?
Sales reps can then track their own progress towards these goals in real time, while you can use them to run one-to-ones and team meetings and quickly drill down to easily see the activities that drive your target metrics.??
In both situations, remember to set aside time for a Q&A section to ensure the goals are thoroughly understood by all involved.?
4. Rewarding and Recognising
Rewards and recognition are the most popular motivation for a sales team - and with good reason.?
For sales reps, monetary bonuses are an expectation that is baked into most contracts — a vital requirement for how to motivate sales employees.?
But there are other ways to reward reps, from vouchers for restaurants and gig tickets to team dinners, sales recognition programs, and nights out on the company.?
For effective incentivisation, let people choose their own rewards from a selection of genuinely desirable incentives that can be customised to the tastes of any sales rep.
Personalised, meaningful and unique rewards help sales reps to feel genuinely valued.?
Plus, if you give them something they want, they’ll work harder to secure it.?
And, if you’re known for handing out truly great rewards — such as company holidays, for example — this will boost your own employer brand.?
Furthermore, recognition is more important than many sales managers recognise.?
Indeed, with cutting-edge gamification tech like OneUp , you can build a high-performance culture by recognising each team member’s contribution to your success.?
You can:
What’s more, we have many ways to mark a win in sales — from prize wheels to the trusty old sales bell.
But don’t underestimate the power of a few words of praise in a public setting.?
Acknowledge your sales reps’ achievements in front of their colleagues and senior leaders; they will feel truly valued and motivated to keep up the good work.?
Support this with personal thanks and acknowledgement of their hard work in one-to-ones and appraisals.?
5. Effective Communication Strategies
Communicate, communicate, communicate!
The most effective sales leaders strive to develop a multi-channel communication strategy that ensures their reps feel truly heard and supported.?
Moreover, they’ve fostered a team culture of open and honest communication.?
This is achieved by consistently supporting and encouraging your team, no matter the issue they bring to you.?
No sales rep will be nervous, intimidated, or scared of your reaction when bringing a problem to you — even if it’s their mistake.?
Instead, they will want to make you aware of the issue as soon as possible, safe in the knowledge you will remain calm and supportive, and ultimately help them to resolve it.
Of course, this helps you to identify any issues within your business more quickly and start tackling them before they snowball.?
And ultimately, if you’re honest with them, they will reciprocate.?
Storytelling is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal for effective communication.?
Why?
Human nature means we engage with storytelling far more than dry stats or corporate speak.?
Indeed, facts are approximately 22% more likely to be retained if they’re communicated as part of a story.?
So, when communicating with your team, aim to incorporate a narrative.
Start with a clear central message, then develop a structure with a clear beginning, middle, and end.?
Embrace conflict — stories hinge on overcoming challenges and obstacles — and mine your personal experiences for inspiration.
And don’t forget to develop a strong, engaging hook.?
You’ll find that honest and transparent storytelling can align team efforts with organisations goals.?
领英推荐
6. Fostering Team Cohesion and Wellbeing
When you first become a sales manager, one of the most significant adjustments is your duty of care to your team members.
You are now responsible for checking in on employees’ wellbeing and improving it where possible.?
It's important to develop close personal relationships with your team members while maintaining professional boundaries to create a supportive team environment that emphasises well-being.?
Casual team activities such as backyard barbecues or group activities can help to blur the line between boss and employee and ensure your reps see you as a human being rather than simply an authority figure.?
This will make them feel more comfortable in opening up about their lives to you on both a professional and personal level.
Indeed, you should care about their lives outside work and professional achievements and strive to support them where appropriate.?
Happiness interventions, such as surprise treats in the office or informal team gatherings outside work, can improve team cohesion and morale.??
Encourage fewer meetings and more breaks.?
And support positive relationships within the sales team — for example, between sales development reps and account executives — to ensure smooth collaboration.?
Not only does a high level of team cohesion and employee wellbeing mean work will be more enjoyable for everyone — but it also boosts productivity and efficiency on the team, directly impacting the bottom line.
7. Encouraging Autonomy and Personal Growth
Autonomy is the extent to which sales reps can plan their work and make decisions about their workload.?
Autonomy is a major driver of employee engagement.?
Indeed, research shows that 79% of autonomous workers are engaged at work.
Yet 52% of employees said they lacked autonomy in the workplace.?
Micromanagement can lead to low levels of productivity and teamwork, poor morale, increased absences, a loss of ownership, poor personal development, and a high staff turnover rate.
Essentially, no one likes a boss breathing down their neck.?
Sales managers should focus on empowering sales team members with the freedom to explore and grow.?
Shine a light on personal development, and there is no need to micromanage, as your employees will be more than capable of making decisions around their own priorities.?
Give reps the time and space to grow, too, whether this means encouraging them to schedule dedicated learning time or allowing them to decide exactly how, where, and when they will work towards hitting their goals.?
To encourage and support personal growth, managers must first understand their reports’ personal and professional goals by gaining their trust and communicating effectively.?
8. The Balance Between Work and Play
This is one of the most creative ways to motivate a sales team.
Indeed, the importance of ‘play’ at work cannot be understated.?
While it may be something you thought you left behind when you boxed up your toys, making space for play has major benefits in the workplace.?
Indeed, it boosts productivity, creativity, and mental and physical health. It encourages teamwork, cuts stress, and supports personal development.?
What’s not to like?
There are a variety of ways managers can help employees balance hard work with adequate rest and fun team bonding activities.?
Here are some top sales motivation ideas.?
Offering remote and flexible working is a popular way to boost work-life balance among employees.?
Where possible, offer higher levels of annual leave than competitors, and hand out extra days off as rewards for good performance.?
It’s important to review workloads regularly — asking questions one-on-one and monitoring the number and length of breaks employees take.?
Running fewer meetings and encouraging a culture of taking adequate breaks is also important.?
You can lead by example here — if your team sees you eating lunch at your desk daily or staying late in the office every night, they will feel pressured to do the same.?
It’s also important to ensure goals are attainable and don’t cause too much stress.
Another great policy is giving employees paid time off to undertake volunteering activities.?
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of team bonding activities, from social events and casual gatherings to group workout classes and scavenger hunts.?
9. Sales Contests and Incentives
If you’re wondering how to keep a sales team motivated, sales contents are a tried and tested method.
Why do they work so well?
They’re compelling and engaging and ultimately gamify the sales process, making work more fun.?
After all, salespeople, by nature, tend to be a competitive bunch.
Well-designed sales contests have clear goals and are easily tracked from team dashboards.?
Find out more about how to track sales performance here.?
They also have an attractive incentive attached.?
Here’s an example.?
Your company has just launched an exciting new product — and you want to start it off strong with a sales competition.?
You decide on a revenue target after looking at historical sales data and conducting market research, and considering the sales activities that matter the most to you.?
The winner of your competition will be the rep who brings in [￡X amount] of revenue from the new product within one month.?
You also decide on an appropriate incentive — a monetary bonus, extra annual leave, or entertainment vouchers or tickets.?
However, for a sales contest you want your team to work hard at, a strong monetary bonus will likely be the most motivating prize you can give.?
First, use OneUp to set up a real-time leaderboard for your competition and display it prominently on screens around your office.?
This will clearly show each rep's progress towards the revenue goal, so your team can easily see how they are performing compared to their colleagues.?
Now, communicate the details of the competition — and the incentive — to your team.?
As sales reps find new customers and upsell and cross-sell to existing ones, continuously direct their attention to changes in the leaderboard to ramp up excitement and motivation.?
Provide status updates on the contest in team meetings, and acknowledge strong performance.?
Investigate poor performance in one-to-ones and take action to support reps who are struggling.?
Ensure OneUp’s individual celebration anthems are set up so that when a rep hits a milestone or achieves the overall goal, their song rings out around the office.?
Now praise their performance publicly and privately — essentially make a big deal of it — and deliver that incentive quickly.?
10. Getting the right commission structure in place
Ultimately, every employee is motivated by the monthly money in their bank account.
And all this is even more important regarding how to motivate sales reps.
It’s essential to implement the right commission structure for your team.
Remember — different types of commission structures will motivate different types of people and significantly influence your outcomes.?
When choosing a commission structure, consider:
9 Things That Demotivate Sales Teams Most
Myriad issues can de-motivate sales reps, from unrealistic goals and low morale to full-on burnout.
And an unmotivated team is an unproductive and inefficient team that lacks passion for their work.?
As a manager, it’s your job to avoid these pitfalls.?
1. Lack of purpose or direction
When it comes to how to stay motivated in sales, if a rep is not given clear SMART goals that are properly incentivised, they will likely suffer from a lack of purpose or direction.?
Everyone wants to feel like they are moving forward in their career — and if they have little to strive for, sales reps may feel like there’s no point in working hard.?
In addition to effective goal setting, support your team to move upwards within the company and forward in their overall career through training, upskilling, and putting opportunities in their path.?
2. Feeling undervalued?
Feeling like your manager does not value your contribution is highly de-motivating.
What’s the point of all your hard work if it goes unappreciated??
Managers can make their team feel valued by investing in their personal development, publicly and privately praising their achievements, and taking a genuine interest in their life outside work.?
3. Unrealistic goals?
If sales professionals fail to hit their goals repeatedly, it may not entirely be their fault.?
Could the goal be unrealistic??
If so, they’re likely feeling extremely unmotivated.?
Make sure your goals are based on accurate data. This should include historical sales data, information about the current economic climate and market state, and data surrounding rival companies’ sales.?
4. Ineffective incentives?
They must be exciting for incentives to work as you need them to.?
If your sales performance management tools show these incentives fail to boost performance, ask your sales reps why.
It may be that your incentives have become repetitive or boring or simply aren’t appealing to your team — for example, if you’re handing out sports tickets to reps who don’t watch sports, or they may just be too low in value.?
5. Low team morale?
There’s little more demotivating than going to an office daily where the mood is subdued, employees are unhappy, and everyone is looking for a way out.?
If team morale seems low, get to the bottom of the issue by asking employees about it in their one-to-ones, and then you can rectify it.
Remember — getting the basics, such as goals and incentives, is important.?
And then, look at team bonding activities and flexible working opportunities for an extra morale boost.
6. Burnout?
Employee burnout can be caused by various factors, from bad management and a lack of recognition to career stagnation and work overload.
And the consequences are dire.?
Think of increased absences, loss of productivity, and a strain on the employee’s overall mental and physical health.?
Encouraging healthy working practices and looking after your team’s well-being are preventative steps managers can take here.?
This means encouraging breaks, tracking workloads, planning fun team activities, permitting flexible and remote working, and setting healthy boundaries, such as banning texting about work after 6 pm.?
7. Poor relationship with management?
Wondering how to motivate an underperforming sales team?
Look at your relationships with your reps first.?
If you have a poor relationship with your line manager, you often don’t want to work hard — because it will make them look good!?
As a sales manager, you must inspire your team to perform well because they want to impress and make you proud of them.
This all comes back to building trust and delivering on your promises.?
8. Unrealistic workload
When you feel like you’re drowning in work, the quality of your output will naturally suffer, and you feel overwhelmed and unmotivated.
You want to get through all the work as fast as possible so you can finally get out of the office and have a break.?
As a manager, one of your most important responsibilities is ensuring all your team members have a realistic workload that they can handle, which is fair to the rest of the team.?
Regularly check in with sales reps to find out how well they are coping with their current workload — and adjust where necessary.?
9. Lack of development opportunities?
Every sales rep wants to feel like they’re steadily improving at their job.?
It’s human nature to want to better yourself and see clear progress.?
If your team members feel like you’re not bothered about developing them professionally, they will feel undervalued and unmotivated.?
This is why every sales rep should have a personal development plan tailored to your goals for them and their own interests and ambitions.?
This plan should be rolled out in every one-to-one, and any progress towards their learning and development goals must be recorded and, where appropriate, rewarded.
Closing Thoughts
So, how do you motivate your sales team?
To develop a motivated, high-performing sales team, you need to:
Sales performance platform OneUp is a hugely effective tool for successfully motivating your team. With custom dashboards based on real-time data, competition leaderboards, and celebration anthems, it has all the tools you need to drive a high-performance culture.?
FAQs
How Do You Motivate a Struggling Sales Team?
Wondering how to motivate a struggling sales team?
If your sales team is not driven to perform, it’s time to introduce competition.?
Set a goal you want to see hit and announce that the first person to hit it will receive an attractive incentive, such as a monetary bonus or dinner at the company.?
Support this with public leaderboards prominently displayed around the office, showing real-time data surrounding every team member's performance and their position in the ranking.?
How To Motivate Your Sales Team When Sales Are Down?
When times are tough, motivation often drops.?
If your reps put in the same effort or more than they used to but see way lower results — and lower commission — there can be a general feeling of “what’s the point?”
So how to motivate a sales team when sales are down?
First, revisit your team’s goals with a mind to your sector's economy and state.?
Given the current state of the industry, are these goals unrealistic??
And be honest and transparent about how the economy affects performance across the board — this will ensure your reps don’t feel like they are the problem.
Go to them for solutions too. If this is the situation we’re stuck in, how can we develop workarounds to boost our sales until the market recovers?
This is also a good time for team bonding and morale-boosting through social events.
How Do You Motivate a Sales Team to Hit Targets?
How to keep a sales team motivated towards their targets?
Start by setting clear, transparent SMART goals with attractive incentives, and then clearly communicate these to your team.?
Now bake these goals into your daily workflows. Make sure they’re always front of mind with custom dashboards containing real-time data, and consistently reference goals and progress towards them in team meetings and one-to-ones.?
And don’t forget to celebrate and give public praise when a team member hits their goal.