Keep your sales team motivated

It is absolutely essential for your business health, that have motivated and energized sales team. Think of a salesperson as the soldier fighting in the frontline, what does he need to keep motivated and energized to keep up the fight and bringing home those orders.

In addition think of the personality of salespeople as strikers in football / soccer team, they are goal scorers. They depend on their confidence and the ground work of other members of their team. They also play the first level of defence, as they master relations and get valuable market information before everybody else.

Here is 8 points you need to consider to keep your team motivated and bringing home the orders:

1) Transparency

Keep your sales staff in the loop. You will have to be clear on targets, informing about new products and other relevant information. Information like this very valuable for the sales person, not only because it is important that he or she has this information, when talking to customers, but also for emotional reasons. Keep them involved.

2) Pay commissions promptly

Salespeople is competitive by nature, you should enforce this instinct with a compensation package, where a substatial part of their paycheck is based on their performance.

When the salesperson reaches a target, make sure to pay compensation straight away. Pay bonus every month over every three months or yearly.

Paying promptly encourages salespeople to sell more, at they quickly see the results of their work.

3) Keep sales targets reasonable

Make you sales targets thoroughly and ensure your salespeople gets paid for their results. Do not set to ambitious targets, but set targets which can be reached and bonuses can be paid.

4) Do not undercut them

Your salespeople should be able to offer the best possible price, period. Customers should not be able to find a lower price on the company website or by buying directly. This will upset your salespeople and in worst case make them leave the company.

5) Distribution of leads

Make sure you spread your leads fairly among your salesstaff, each should get an equal number of good and poor leads. If you prioritize some reps over others, some will have a negative opinion about this. Keep in mind, you can cultivate new talant this way, over just feeding the "the usuals".

6) Support their efforts.

Make sure that your sales team always has access to leadership and senior staff, who can assist them negotiate and close deals.  Make sure, that the most popular products are available to the salesstaff, for them to demonstrate, which is important to close a sale. 

In addidion, give them support and convey learning from failures and success, to help develop.

7) Give them time to sell.

Do not overload your sales staff with administrative reporting and trackers that "steal away" their time, that could be spent selling.  CRM may create great reports, but at what cost?  Have a support function, to assist with reporting and such.

8) Have fun

Sales should always be fun. Fun do not they should not work hard, but rather a place where people experiencing success, feeling supported, learning, growing and enjoying what they do.