7 min read
Sales motivation is one of the most discussed topics on blogs and social media focused on the sales universe. Because it is a very common subject in this vast world of Content Marketing, there are several superficial tips that do not realistically address the difficult routine of these professionals.
Whether it's suggestions like "be resilient or "get used to hearing No", it is really hard to find actionable and day-to-day tips when it comes to sales motivation.
However, anyone who works in this field and takes this topic seriously knows that sales is more like a triathlon than a 100-meter sprint. It is necessary to create an environment conducive to motivation, with scalable, easy-to-execute processes, and management that provides quality and technical training and does not get lost in motivational "clichés".
Using KPIs to identify bottlenecks in the process and motivate the team can be a great accelerator of team morale within your company. The only question is: how to do it with quality?
Data-driven motivation: Be careful when analyzing your numbers
We live in the age of sales data, that's a fact. The manager who has difficulty defining what an MQL, SQL, and other KPIs are, is in very big trouble.
It is necessary to know well which data must be analyzed so there is no risk of motivating the team incorrectly. Let's look at some examples.
Imagine that you are the Sales Director of a company with 10 Sales Executives. They have great conversion rates at the end of the sales funnel. However, your company has not met the planned revenue goal.
To solve this problem, the Sales Director organizes a motivational workshop to help executives sell even more. Although well-intentioned, this action can backfire.
Since salespeople are already experiencing high conversion rates at the end of the funnel, there is very little room for improvement. In fact, what they need is more leads entering the funnel so they can sell more.
At the same time, holding a motivational workshop can create the mistaken impression among the team that the manager is dissatisfied with the work done, believing that it would be possible to sell more with the leads already in the funnel.
It must be clear that this type of uncertainty is extremely harmful, as the team can become demotivated and sell less, thereby lowering conversion rates.
Did you see how important accurate data analysis is to boosting workplace morale?
5 tips to constantly maintain sales motivation
Keeping sales motivated is not a simple task. It takes a lot of organization, monitoring (not too much), and a quality process.
Want to know what the 5 tips are? See below:
Tip 1: Set clear goals
To keep a team motivated, you need to have a clear goal. After all, have you ever imagined running an endless marathon? You would basically run until you fell to the floor from exhaustion.
Motivating your team for an eternal race has a devastating demotivating effect. Therefore, it is necessary to establish clear goals and objectives so that the sales team knows exactly where to go.
Remember, without goals and objectives, a team can be motivated in the short term. In the medium and long term, this mission becomes impossible.
Tip 2: Hold one-on-one (1:1) meetings regularly (but not always)
Those who work in technology already know what a one-on-one (1:1) meeting is. Basically, they are meetings between managers and analysts where several points are aligned, such as analysts' satisfaction, how they have been feeling at the company, suggestions for process improvement, and other important topics.
They are great for showing the team that they are being listened to and can contribute to the business's growth, which is extremely positive, as people feel much better when they are part of a bigger dream/goal.
However, it is not recommended to hold 1:1 meetings too often. A widely adopted good practice is to meet with more junior professionals at least biweekly and with more experienced professionals at biweekly or monthly intervals.
Too many 1:1's meetings (in addition to being something very boring), can make professionals more unproductive, as there would be no agenda* to discuss.
*Meetings without agendas are just conversations with no purpose. For a 1:1 to be productive, you need to be clear about what will be discussed at this meeting.
Tip 3: Create a simple process to run
When it comes to sales motivation, can you imagine anything more demotivating than spending the day filling out a CRM and various other sales tools?
Performing very operational tasks is extremely demotivating for any sales professional. Simplicity is one of the keys to keeping the team motivated.
The more operational tasks that can be optimized, the greater the chance that salespeople will focus on what they do best: selling!
This action can be done with the Sales Ops team and will certainly help a lot with the team's day-to-day work.
Tip 4: Don't micromanage. Never!
This is one of the biggest killers of sales motivation. Most managers believe that following the day-to-day of the sales team in detail, conducting the smallest details, generates a more productive team. This is the biggest myth in the sales environment. This is actually a great way to demotivate even the most resilient of salespeople!
It is necessary to have rituals such as daily meetings and forecast meetings, among other practices, to track and answer the team's questions as needed. Watching recordings of meetings, phone calls, and more is a fantastic way to see the team's strengths and weaknesses in action.
However, micromanaging aspects of the meeting, emails, or calls will quickly make the team feel pressured to work in ways that often do not generate the most results for each professional involved. In addition, it creates a climate of distrust that will likely lead to turnover over time. Once the sales team is running the process, the idea is to give them freedom and only intervene when necessary, whether to motivate or correct errors.
If you want to micromanage, high turnover is a certainty!
Tip 5: Create a collaborative culture
The sales department is naturally a very competitive environment. It is common for sales executives to compete about who generates more business, sells more, and so on.
As several companies also adopt practices such as giving specific awards (like trips or larger bonuses) to those who achieve the best performance (which is not bad, far from it), there is a risk that salespeople will become less cooperative with one another.
If it is a team composed only of senior professionals, things tend to flow without major problems, as this kind of professional profile tends to be more self-motivated and already has the technical domain to work more independently.
However, if the team is composed of professionals with a mixed profile, - between juniors and seniors - the result may not be too good. Professionals with a junior profile need more attendance, so the more collaborative the team is, the faster they will evolve.
Therefore, having this professional profile in a non-collaborative environment is a certainty: at least part of the team will be demotivated, inhibiting the technical evolution of the area and making the process highly dependent on a few professionals.
A motivated team is a team that sells
It is not smart to have the best sales process, use methodologies such as SPIN Selling, have the best tools, and hire professionals who are already qualified, if the sales team doesn't have the structure to ensure they are motivated.
It takes a lot of attention, patience, and the ability to escape the norm. Motivational speech is very good. But using it without a minimum structure that guarantees motivation in sales is like trying to light a fire in the rain.
With a lot of effort, some spark may even come out. But the focus will hardly be maintained.
