Your sales force will largely determine how successful your company is and if you’re not spending enough time motivating them, you may not like the results. You can get more out of your sales force by focusing on a few key areas within your organization.

Hire a Great Sales Manager

The secret to having a great and productive sales force is to have a great manager. This is a key position and you’ll need just the right personality type to fill it. Look for candidates who display not only strong leadership characteristics, but also the ability to motivate and mentor each of your team members. Hiring a high quality sales manager shifts the burden from your shoulders and ensures that your team members will get the individualized help they need.

Your sales force is a team, but each member brings different strengths to the table. Your sales manager should have the training necessary to spot these strengths and know how to foster them. Once you find a great sales manager, do all that you can to keep them, they are truly an invaluable asset to your company.

Mentoring your sales force members will also help you find candidates for further advancement within your organization. By focusing on a one-on-one motivational and mentoring process, your sales manager will gain insight on each unique personality and they can target the top producers and focus on helping them grow.

Improve the Sales Process

If you find that your sales force isn’t meeting their numbers, it may be time to improve your sales process. This process, ideally, should be streamlined and should include the following:

• Lead generation
• Lead nurturing
• Relationship building
• Needs-based conversations
• Solution-based closing

This type of sales process focuses heavily on needs-based selling and relationship building and is highly effective, even in times of economic hardship. If you’re still using a traditional sales process of getting leads, cold-calling and moving on, you may be missing out on some excellent opportunities. Train your sales force in these newer and more effective methods and watch your sales figures grow.

Utilize Tiered Incentives

Your sales force should be comprised of people who are already good at self motivation and have the drive to succeed. You can increase these drives by offering a tiered incentive program. Not only does this reward progress within your sales force, but it also creates a more competitive atmosphere — and talented sales people thrive on competition.

You can also use this incentive program to help you monitor members of your sales force that aren’t making their goals. If you have team members that are consistently not earning their bonuses, you can figure out where the problem may lie and help them get back on track.

Tiered incentives also ensure that your sales force is rewarded for the efforts they produce for your company and you’re not stuck paying high commissions that eat into your profit margin. This type of motivation works well with human nature and lets your employees determine their own desires in terms of what they want to earn.

Putting it All Together

Once you have all of your strategies in place, you’ll need to monitor the progress of your sales team and hold them — and the sales manager — accountable for their results. Accountability is a powerful motivator and will also help you weed out team members that may not be the right fit for your organization and help you hire people who will naturally fit better within your organization.