Top 5 ways to motivate your Sales Team towards Success

Having a motivated sales team is the aim of any sales manager. Motivated sales people achieve sales targets not because you told them to, but because they want to. They find a sense of achievement and satisfaction from long hours, repetitive tasks, endless follow-ups and the struggle to close deals. They are constantly driven to achieve their goals and this is what makes them go the extra mile to make more sales and achieve more. Indeed, a motivated sales team can mean the difference between hitting targets and missing them.

To further prove the significance of motivation at work, a Gallup research highlights the fact that an unmotivated workforce costs companies 300 billion dollars in lost productivity each year. Even the best sellers need to be motivated and reminded of what they’re working towards and why. In fact, motivation is key to creating top sellers and developing the beginners. Such statement is backed by research emphasizing that organizations with engaged employees outperform those with low employee engagement by 202 percent. Organizations have the responsibility to boost sales and achieve revenue targets by ensuring that their salespeople are motivated to the maximum.

So the question is: how to motivate your sales team? There are a number of ways to fuel your team’s fire and keep them on track to achieve the sales targets:

1. Aim for a big target/goal

Salespeople are more likely to set modest goals and this is not a good motivational factor. This is mainly because such small goals are easy to achieve but they fail to make your sales persons feel inspired even when they are obtained. In other words, staying on the safe side does not do much to motivate anyone.

This is the reason why setting a bigger goal can prove to be more helpful. This means setting a goal to reach a level of performance that is beyond anything that your team has reached before. A lot of focus and effort will be needed to reach that new goal and it may take several attempts to achieve it. The motivation of seeing just how much more the team is capable can go a long way toward inspiring everyone. So what’s your goal for your sales team?

1. Natural Motivators can help

The following four factors can be defined as natural motivators for your sales team: achievement, recognition, the work itself and the desire for increased responsibility. It may vary for each individual but they are all powerful motivational forces to keep on hand.

• Employees always yearn for a sense of achievementthat is derived from feeling that they are improving. For example: this can be achieved through a compilation of sales best practices that forms the basis of regular coaching conversations focused on helping your salespeople become better.
• Recognitionis important and easy to offer. Recognize the hard work of your salespeople and reward them for their good work.
• As far as the work itselfis concerned, it is essential to make your salespeople realize why their work matters. This will surely boost their self-motivation to be more productive.
• Increasing the responsibilities of your best salespeople is another form of recognition which can help them reach even greater heights.

1. Provide an innovative and engaging Sales Training

The right sales training program can create wonders to your sales team’s performance. It is the responsibility of an organization to invest in the best sales training practices to encourage productivity. Nowadays, more and more global companies are opting for e-learning solutionsas a means to train salespeople due to its flexibility, accessibility and practicality.

For instance: with solutions such as scenario-based video training, your sales team is able to experience real work situations which prepares them to face any eventuality at work. In this way, they are able to apply what they are learning directly in their job roles. Besides, such training proves to be more engaging and interactive which guarantee course completion, leading to valuable certificates. All this proves to be a great motivational factor since employees are trained for their own personal gains in terms of career advancement as well as for the progress of their company.

1. Create a Comfortable and Productive Work Environment

When your sales team is not engaging with prospects, they are among sales teammates, management and office administration and the office atmosphere definitely affects your team’s performance. So you need to ask yourself the following questions: Is your work environment conducive to motivating your salespersons? Or, does it hold them back?

It is important to understand the importance of a good work environment. It involves the whole organization, not just your team. In fact, this should start when you conduct interviews. You need to ask questions that assess how well people work with others. Besides, take actions to encourage and reward teamwork. Moreover, continuously communicate with your sales team to know their attitudes and feelings towards the workplace.

1. Sharing the Big Picture

Sharing the big picture and your goals can be a powerful thing. This will allow your sales team to feel involved in the success of the organization and makes them feel like what they do actually affects the company. The main aim here is to show each employee where they fit within the big picture, and more importantly, the path available to them to make a bigger difference in the future.

Not giving your employee a clear view of what they can achieve within the company won’t help them be productive at all. Make sure to communicate your company goals to your employees on a regular basis and what actions are being taken to reach these goals. This will help to reaffirm your employees’ belief that they are making a difference and motivate them to be more engaged.

Conclusion:

Motivating your sales team requires a strategic approach and this is the key to more sales and profitability. Make sure to give your sales team better visibility, more interaction with management, incentives and career advancement opportunities through training, and you’ll be amazed at how it will transform the productivity levels of your company.