How can you develop the motivation of your salesmen?

Motivation is the key to success. Indeed, for your sales representatives in their commercial tasks. It is an important factor in reaching the objectives set by the VP of Sales. What is more, it increases sales representatives’ desire to close more deals.

If the strategies you are setting up in your company are effective, your company’s performance will be boosted that much higher. On the other hand, if your strategies aren’t crowned with success, this can impact your company’s bottom line.

What changed?

During the Thirsty Glorious, it was easy to have motivated employees. The market was booming, growth was in full swing. At that time, you just had to help your sales representatives imagine the possible earnings, gather them together at conventions, and, like Jordan Belfort in the Wolf of Wall Street, electrify the room. But these methods are considered outdated and are no longer relevant for modern management.

These methods were swept away by the successive crises of the 1990s. Today, sales representatives are much more realistic and don’t idealize sales as much. They know that it is a bitter combat, and there is only one winner. For this reason, sales directors must charm their sales representatives more, and give them the desire to excel in their area and in their performance.

What procedures does this entail?

To make your sales representatives more dedicated and involved in their work, you must show them what they can get out of their work. This means training in sales methods like Cold Calling 2.0, Cold Emailing, or the company’s CRM so they can master every aspect. Your sales representatives will improve and will enjoy selling more. You can also organize Shadow Calls to help them progress.

The other advantage of using innovative sales processes like that described in the ebook, “How to create your B2B Prospecting Machine,” is that you will finally be able to optimize your sales representatives’ time and facilitate their work, for example, by eliminating phone prospecting, which is often feared.

Motivation is also important for their career development opportunities within the company. Though the sales representative often starts his career as an SDR (Sales Development Representative), he does so with the goal of progressing to become an AE (Account Executive), or VP of Sales if he excels in that area, and the position is available. An employee who imagines his future in a company will be much more motivated than an employee who does not.

Motivation is your cornerstone

Motivation is not a question of some crude carrot, but of a real desire to excel and make the company progress.

Furthermore, you must create and develop this desire to excel by creating a competitive spirit in your sales team. You need a happy medium here; the challenges must not be so frequent they exhaust your sales representatives, but frequent enough to break up their routine. This scheduling will be up to the manager. He must find the balance between length and difficulty.

Techniques of motivation

Remuneration is an obvious technique, but which must be properly analyzed. It is common in the profession that the variable part of remuneration comes from commissions. It is a smart move to reinforce their motivation.

However, all sales representatives don’t have the same propensity for signing new contracts or maintaining current clients. Be careful to analyze the existing situation of each sales representative properly, so that one is not left behind compared to another. You can remunerate your Account Executives with the commission on deals signed, and incentivize your SDRs with the number of appointments made.

Another method that has proved effective: team spirit. A close-knit team that communicates with one another about sales techniques, prospects, etc… will be pulled into a virtuous circle. This creates a virtuous dynamic in the team, which can have beneficial impacts on your bottom line. To create that type of cohesion, organize Team Buildings, seminar days, group activities, etc…

What has changed for management?

Managers and VPs of Sales must also adapt to these new practices. They set the tone for the sales teams. For this reason, they must set the example by managing their team while taking into account the pressure the team is under. Furthermore, the sales representatives must feel empowered and supported by their managers. Thus, managers are not only watching over the proper functioning of the sales team, but they must also be able to support the team.

An important factor the manager must watch over is his team’s well-being. This includes the furniture (proper office chairs), equipment (headsets must be comfortable, telephones work properly, etc…) and software (CRM’s user-friendliness, email management software available to all, etc…). Daily objectives are reachable by each member and are not arbitrary.

The manager must also become familiar with each one’s temperament and personality. He must be attentive to the good things they do and let them know it, as it’s frustrating for sales representatives when their good actions go unnoticed. He must have transparent communication with his sales representatives. He must also listen to them, to their comments, etc…

There are many methods for motivating your sales representatives, and these depend as much on each of your sales representatives’ motivation as on that of your managers. Nothing can replace the sales representative’s daily motivation, in which he expresses his own responsibility.