5 Techniques to Motivate your Sales Team

Improving your team’s skills is a tangible process that can be done with coaching, presentations, and time. But keeping your team motivated to do well is more of a challenge. Adjusting your motivational tactics for each employee requires getting to know them on a personal level, and checking in to make sure nothing gets missed. Try the following strategies to get your sales team on track and selling at record rates.

1. Get to Know Them on Personal Basis

Your team members will not want to you for help or motivation if they don’t trust you. If you lose their trust, they won’t be motivated to do well. And it will be difficult to speak to them about their goals if they don’t trust you. It’s a vicious cycle.

Engage your employees on a personal level, and focus on being nurturing. Get to know their work style and their preferred method and frequency of communication. Ask them about their personal and professional goals, and discuss how you can work toward those together. When you know what matters to them, you’ll know how to motivate them most effectively.

2. Set Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Goals

• Different sales people are driven by different things. That’s why creating a range of goals can help to find one that connects with each sales person. Each of these goals should come with a specific reward, whether it be monetary, experiential, or personal.
• Daily goals: These help get a salesperson back on track. The reward for this goal should be small and fun, as it didn’t require much work to attain.
• Weekly goals: This is a more tangible goal with defined business impact. Track improvement, and work with your sales team to create daily goals that will help them reach this larger milestone.
• Monthly goals: These are the largest goals, and are accompanied by a larger reward. Something experiential or an item that will allow the salesperson to remember what they achieved every time they see it is a good idea.

3. Communication and Recognition

Your whole team should be aware of each other’s goals and accomplishments. They can see who is doing well, how they can step up their game, and even ask each other for assistance. It can create some friendly competition as everyone works toward one exciting incentive, like a weekend trip.

You should also personally communicate with each salesperson so they understand how their work is valued. Give their efforts meaning. Salespeople who love their jobs often tend to be great at their jobs.

4. Motivate the Unmotivated

Recognize when there are issues, and figure out how you can solve them. First, figure out if everyone seems unmotivated, or just a few players. That can help you figure out how to target the issue, and stop it.

If it’s just one specific salesperson, have an honest conversation with them. Make specific observations of what you’ve noticed, and open the floor to your salesperson to discuss their problems or concerns. Work to understand where they are coming from, reach an agreement on the nature of the problem that exists and what has caused it, and find methods to address it. If you’ve earned their trust and set a baseline for open communication, this shouldn’t be difficult.

If the whole team is having issues, you need to look at your overall incentive and goal strategy. Evaluate if you are doing your best to motivate your team on a personal level.

5. Let People Pick Their Own Rewards

If your team seems like it needs extra motivation, ask them what they need to get to the next level. Ask what they think the objective should be, when they think they can reach it, and what they want the prize to be (within a budget). After all, they know what they want better than you do.

And make sure the rewards you give are valuable and exciting! They can be personal, like cooking the salesperson dinner or babysitting. Or, they could be a team-wide outing like bowling or a barbecue. And if you want to put yourself out there, you can offer to do a dance, wear a funny outfit, or d something else playful and memorable.

Your team should be just that – a team. Get to know them and their goals, and you’ll be able to find motivations that speak to your salespeople on a personal level.