If you ask any entrepreneur what their biggest challenge is, they will immediately tell you something that has to do with increasing sales productivity.
Young companies are always looking to find new growth hacks and strategies that they can use to run a lean and efficient startup.
Sales is the engine of any successful business which means that you will always need to find new ways to bring in new customers while keeping your current ones happy. Since your sales team is the face of your business, it is important that you not only hire the right people, but that you build strong relationships with them and keep them motivated.
Your sales force develops your most loyal customers and converts new prospects into customers. However, a sales role is hard work! These roles are quite a challenge to the confidence level of your representatives and sales managers and can drain their energy. How do you motivate your sales team and maintain that motivation in order to get the best results from them?
What Motivates Your Sales Team?
Each person is motivated by different things: more money, recognition, or something as dramatic as job loss. In addition, you have to understand that motivation is a moving target. As a leader, it is difficult to create an environment that will appeal to everyone. It's your job to find what motivates your employees. Motivation is usually generated by two factors, fear and desire.
Compensation in sales is complex especially when you are using commission and incentive structures that are multi-tiered. These types of incentives will not only drive your CFO crazy, but can be confusing for some employees when they have a hard time grasping the reward. This is why it is important to structure your compensation plan as simple as possible so that that the reward mechanism you use is something that easily excites your employee.
Develop A Clear Compensation Plan
The sales compensation plan plays an important role in motivation related to sales performance.More often than not, you will see a compensation plan that is an assemblage of concessions made over the years but, in the end, this plan is more difficult for your sales force to understand than it is useful for motivating them.
If you have a compensation plan like this, it would be best for you to take a step back and rebuild your plan from scratch. To begin this process, carefully assess the situation so that you can revisit your compensation plan and permanently "fix" it.
Ask yourself a few questions about your current compensation plan:
• Does your plan attract and retain top sellers?
• Is your compensation plan aligned with company strategies?
• Is your plan helping my salespeople want more?
• Is your plan designed to adapt to changes in the motivation of your salespeople?
• Finally, is your compensation plan helping you fuel steady growth?
If you answer “no” to one or more of these questions, your compensation plan is not getting the best out of your players' performance.
Identify Each Sales Reps Personal Goals
In addition to reviewing the compensation plan, you'll be able to motivate your team by taking the time to learn more about their personal goals. According to Motivation Ping, money is not always the most important motivational factor. More often than not, motivation comes from other factors: gifts, recognition, rewards, job satisfaction and usually the most important motivator is found in the personal goals your reps set for themselves.
Ask your sales team members what they want. Ask them where they want to go in their life and offer them incentives to help them achieve their goals. Offer daily recognition for their performance, for the expectations they meet or exceed, or something as simple as mentioning someone's success in front of the rest of the team in a meeting.
Educate And Inspire Your Sales Team
As a CEO, VP or Director of Sales, it is critical that you show your team that you care; this will help you keep your sales force motivated. This is why it is important to produce company seminars where you bring in sales experts who can educate them on the latest strategies. Or, you can bring in an experienced motivational speaker who can fire them up. Having these types of seminars are not only great for bonding, but they also can help fuel your sales team with new energy and ideas.
Replace The Bottom 10%
Finally, if you've done everything you can to motivate your sales team and nothing has changed with some individuals, then it's time to assess each person's performance and fire the bottom 10%.
You can't have salespeople who just want to stay in their conditional commitment to success - that is, people who are going to do only what they are comfortable with and / or agree to. You need salespeople who want to be the best, people who want to be the next superstar in sales and do whatever it takes to make it happen (within the framework of good ethics).
You can usually tell which ones want success and which ones are just looking for a little extra cash in their pocket.
It is obvious that by firing salespeople who under-perform, there will be a positive impact on the motivation of other salespeople who will want to outdo themselves, for fear of being the next to be fired.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, motivation can be established by fear and desire. Are your salespeople worried about losing their jobs because of poor performance (a slight fear is always good)? Conversely, do they want to always be at the best level, to feel appreciated and recognized?
