Trending
Written By: Kevin Gardener
You have heard the saying that the more sales activity you have, the more sales you will make, and you probably agree. However, at one point you might find yourself wondering in frustration how you can motivate your sales team after a significant failure. It might even be something as simple as finding ways to close more deals or find more prospects. Regardless of what the situation might be, you will not find a silver bullet. Working on increasing your sales activity will require a mix of approaches .
Hence, here is a variety of methods that you can use to increase the performance of your sales team.
1. Define a Team Goal
Different things motivate individuals in your sales team. However, it is essential to create value in a common goal among the team members. Start by aligning the mission of the company with the target of your sales team . This will make it easy for the individuals in your team to understand that their performance is better if the entire team and the company succeed. You can put the common goal in an open area in the office. Having this common goal present will motivate your sales team especially when the company goals are met.
2. Lead Intelligence
You can get a lot of leads over the years. However, converting these leads into sales relies heavily on knowing the specific ones to approach. Software exists in the market that can analyze your customers through their interests. The results of the analysis will then direct you on the customers that are more likely to buy your products and services. After gaining this lead intelligence, pass it on to your sales team so that they can increase their close rates. Lead intelligence has the added advantage of increasing sales activity while reducing unnecessary activity .
3. Broadcast Sales Activity
Monitoring your sales activity should be one of the first things that you should do for your sales team. Also, ensure that the performance of each sales representative is being broadcast real time. To make sure that each representative is conscious of their performance, you can put their performance on screens in the office, on a desktop dashboard or your mobile phone. This way, you will be able to monitor if they are meeting their sales targets regularly. Broadcasting the sales activity of your sales representatives will also motivate them to attain their targets because no one will want to see their name at the bottom of the list.
4. Set Goals and Track Progress
Today, many CRM will make it easy for you to measure the activity of your team. For instance, if you are using a sales dashboard to track the progress of your sales team, you can have one that shows the activity against the goals and the historical performance of each representative. Such a dashboard will present the performance of each sales representative against the metrics that you have set for them. Hence, you will be able to set goals as well as track the progress of those goals. Such a dashboard will even give you the advantage of picking up on strategies that work better than others in terms of securing sales. This means that you can change your sales strategy with regards to what works best for your team.
5. Share Best Practices
You can try the typical method of scaring your sales team into productivity; however, such tactics only work for a short period. Investing in the development of your sales representatives can be an advantageous process. This is because development will increase the confidence of your sales team and in turn, it will increase their sales activity. Additionally, if the sales representatives feel that the company is helping them, they will be more motivated to help the company succeed. Besides, there is an exponential impact that is associated with the power of sharing. This can be gained through ways such as testimonial, social proof, customer review among others . Excellent examples of methods used to succeed in personalized interactions will expose your sales team to skills that they need to perform.
6. Use Data
Your sales representatives will be more motivated to increase their sales activity if they know the volume of activity that they need to achieve their income targets. All you have to do is calculating the number of calls, deals, or emails that they need according to their rate of commission, the average size of a deal, and the funnel conversion rates. Do this every month because of the changes that occur with the inputs of your calculations and the conversion rates of the sales representatives. To make your calculations much more straightforward, use the available software in the market that will help you to determine the activities of your sales team. You can also opt for a spreadsheet since it will help you with the calculations.
7. Do Not Over-Optimize on Wrong Activity
It can be easy to over-optimize on a wrong activity. Hence, always ensure that you put more deals on the top of your funnel. However, this strategy will not work for companies that have a fixed set of prospects. Also, do not focus on the assumption that closing should be the primary goal of the sales representative because it might force them to focus on the wrong thing. Ensure that the primary cause of the sales for your organization is what you measure. Over optimization on the wrong activity leads the sales representatives to forget about other complementary activities that can raise sales. As a result, you will end up losing on sales.
8. Review of Representative Activity
One of the most natural methods that you can use to drive sales activity is to set expectations around the activities of the sales representatives. After you have set expectations, make sure that you follow up on them. If you set expectations but forget to follow up, you will be wasting time. This is because the consequences of their actions usually drive people. Therefore, recognize the effort or the lack of effort of your sales representative. The action will motivate them to perform better in the coming weeks. Also, you can have a weekly meeting where you can review the activity of each sales representative. Try asking individuals in your team to share their weekly plan to make the meeting more effective.
There are many more ways that you can implement to increase the performance of your sales team . Just make sure that your methods are filled with variety.