Think about it: motivation is the key to great performance.
Everything falls into place if your sales team is properly motivated. They become more productive and better able to reach the goals that are set for them. Conversely, this means that if motivation levels fall, performance levels fall right along with them.
There’s so much more to motivating your sales team than offering bonuses and other monetary incentives—doubly so when you have to keep your team motivated under demotivating circumstances (i.e. a pandemic-driven economy).
It’s up to the sales team leaders and key management to keep spirits up and provide the impetus for making the most of technology and other resources to continue producing good results. Here are 10 suggestions for motivating your team during the current situation.
1. Look at the bright side.
The last thing your sales team needs at a time like this is more gloom and doom. What your team needs from you is reassurance and encouragement. So make sure they know that all is being done to adapt to the situation, and that plans are in place to keep things on track.
Keep your team’s sights on the future, in the sense that things may not be ideal right now, but perseverance in the present will pave the way for better things to come down the road.
2. Give your team a sense of purpose.
Goal-setting is a given for any team, but giving them a sales target to hit may not be enough during a time when health and public safety is everyone’s foremost concern.
Try to find and articulate the deeper meaning behind those targets—essentially, you’re making it easier for people who need the solutions provided by your organisation to get the products or services they need.
And at times like the present, when mobility and physical contact are limited, people are finding it difficult to access those solutions, which makes your sales team indispensable to making people’s lives even a little bit easier.
3. Give specific guidance.
After pointing your team in the right direction, your sales representatives will need detailed instructions to get where you want them to go.
These instructions might include extra empathy for customers’ needs during this time, keeping an eye out for new business opportunities, and adjusting your sales targets according to the current business climate.
4. Make sure your team stays healthy.
Many equate a career in sales with a super hectic lifestyle, with long hours and lots of travel. Though many sales teams now work from home, remote work has its own kinds of stress which can be extra hard on salespeople who are used to interacting with others in a busy office or on the road.
Doing your best to keep tabs on how your team is doing, health-wise, can work wonders for morale. After all, it’s far easier to stay motivated when you’re well-rested, getting the right nutrition, and exercising regularly. Find ways for staying in shape even when working from home, here.
5. Make sure your team is properly equipped.
Sales teams that are accustomed to having their sweet little setup in the office might have a slight adjustment period working from home during the current situation.
While their office workstation may not be 100% replicated at home, it’s essential to make sure they have the technology they need to stay connected with you and the rest of their team, as well as for prospecting.
6. Foster trust and transparency.
Now that you may not be able to meet with your sales team in person as often as you did pre-pandemic, trust and transparency are more crucial than ever to keeping your team motivated.
Be honest with them about any challenges you may be facing and keep yourself open to suggestions or dialogues on how team members might be feeling at this time. Let your team know communication lines are and should remain open between you and among each other.
7. Encourage team building.
Sales teams can be and have been traditionally competitive, and a spirit of healthy competition can be a boon to team productivity. At times like the present, however, cultivating a spirit of working together instead of against each other can be a real morale booster.
Helping each other reach sales targets can motivate team members to exert themselves because they wouldn’t just be working to achieve their own goals but those of the entire team, as well.
8. Encourage collaboration with other teams.
Sales don’t take place in a vacuum, which means sales teams need to work with marketing and other teams to ensure their success and the success of the organisation as a whole. Teams can often feel like they are pitted against each other, but now is the time to place particular emphasis on their inter-dependence.
Make it easier for your sales teams to reach out to your other teams and find ways to facilitate collaboration between them.
9. Recognise and reward jobs well done.
Everyone on your sales team is different, and what motivates one team member may not work as well for another. However large your sales team may be, try to find the time to talk to your team members to learn what sort of incentives work best for them.
Many organisations use Special Performance Incentive Funds or SPIFs to motivate their sales team, and find that creative incentives work just as well, if not better than their cash-based counterparts. Find examples of creative SPIFs, here to give you an idea of how you might come up with non-cash incentives that suit your team best.
10. Use this time to upskill.
Many organisations are using the current relative lull in sales activities for self-improvement or training initiatives among their sales reps.
Short courses are among the most popular methods of updating their teams’ skill sets, with many team leads asking members to present what they’ve learned and how they mean to apply it to their respective workflows during their regular huddles.
The Advanced Certificate in Competitive Sales and Marketing is made up of six such short courses or modules which are conducted over two weekday evenings and one full Saturday.
Designed to help sales or marketing managers or professionals to manage a highly effective sales team, this certificate programme covers sales tactics and strategies, the impact of technology on sales, and how to build winning customer experiences.
Under the guidance of experts from Google, LinkedIn, SEOciety, Equal Strategy and the Wonder Group, programme participants will learn the Art of Closing, strategies for creating predictable revenue, account-based marketing, social selling, and increasing brand equity through sensory marketing.
Explore how each module can help you become an effective manager who can motivate sales teams to rise to the challenge of conducting sales and executing marketing strategies during challenging times, here.
