Sales are one of those cutthroat, step-on-your-face environments for many employees, and it can be difficult to keep afloat amid this chaos. When we’re trying to keep our employees happy, it’s a combination of keeping them motivated, but also slowly increasing the gauge so their productivity can increase. Because the sales environment is, in many ways all about the skills of persuasion, how can we help employees to build on the skills, but also provide an environment that is comforting and nurturing?
What Is The Quality Of The Data You Bring In?
You need good quality leads, depending on the product you are selling. While, in many ways, it’s the responsibility of the salesperson to tailor their approach, depending on the customer they are calling, whether it’s someone in a residential address or a business, the leads will make all the difference. Pest control leads vary in quality and for a niche subject such as this; it requires a little bit more skill on the part of the salesperson. So in conjunction with the data, you’ll need to provide enough opportunity for your salespeople to develop their approach. In many ways, you can make the assumption that they will learn by doing, but will this run through the data quickly, when a little bit more preparation could mean that this quantity of leads would have turned into quality?
The Morale
For new members of the team, anxiety is high. And expecting them to perform is akin to taking the training wheels off and expecting them to fly, literally! Naturally, if they don’t perform that well, they’re going to be disheartened almost immediately. This is all down to your approach to management, but you can take the opportunity to build them up and focus on how they build relationships with customers, or you can continually talk about the financial incentives. For many salespeople, this is enough, but every salesperson experiences a dip in morale, and this is where sharing your own war stories can be a way to pick people up when they are flagging. With new people, they don’t know where they stand, and this can either fuel their performance, or they can crumble under the pressure. What type of environment do you want to nurture is the real question?
Instill The Idea Of Self-Motivation
The idea of ruling with an iron fist is antiquated; what works now is the notion of activities versus results. There is only so much you can do to have someone be motivated, but when you take the pressure off them in this respect, they will perform better. Pressure in a sales environment is sink or swim. Instead, helping our employees to work at their own inbuilt targets, and having regular keep in touch sessions on a semi-regular basis takes the stress away from them, giving them the space to perform, but also it means you don’t have to be breathing down their necks all the time.
Sales are becoming more important in the modern age, and in many ways, we are still stuck in the past with how we motivate people. Let’s modernize it.