7 ways to motivate your sales teams…
We want our sales teams to get good results, so we set them targets and benchmarks. Psychologists say that “in order for a person to reach their highest potential, they must be held in consistently high regard”. The reality is that they’re going to have days when results are not apparent, and it will be tempting to look at all the things they haven’t done. Research suggests that most of us have what’s known as a negative mind bias, and do focus on what we haven’t done. But research has also shown that the most successful of people, focus on small wins, consistently. And this is what we need our sales people to do, and therefore must also be what we do for them.
So here are our top tips to increase motivation in your sales teams…
It’s focusing on the activity, not the results, reminding of the value that’s been delivered, even if the results have yet to follow. Keep focusing on value and small wins, and motivation will not dip, this is the key to staying resilient and keeping activity consistent.
It’s sharing values and visions, so people can buy in to the bigger picture and have a purpose to their actions. Simon Sinek says “Start with Why” – you can view his great Ted Talk here https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
It’s identifying the behaviours you want, and focusing on those – mentioning them, giving praise and having a focus on the good things.
Instead of looking at problems, it’s identifying how the solution looks and focusing your attention on that solution and how we can move to that.
It’s delivering messages with kindness, without any hint of frustration or difficulty. People work best for people they like and trust, so it goes without saying that a good relationship between you and your team is of paramount importance.
Moaning about bad days, bad results, bad attitude – it just focuses everyone on the negative, lowers the energy and gives a bad vibe that doesn’t help. Whilst it may be tempting to chew someone out – as a Manager you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot if you do. Let go of all your frustrations and see the person with fresh eyes, remember something good they’ve done, and why you employed them, remind them of those things if you need to, then focus on where you want them to be – remind them that you believe they can get there! Sometimes we need someone to believe in us to help us believe in ourselves.
If we lift people up, we keep them up, and we help them stay motivated. This is then leadership rather than management – if we can inspire people to want to do the work and support them to believe that they can, they will be self-motivated and confident.
We offer sales coaching and consultancy, if you’d like some help to get the best out of yourself and your sales teams, please get in touch on 0121 347 6601.
