Sales managers have ways of motivating their reps such as their manufacturers rep to give it their all. Often this is done in the form of benefits and cash prizes which are as attractive as a prize can get. However, this is only a somewhat successful measure. You only affect the absolute top earners and only in a temporary and competitive way.
To motivate your entire staff and lead to further business success, you will need to employ a strong business management strategy.
1. Define success and successful behaviours
Motivating your employees requires two very important elements. You have to find a way to give them the drive to continuously work hard, while also giving them a goal to strive for. Without well-defined goals, your sales team has nothing to push them forward and motivate them to do their best. What good is motivation and drive if you have nothing to aim it at?
It’s not enough to have vague and broad goals that have nothing to do with the skills involved with sales. “Making more money” is something that’s easy to say, but you aren’t getting any useful information out of it. Be more specific when setting business goals for the day. A certain number of client calls per day might be necessary to show improvement over yesterday’s numbers. Pick a number and run with it. This way, your employees will know exactly what to strive for and how to reach the company’s main goal. In addition, you may read this post to learn which sales tools can help your team.
2. Criticize openly
Nobody likes being criticized. Having someone tell you that you’ve made a mistake can be a big blow to one’s self-esteem and ego. This can affect work and it’s part of the reason why managers avoid confrontation altogether. However, this presents a complete misunderstanding of criticism.
Criticizing someone isn’t supposed to be empty and without reason. As a manager, you want to see your employees succeed just as much as they do themselves, possibly more. You point out when mistakes occur and you try to set things right. The real problem is when criticism isn’t understood.
Make it your mission to encourage criticism in the workplace. People aren’t used to being openly criticized in a constructive way. Make sure that every time you point out a problem, you also provide a clear and concise way to solve it without attacking anyone’s character. After a while, you can be sure that the employees will get the memo and follow in your footsteps, leading to even better results.
3. Effort above all else
Success isn’t just measured by achieving short-term goals. Luck shouldn’t play a part in it. Having a couple of breakthrough sales can propel your business forward, but you should never let it get to you. The current business climate is very competitive and cutthroat, which is why you need to stay alert.
Always encourage sales reps to give their all. There’s no time to take a breather when you’re up against strong competition. Whether times are tough or easy, people need to be doing one hundred and ten per cent of their best in order to keep the flow going. A lot of businesses get complacent after a few successful ventures and that very quickly leads to issues.
4. Encourage learning
There’s no such thing as the perfect employee. It’s impossible to know everything about sales and there’s always room for improvement. Learning is the key to success in every business, but it’s especially true in sales.
When you encourage your employees to seek coaching in their field, your move has several benefits for both the company and the employees. For one, if they partake in coaching from various places like Udemy.com, you can count on them to hone in their skills and bring new tools to the table. On the other hand, they’re also furthering their own career in your business. At the very least, they will also be thankful for the opportunity to improve and increase their chances of a brighter future in sales.
5. Improve the client relationship
In business, money isn’t always everything. You might think that sales are the exception to this, considering that the main point is to bring in as much money as you possibly can for your company. However, it still rings true because clients are just people at the end of the day.
Improving the client-business relationship is the most surefire way to bring in money in the long run. What good is a sale if it only improves your standing in the current quarter? You want long-term clients that will seek repeat business, which means you need to foster the relationship on a deeper level.
For this, you need quality customer service. Encourage your sales reps to consistently provide useful information and help to their clients. This might take out a chunk of their time, but it’s going to lead to massive successes for your business in the long run.
Conclusion
Leading the sales team is tough work. You have to find a way to motivate a group of people to continuously put themselves out there and succeed against all odds. When you employ conventional tactics, mixed results are to be expected. You want to think outside of the box and motivate your employees to new heights and new successes. With some of these ideas, you are guaranteed to inspire success in every single member of your team, regardless of their skill level.
