Sales teams go through a lot of pressure on a daily basis to close deals and meet targets. Reps are customer-facing professionals who have to go through the entire sales pipeline, deal with difficult customers, persuade and convince people to become buyers of the company, within a period of time. Moreover, it is not just about the deals but also several other activities that they have to get done on a daily basis. Their work life is quite on the stressful side and you have to keep your reps in a comfortable zone where they are happy and motivated to drive sales and reach revenue goals.
To effectively manage your sales teams, you first and foremost need to set realistic goals for your reps. By setting realistic goals, sales teams can achieve and exceed the objectives that they set to themselves. Why is this important? It’s because the more realistic your goals are, the more likely your sales team is to succeed at achieving them. If your goals are unrealistic or too ambitious, not only will the goals not be met but it will also lead to reps feeling demotivated.
Second, you need to reward them well for the deals they bring home. For this, you need to have a top-notch fair compensation plan that will encourage them to perform better. Sales commissions need to be clear and accurately paid out to all reps.
How to make the best out of a bad situation?
Good managers manage both business needs and personal issues, such as performance motivation and team spirit. Every salesperson has different needs and the best way to handle them depends on the individual. Underperforming sales team members are one of the biggest challenges you will face. There are some of the classic demotivating behaviors that can affect the team and bring them down.
The importance of positive feedback
Managers and directors who encourage employees to have feedback about their performance can increase their level of satisfaction and also improve the overall performance of the whole team. Often, many employees who are successful in their careers tend to be a bit self-critical of their performance, their personality or even their skills. Sharing praise is a very healthy exercise that builds confidence in the employee and can contribute to the overall productivity of the sales team. Getting your customers to tell you what they want Research conducted by Stanford University also supports the idea that offering feedback to your employees and customers will make them more satisfied.
Encouraging creativity
A team’s motivation directly influences the creative process. Whether you want to foster innovation or solve problems with creativity, your sales team is the best tool you can employ to do so. Don’t forget that Sales and Marketing go hand in hand. Despite their different roles, sales and marketing personnel should have an open dialogue with each other. It’s impossible for the team to be motivated without the engagement of their peers. Sharing business strategies, product ideas, and challenges will create a better connection between the two departments and, in turn, increase their productivity.
Motivational tools to keep your sales reps happy
Sales force automation is a powerful tool that’s capable of keeping your sales team motivated and productive. Besides its wide variety of features, cloud-based Salesforce solutions like the SumoMe plugin are perfect for motivating your sales team. SumoMe works with Salesforce, combining it with a series of smartly designed features for a productive and fun sales enablement session. This plugin has all the basic features of a basic sales force automation software. It automates the following functions:
- The number of sales reps that have been assigned to a specific task.
- The time spent on each task.
- When tasks get completed and are ready to be assigned to another rep.
- How well did each rep perform on a certain sales call.
- The number of sessions that have been recorded by sales reps.
Setting achievable goals for your team
Setting the right goals is one of the easiest ways to build sales motivation. But, how do you know what your sales targets are and how to break them? Since sales targets are typically dynamic and ambiguous, you have to set realistic but also achievable goals. Having said that, success for you and your team depends on how far you can go with your targets.
Balancing work and life
Earning extra money is always a goal for most people. Especially if you have kids, you are far more likely to do any extra work. But what most people do not realise is that earning extra money is not always something to look forward to, nor something to do for its own sake. One of the most common complaints by business owners is that sales teams often run out of energy early on in the week and tend to be disinterested in doing additional work. The truth is that it is difficult to produce high-quality work without a proper balance of work and family life. When most people are trying to work smarter and live better, they get involved in all sorts of time-wasting habits that interfere with their personal lives.
Conclusion
Being more organized with your workflow and ensuring your sales team is happy can really have a positive impact on the overall success of your business. A bonus tip is to also be more conscious of who you are hiring. Make sure you hire the right salesperson, one that can help you win your customers and drive profits.