Motivating Your Sales Team in 2023: Proven Strategies to Boost Productivity

One of the key challenges facing sales leaders is how to motivate and uplift their sales teams. Indeed, this has become one of the most searched-for terms.

As a sales leader, your goal is to make your sales team perform well and be successful, meaning that motivating your team is paramount to everyone achieving their goals.

In this blog post, we will have a look at strategies to motivate your team as a sales leader.

Build trust: Building trust is key in motivating any team. Spend time with your team, being present. Being a hands-on leader, and be authentic. There is a lot of talk about authentic leadership but essentially it means having high standards of integrity, taking responsibility for actions, and making decisions based on principles rather than short-term success

Get in the trenches: Be involved in the day-to-day activities of your sales team. This does not mean looking over their shoulder, it means knowing what they are working on and how they are getting on with their efforts. This will then lead to better feedback, coaching and motivation.

Set goals and KPIs: This may seem obvious but don’t forget to set goals for aspects other than the end number target, having an articulated set of objectives helps to keep everyone’s eye on the ball and be motivated to achieve. Sales people are not only motivated by money, there are many aspects to their drive and ambition that you need to take care to identify. Ensuring that these goals and objectives are stretching but attainable means you can also then celebrate with the team when they achieve them.

Optimise your leadership style: Every sales leader has their own leadership style, and it’s partly what makes you successful as a leader. It's important however to ensure that you are able to adapt your style to suit the needs of your team members and situation.

Be focused on growth and development: Providing training programs and mentorship opportunities can help motivate your sales team. If you want your teams to do more and improve, it is incumbent on you to facilitate their growth.

Focus on the sales process (not the outcome): Instead of focusing solely on the outcome, it's important to focus on the sales process. Break down the steps to the sale regularly so that you are always looking to optimise the processes and practices required for successful sales efforts.

Encourage collaboration as well as competition: Salespeople are competitive by nature, we want them to be so that they are driven to achieve. Fostering collaboration where it will benefit the individuals and the team to succeed is also important, getting to the win by means of a joint sales effort is more rewarding than singularly putting effort in and not getting the win. Being so head-to-head with the other team members can create negative motivation.

Leverage sales coaching: Sales coaching is an opportunity to teach and reinforce skills. You can leverage sales coaching to motivate your team by providing them with constructive feedback, helping them set goals, and offering support when they need it.

Provide recognition and praise: Showing appreciation for your team's efforts can go a long way in motivating and encouraging your team. Being recognised in front of their colleagues is a surefire way to boost a salespersons morale but do not underestimate a simple thank you when it comes to a salesperson feeling motivated and engaged.

You can do it

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You can do it 〰️

I have said many times over the years that being a sales leader meant that I was part leader/motivator, part counselor, part facilitator, part mentor, part defender, and part champion of your team. Of course that is all part and parcel of being a leader, but recognising the different facets is important to ensure that you are not one-dimensional in the way you lead a team. You cannot claim only the glory of the wins or take the heat from the losses if you are not in there actually providing leadership and not just being a name on the helm.

In conclusion, motivating your sales team is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Different sales teams require different strategies to keep them motivated and different individuals respond to different types of motivation. As a sales leader, it's essential to identify what motivates your team and implement strategies that suit their needs. By keeping a watchful eye over the right approaches to motivate you will reap the rewards in terms of a successful, committed and happier sales team.

Optimise can support your organisation in all of these areas. Feel free to have a no-obligation call to chat about your own challenges, book HERE

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