Sales motivation “Fire Up you Sales Team”

Small Steps for Big Results: Motivating Your Sales Team

Selling is indeed a tough job. It takes immense energy levels and a thick skin to be a successful sales representative. Still, sometimes even the toughest of sales reps find it difficult and depressing to combat steep competition, fussy customers and ill-tempered prospects. So, it is highly critical to find ways to ignite the entire sales department and motivate the sales staff to perform better even under stress.

Your approach in training your sales staff must be such that each of them must at least get a taste of success at some level. The feeling that one can succeed is itself a motivation to perform successfully. There are a number of strategies you can use to motivate your sales force.

  • Start by making commission a driving force. If you are introducing a new product and want it to be a hit in the market, offer a higher cut to the salespeople assigned to sell that model.
  • Suggest sales blogs, articles, online success stories, and forums to your sales staff for inspiration.
  • When you assign the members to a sales team, offer them extra incentives to support, mentor and encourage the other members. This way, you can build winning teams for your sales department.
  • Build peer pressure to keep your sales staff active and competitive. Post sales and conversion rate reports publicly for all to see so that there will be inspiration to improve.
  • Encourage communication between the sales department and other departments of the company. Organize contests and campaigns to the whole firm so that they can interact and socialize with each other. This will help encourage as engineering, customer service, and marketing, and other departments to be supportive of the sales department.
  • Take a survey and find out what motivates your sales team. Try experimenting with different pay packages, bonuses and prizes. Cash is indeed the master when it comes to sales motivation. Try including a paid vacation day along with free fishing or golfing so that they don’t stagnate sitting at home.
  • Don’t put your sales staff down if they slip up one day or fail to reach a quota. Encourage them so that they can get back to their routine.
  • Whatever action you take to foster sales motivation, strive to keep it frequent. Instruct your staff to write down the goals they want to achieve and the reasons behind the decision. This will motivate them and help them keep on track.

 
According to Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of needs, there are five levels of needs for a man, arranged in the form of a pyramid. The four levels at the bottom proceed through the usual physiological needs, including the needs for safety, belonging, and self-esteem. Finally, at the top of the hierarchy sits “self-actualization,” or according to Maslow, the “growth need.” Thus, one can clearly see that financial compensation alone cannot motivate your salespeople. Your best bet is to win their trust and earn their respect so that they can have a sense of belonging to the company. I promise, you will see a difference in your sales team and your bottom line.

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