|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |
|
Five Steps To Motivating And Retaining Great Salespeople
Written by: Will TurnerArticle Overview: As a sales manager or business owner, you can focus on these five steps to motivate and retain your top performers.
![]() |
Free Download - Three Steps To Customer Loyalty By Will Turner |
Five Steps To Motivating And Retaining Great Salespeople
If you think that having the best sales team is all about the right incentives and money, you’re wrong. Not to say that a good compensation program is not important, it just isn’t enough. And it’s secondary to other factors.
There are five things that you can do in a sales management role to make sure that your sales team performs and is dedicated to growing your company. By incorporating them into your plan, you will have happier and more productive salespeople.
1. Set Clear Expectations – Salespeople perform best when they know what is expected of them. A salesperson’s goals should be fair and reasonable. That’s not to say that the goals should not stretch them.
Getting buy-in from the individual sales reps is critical when setting expectations. The best way to do this is to solicit the salesperson’s feedback and involvement in setting their goals. Failure to do so will limit the salesperson’s ownership and can create an “us vs. them” mentality (i.e. “My boss is always raising my goals and doesn’t understand what I’m dealing with. My goals are totally unrealistic. He just doesn’t understand. I can’t do everything he wants me to.”)
2. Create The Right Systems – To have a highly functioning sales team, you must develop appropriate marketing and sales strategies for your products and services and the prospects that you sell to. In addition, you need to develop systems that will support these strategies.
For example, if one of your marketing strategies is to drive traffic to your website and develop leads; do you have a system in place for handling those leads? What happens with an inquiry for more information? Is each inquiry handled in an appropriate and systematic way? One of the biggest obstacles to success is a “winging it” approach. Make sure that you create the systems outlining the detailed steps necessary for your sales success.
3. Develop A Customer-Focused Sales Culture – What is your sales culture? Is everyone in your organization involved and/or supportive of the selling process? Or is there some conflict between the sales department and the operations staff? Often, salespeople get caught up in the role of client advocate because if they don’t, no one else will. And sometimes, the demands on the salespeople can be unrealistic so they react by over-promising which puts an unnecessary and unwanted burden on the operations staff.
The best companies overcome internal challenges by clearly defining and performing in the best interest of the customer. If everyone is focused on how to serve the customer, then these internal conflicts can be avoided or, at the very least, addressed in a productive manner.
4. Hold Your Salespeople Accountable – This is the part of the job that most sales managers do poorly, but it is crucial if you want a high performing team. One of the toughest parts of managing is dealing with poor performance. Failure to do so, however, is a recipe for disaster. So address issues head-on and don’t shy away from the difficult conversations.
After you’ve set clear expectations or goals, you must determine the rewards and consequences for hitting or not reaching those goals. While reviewing and monitoring activities can be valuable, you have to recognize that it all come down to results. If the results are there, the activities to get there are inconsequential. And if the results aren’t there, there needs to be a progressive system for dealing with inadequate performance.
5. Provide Proper Training – What happens when your company hires a new salesperson? If you’re like most organizations, you probably have lots of room for improvement here. You’ll need to determine what training is appropriate and how to make it effective.
You’ll need to consider training needs from a number of angles. These include company orientation, product/service knowledge, industry knowledge and customer service philosophy. In addition, you’ll need to provide some level of sales training. This should be much more than having the new hire ride with you or a seasoned salesperson a few times and then saying, “Okay, now go do it.”
Most training programs fall short because of the process that is typically used. It’s the classic “throw a lot of information at someone” approach and hope that some of it will actually stick. The reality is that if you use this misguided approach, research indicates that after about 16 days, only 2% of the information is retained. Not only do the trainees not retain the information, but there is no hope that behavior or habits will be positively impacted. To be effective, training must incorporate the ways that adults learn. This means incorporating active engagement exercises, repetition, and specific goal setting, as well as direct application and accountability for what’s being learned.
Managing salespeople can feel like herding cats at times. By focusing and implementing the five key areas above, you will take the chance out of your sales growth.
Article Tags:
|
About the Author: Will Turner RSS for Will's articles - Visit Will's website As President of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group, Will feels he has the best job in the galaxy. He loves working with salespeople and entrepreneurs to "unblock" themselves and "unlock" their potential. Will is the first to admit that he was a reluctant salesperson for many years. He thought most salespeople had to be pushy, and he just wasn't comfortable in that role. He later discovered that you don't have to act like a typical salesperson to be a great salesperson so he created a company to teach others what he had learned. Will transitioned a twenty year career in sales and sales management into his current position as President of Dancing Elephants. In addition to facilitating and presenting, Will is the author of Impact!, the company's monthly e-newsletter on sales performance. He is also the co-creator of the Sales Magnetism program and the co-author of Six Secrets of Sales Magnets. Click here to visit Will's website Put Away The PowerPoint What Are You Waiting For Five Feedback Rules For Great Coaching Following Up With Impact Seven Simple Ways To Prioritize |
Related Forum Posts
Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.
Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.
Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
4 Steps To Hypnotize Your Business Prospects
The Future of Online Marketing
Resistance to Change and How to Deal With It
Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.



