It’s hard to succeed in sales without motivation, and morale can be difficult to maintain in an environment where it’s far more common to hear no than to receive an affirmative response. It’s no wonder that HubSpot reports turnover among sales teams is almost three times higher than other industries.
Motivation and morale are even more challenging to sales teams in 2022 than in the past. With so many companies operating from remote workplaces, the old methods of inter-office motivation might no longer be available. There’s nobody there to offer a physical pat on the back or a high five for a job well done. How do you keep your sales teams excited about their jobs when you aren’t even in the same building?
Want to motivate your sales teams to close more deals? How do you motivate your team when sales are down? Check out the following eight ways to keep up the morale and drive more sales:
1. Set and track goals
Set goals. Sounds obvious, right? You might be surprised how easy it is to miss this vital detail. Salespeople need a goal to reach, and they can remain motivated toward reaching that goal by understanding their progress. Don’t just set a single lofty goal and wait for your team to reach it. Instead, establish a series of attainable goals that inspire growth over time. Be sure and track sales teams’ progression toward these goals and celebrate achieving milestones.
2. Recognize and reward performance
Another way to boost sales teams’ motivation and morale is by recognizing achievements and rewarding positive performance. It’s not enough to reward sales reps with their earned commissions. Create non-financial rewards, such as extra PTO, free lunches or even gift prizes to reward salespeople for a job well done. Involve the entire team to build overall morale and inspire a supportive environment where team members help motivate one another.
3. Promote competition
While it’s important to foster teamwork in a sales environment, there’s nothing wrong with some healthy competition among teams. Host contests for your sales reps, and be sure to include rewarding prizes that motivate team members to achieve. A sales contest could be for achieving a shared goal, such as the most overall sales or the highest overall conversion rate. But sales reps also can compete to achieve individual goals, ensuring that even the most inexperienced salesperson has an equal shot.
4. Insert plenty of fun
The daily grind of a salesperson has the potential to be a drag filled with stress, pressure and plenty of negative reactions. Adding an element of fun to sales environments is a great way to boost morale and motivate teams to strive for success. Be sure to schedule team-building activities, showing team members that you care about their morale. Taking a short break for fun can improve sales teams’ emotional well-being while making their jobs enjoyable. Satisfied team members can’t help but perform better than their stressed-out counterparts.
5. Offer financial incentives
It can’t be overstressed how much money can motivate people. After all, most don’t go to work for the fun of it. Sales professionals, in particular, enjoy control over their incomes. The harder they work, the more deals they close, and the more commission they can earn. And because many commission-based roles have practically limitless earning potential, they tend to attract money-motivated people. If your business has the means, offering additional financial incentives as reward for high performance can boost teams’ motivation like little else.
6. Manage with a personal touch
Every person is unique, and it’s not possible to motivate all salespeople in the same way. Successful sales managers will personalize their outreach to each team member, customizing their approach and applying the tools that have the most impact. Not only is it important to personalize how you motivate different personalities, but it’s important to remember varying experience levels and customize goals and contests so that everyone has a chance to achieve.
7. Provide plenty of resources
Salespeople can be quick to lose morale when they don’t have the necessary sales collateral, resources and tools to effectively close deals. Successful sales managers won’t wait for team members to ask for these resources, they will proactively provide sales reps with the content, coaching and technology they need to succeed in their jobs. At the same time, it’s important for sales managers to listen to team members’ needs and respond to requests for yet untried tools.
8. Encourage professional development
Career-minded individuals are motivated by their drive for success, and nothing can lower morale quicker than the feeling you’re stuck in a dead-end job. Effective sales managers will discuss opportunities for growth and development with their teams, helping sales reps to build a plan around improving their performance and accelerating their career trajectories. Be sure to inform salespeople of available promotions and career opportunities while showing interest in their own personal goals and ambitions.
One way to add an element of fun to the sales environment, boosting morale while establishing goals and providing teams with the resources they need to succeed is by holding all-hands meetings with engaging presentations. PowerPoint-alternative presentation software like Beautiful.ai can transform even inexperienced designers into professional presenters, and elements like animation and video add an entertaining value to what could otherwise be dull information. Especially when teams are meeting from remote workplaces, interactive presentations can keep them engaged and motivated to learn more.
