8 years ago
February 21, 2017

5 Ways to Keep Your Sales Team Motivated

You must keep your sales team motivated if you want your reps to consistently hit their sales targets. Read on to learn how to best motivate them.

Rhys Metler

5_Ways_to_Keep_Your_Sales_Team_Motivated

Sales is one of the most difficult fields to succeed in. It’s full of highs but also full of lows, and sometimes, those lows can really get to your sales team. There are a lot of hang ups, ignored emails, and failed sales calls. And they can really get demoralizing and depressing.

When your sales people are feeling unmotivated, they become less efficient and less productive, and it can even get them to jump ship. It’s your job as sales manager to boost up your sales team’s motivation and keep your members striving for those sales targets.

Here are a few ways you can motivate your sales team, and don’t worry, they don’t all involved you dishing out cash.

1. Help Your Salespeople Set Their Own Goals

You give your sales people a quota to reach. But sometimes, that quota is too broad to really motivate, especially when your reps have months to meet it. To keep your sales team motivated every day, help your reps set their own micro-goals. Help them develop detailed target lists that could include daily activities that will help them reach their targets or specific goals per customer or per time frame. Micro-goals are shorter, and thus, seem easier to accomplish. They also allow your sales people to keep working hard every day, instead of just at the end of the quarter.

2. Provide Achievable Feedback

Telling your sales people that what they’re doing is all wrong and not giving them any steps for improvement will lead to a dead end that will only discourage them. If you want them to improve, then motivate them to do better by giving them actionable feedback that is achievable.

3. Create Healthy Competition

Your sales people are filled with natural competitiveness—that’s one of the reasons why they all chose to work in sales. Take advantage of it by encouraging healthy competition. This can engage your team, boost morale, and even make work feel a lot more fun. Competitions are a great option for motivating your reps to improve their performance during your business’s slow periods. Create a contest that is focused on a strategic business goal that everyone needs to meet. Post real-time updates and standings, and news about current wins to keep everyone involved.

4. Celebrate Achievements

Many of your sales people are motivated not by money first but by recognition and appreciation. Celebrating achievements can go a long way to motivating your sales team. Show your reps that you are paying attention to their hard work, that you recognize their wins, and that you appreciate their presence on your team. A congratulatory high five, a handwritten note, or even a short email recognizing their efforts can be powerful motivators. Recognize and appreciate on a regular basis, for both big successes and small victories.

5. Have a Great Commission Plan

Though not everyone is primarily motivated by money, a great commission plan certainly helps to motivate the majority of sales people. Develop a great sales compensation plan that rewards the behaviours that you seek, keep it simple so it’s easy to understand, and make sure everyone understands the rules so your reps can all keep track of their progress.

It’s Up to You

Motivating your sales team is critical to its continued success. When your reps are down in the dumps because they aren’t reaching any prospects or closing any deals, then it’s up to you to boost morale. Motivating your team is part of being a great sales manager. And you can do so without dishing out tons of money. Aside from your commission plan, you can help your sales people set their own goals, you can provide actionable feedback, you can create healthy competition, and you can celebrate both large and small achievements in order to motivate.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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