Hi everyone! Recently, I’ve been working with some of my clients to really empower their sales teams. Of course, this inspired me to share my three (3) proven strategies that will empower your sales team. I know this economic climate can feel dicey (especially if you watch the news) but as I’ve said previously, it’s not impossible to hit or even surpass those sales targets no matter the economy. You just need to update your coaching playbook. Here are three things that will help you with that process. Got your coffee in hand? Let’s go!
How Learning, Energy and Challenges can Empower Your Sales Team
In my book, The Leadership Playbook, I speak at length about leaders, at all levels, taking responsibility for motivating their team. Now while many things might work to motivate people, there are three sustainable strategies that I’ve implemented and assisted my clients to incorporate that work. They are:
- Learning
- Energy
- Challenges
Let’s take a look at each one more in-depth.
Learning
Over the years, I’ve made keen observations and have been inspired to create my own formula for utilizing learning as a motivational tool.
Trust me, this is one for you to commit to your heart. As I explain in my book:
Knowledge alone does not lead to motivation; learning more and in the right way builds on that knowledge and helps us get better at what we do. When we learn something valuable, we become more confident in ourselves, and as a result, we are more motivated to take action.
Confidence is the biggest deciding factor for a salesperson to win or lose that big contract. If you can’t demonstrate confidentially to your client that you’re knowledgeable about the ins and out of your product/service, they’ll go to the next person who CAN.
At the core, if you or your team has not learned about the product and been coached on how to successfully pitch a sale, then you’re laying the groundwork for failure. We can’t have that! Creating a learning environment will empower your sales team with the confidence needed to keep everyone accountable to succeed. Plus, the more confident they are the more motivated they’ll be to perform and then, they’ll be more motivated to keep learning. The cycle then sustains itself.
Energy
Ever walk into a room with negative energy pulsating from the occupants in the room? You probably wanted to turn around and go somewhere, anywhere, else. It’s important that the space you provide for your team has the right energy for them to build on. As a leader this energy flows mainly from you; if you’re negative, everyone, including you, will be miserable, have low energy and more prone to mistakes.
In sales, hearing NO comes part and parcel with the job. A sales professional must maintain a positive energy that can fuel them to keep going for those yeses. If a boss creates an environment that can generate and sustain that passion for them to get their job done, despite the odds, then you’ll strike goal. As a leader, if YOU don’t feel positively about your team and products/services, who will want to sell or buy whatever it is you’re pitching? Nobody!
Get involved with your team, take your positive energy out on the floor, SMILE and share your passion for the job. Add increased engagement with your top performers and you’ve got a winning team thriving off positive energy.
Challenges
What is life without its challenges? But where would we be had we not overcome our lives’ challenges? Challenges builds character and strength in our personal and professional lives. An ace sales team will want and need to be challenged. In fact, I’ve found that,
Guess what? You can create a positive, challenging environment that does not need to be connected to rewards and recognitions. Meet with your team members individually and and create one new challenge per month attainable enough to motivate them to achieve it. My suggestion is to keep it simple and measurable. Here are some options you can look at adapting:
- Number of sales or client service calls
- Fewer customer complaints
- Limiting inventory issues
These are small, simple SMART goals that will motivate your team to be successful. One important thing, when applying this strategy it is imperative that the team approach it as one goal, TOGETHER. Yes, you can use a scoreboard to track progress but emphasis that the team wins when each person performs well. Again, don’t forget to recognize your top-performers and reward them with extra coaching sessions. This is an empowerment cycle that when applied well, cannot be broken.
Final Thoughts
I love simple, measurable, logical strategies because they work and are easily implemented in the workplace. These three proven strategies can and will empower your sales team (really all your staff) to PERFORM. We need our people to want to show up with a positive attitude that will overcome any challenge they can and will come across. When that happens, we want them to be knowledgeable enough to surpass them. Energy flows from the top, so it all starts with good leadership. I know you’ve got it in you, you wouldn’t be reading this article to learn how you can strive to be better if you didn’t.
Until next week!
Check out my book, The Leadership Playbook, on Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible.
