Why Motivating A Sales Team Is Critical To Success

Salespeople are an integral part of any modern business, and for any sales team to be successful, it is essential for them to be motivated. Without motivation, salespeople are less likely to be productive and may even become demotivated, leading to lower sales and reduced profits.

The most obvious reason why salespeople need motivation is to increase their productivity. When salespeople are motivated, they are more likely to take risks, be creative and persist in the face of setbacks. This increased productivity results in more sales and higher profits. Motivated salespeople are also more likely to stay with a company, which reduces the costs associated with hiring and training new salespeople.

Motivation is also important for salespeople because it helps to build morale and foster a positive working environment. When salespeople feel appreciated and supported, they are more likely to stay with the company and be more productive. A positive working environment also encourages collaboration and creativity, which can lead to new ideas and new sales opportunities.

Finally, salespeople need motivation to stay focused and motivated. Without motivation, salespeople may become complacent and lose sight of their goals. Motivation can help salespeople stay focused and on track, ensuring that they reach their sales targets.

Motivating a B2B sales team is no easy task. It requires a mixture of hard work, dedication and a positive attitude. Sales teams need to be inspired to stay motivated and reach their goals. With the right leadership and incentives, a B2B sales team can be one of the most successful parts of your business.

The first step to motivating a B2B sales team is having a clear vision and mission. It’s important for your team to understand the overall goals of the company and how their individual roles contribute to that success. This will help them stay focused on their tasks and give them a sense of purpose.

Next, establish incentives for your team to reach their goals. This could be a bonus for hitting a certain sales target or a reward for achieving a certain level of customer satisfaction. These incentives will help motivate your team to work hard to reach their goals.

It’s also important to recognize and reward your team for their successes. Acknowledging a job well done will help boost morale and encourage team members to strive for even higher levels of success. Try to give individual rewards as well as group rewards, to recognize the efforts of each team member.

Finally, create a positive environment for your B2B sales team. Make sure that there are plenty of opportunities for team members to collaborate and help one another. Encourage open communication and feedback so that everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and thoughts.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your B2B sales team remains motivated and productive. Keeping your team inspired and motivated will help you reach your business goals and ultimately, drive your success.

In conclusion, it is clear that salespeople need motivation in order to be successful. Motivation helps salespeople to be productive and creative, build morale and stay focused on reaching their goals. Without motivation, salespeople may become demotivated and less productive, leading to lower sales and reduced profits.

Here is the inspirational alphabet for your next sales team meeting.

1. Always

2. Be

3. Curious

4. Determine

5. Emotive

6. Factors

7. Generate

8. Helpful

9. Inspiration

10. Join

11. Knowledge

12. Leaders

13. Make

14. New

15. Openings

16. Pursue

17. Quality

18. Referrals

19. Seek

20. To

21. Understand

22. Visualise

23. With

24. X factor

25. yield

26. Zest

Your target markets are dead. Look behind the horizon.

Here is a short story. In November 2019, I took part in a sales strategy meeting. We understood buyer personas, had fabulous sales pitches, a long list of prospects and a well-prepared sales team with outstanding marketing support. We agreed a comprehensive and robust plan to sell into professionally researched verticals. Confidence and motivation was the highest ever. Just like the sales targets.

Today, the pipeline of new sales is down, and the team is off target. Yet, ecommerce sales (our market) are in the lift since March 2020 as a result of COVID-19 according to Statista.

This suggests that the sales opportunity is there, we just need to change our market focus and adapt our sales practice. This short article aims to show how.

The pandemic has changed consumer behaviours dramatically. People and businesses have different priorities and spend their hard-earned cash on other things and in different ways.

Whilst many leisure and travel activities have come to a stop, unsurprisingly, supermarket shopping is up 23.4% but spend on non-essentials is down by almost 13%. In addition the UK population has started to support local businesses more resulting in a 50% increase in spend according to Barclaycard.

Our customers’ customers behaviours have changed and so has theirs. The plans made in November appear irrelevant and new sales are not materialising. If we keep on doing the same things, we will be getting the same results (or worse).

The time has come to re-think who our customers are and how to sell to them. Here is a blueprint to do so.

Re-design your customer profile.

When we did our last customer profiling, the world was a quite different place. The changed priorities means we must abandon some of our previously selected markets and seek opportunities where consumers are now spending.

Change your sales pitch to suit your new market

Every top seller knows the need to have laser sharp precision for their target market. If you are used to sell to higher risk category merchants such as airlines or gaming, your sales story will have been developed to suit those markets. That is where your success came from.

That same narrative will not work with your new prospects in new markets. You must change your pitch fast. That may mean new marketing collateral, different pricing or service levels. The time to work together between Sales, Marketing, Ops, Finance and Pricing is here, right now.

Make a new prospect list

Build a new list of companies and new contacts based on the new customer profile. Keep your list of current prospects for later. For success, we need a new list based on new people. Key sources will be your own contacts, LinkedIn and other (virtual) places your ideal merchants will be visible. Aim to have a minimum of 50 names and contact details that meet merchant’s profile(s) from both a company and contact perspective. This list will not only secure your pipeline, it will also help secure your future position with a profitable organisation.

Outreach

Tell your market you are open for business for them. Forget you are a well-known name in other markets. Be inspiring, motivational and persuasive. Let your prospects know about your services and find out if have a requirement now or in the future.

Work as a team to build the sales pitch, rehearse it and translate it into email approaches, LinkedIn messages, LinkedIn content marketing, phone/video calls and any suitable media. This is what selling was always about. Be a pioneer, a trailblazer and magnet for new business.

Sales process

We all know that not every company or individual that shows an interest in your services will be a client straight away. They need to be convinced by great salespeople who:

  • promote relentlessly how your organisation helps the merchant meet their business objectives better than the competition
  • price your services at competitive rates reflecting market conditions
  • position the right acquiring products for the merchant based on their requirements
  • placing products and solutions in front of potential merchants when their need is highest

We need to qualify each prospective merchant using well-proven sales process methods such as fact-finding decision makers, applying advanced question techniques, agreeing priorities and time frames.

Winning opportunities

We know that sales are made and do not ‘just happen’ in business. So, dust off and rehearse those closing techniques you were taught all those years ago. They worked then and will work now.

Bringing it all together

When markets change, salespeople need to change their knowledge, skills and attitude too.

If they do, they and their companies will flourish.

The opposite is also true. If they do not change, they will miss out on opportunities and will possibly jeopardise their personal future and their company’s.

I work with sales people and their leadership finding new target markets and selling to them.

Feel free to get in touch and find out more

Volunteer for today, Train for High Sales Growth tomorrow

This sales ideas is aimed at sales and account management people who are unable to work due to COVID-19 furlough measures, and want to be ready when business returns.

Being furloughed is no fun. Not being able to temporarily reach sales targets or look after customers is alien to sales people who seek high sales growth. They are natural achievers and target orientated. Not being able to perform in the usual way is frustrating for them.

Yet, every cloud has a silver lining when you look for it. Most sales people are also optimists by nature.

The UK government is encouraging furloughed people to train or volunteer where possible.

Volunteering benefits those who need help today. Sales Training is an investment for a high sales growth tomorrow.

Stephen Covey, author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ describes the 7th habit as Sharpen The Saw.

It is the habit of renewal and continuous improvement. I support sales people learning new skills, knowledge and attitudes now for a better tomorrow. Consider it, there will probably never be a better time.

#furloughed #highsalesgrowth #sales #salestraining #training #sharpenthesaw

Motivate your sales team to achieve high sales growth with these 5 simple strategies

Your sales team’s activities and results should drive the whole business forward.

A highly motivated sales team achieves high sales growth by making plenty of quality sales to new customers, developing existing customer relationships and defending them against competitors.

That highly motivated team consists of individuals who have their own specific drivers to make it happen day in, day out. An effective sales manager knows these drivers and uses them to keep sales performance high.

Here are 5 simple strategies every sales leader should consider when building a highly motivated sales team:

1 Set clear direction and expectations in terms of markets, products, activities, sales targets and culture. You are the leader so lead!

2 Equip and train your sales people with the skills and product knowledge they need to succeed. A learning culture is key.

3 Make every part of the sales job fun and exciting through gamification, challenges and competition. There are parts of the sales process that can be tough and repetitive.Make it fun instead!

4 Monitor performance in every step of the sales funnel and provide feedback for improvement. This is an added benefit of having a sales process (you should have one!) Knowing where each opportunity is and what the next steps are, is key to sales success.

5 Celebrate success! Winning a new client or simply gaining a demo; each step forward deserves recognition.

Lead your sales team using these strategies and their motivation will rocket, even if you apply just one of these strategies. Your sales team should drive the whole business forward.

If your team is demotivated or not performing the way you want them to, feel free to contact me. I can help. Learn more

#salescoaching #salesmotivation #sales

Inspire a Sales Person. Just say “Thank You”

Today, salespeople need more direction and confidence than ever before. We should give it in huge quantities.

This sales management insight is for sales managers who are looking for different ways to motivate their sales team members achieving high sales growth.

Many customers have slowed down decision making or stopped buying for the time being. This has caused a drop in self-confidence and all important sales mindset just at the time where we need our sales people to be confident supporting customers.

Motivation is an important part of the sales leader’s role. If your team is not motivated, you have to fix it more than nobody else. Get help with 2021 targets and motivating your sales team

If the salesperson can not get his or her story across in the first few seconds of an interaction, the story will never be told and sales will never be made.

So how can we motivate sales people to keep going and what kinds of motivation will work?

There are two types of motivation.

Extrinsic motivation: incentives, bonuses and vouchers, representing the company during a conference. This motivation comes from others recognising a person’s results. It is a popular and often effective short term way to get performance and motivation up.

Intrinsic motivation: autonomy, skill mastery, helping clients, the kick of winning a deal, purpose, providing for loved ones. This type of motivation comes naturally from a person themselves. The action can be more satisfying than the result. And, often is more sustainable.

Both methods can work well, especially in conjunction with each other.

Too much extrinsic motivation given to sales team members can reduce their intrinsic motivation. This can lead to reduced and lower sales results.

Below an extrinsic motivational idea with intrinsic references for a sales person in your team who has achieved their sales target.

Dear Gert,

I want to congratulate and thank you for your excellent start of 2020 in January and February.

You helped the company grow substantially last year. Many customers have told me how delighted they were with your help and expertise.

The unprecedented changes we are experiencing at work and at home, have overshadowed this, yet I believe we can find inspiration and motivation on reflecting what the sales job is about.

In no other job than sales, activity equals results. I want to thank you for both.

Every call ending with:

  • “no answer”,
  • “he is not in today“,
  • “we have a no names policy here“,
  • ” phone put down” ,

and every

  • “can she call you back?” have made a difference.

I have seen you coming in early, work through lunch and stay late to get hold of prospects and customers using social, email and the phone. Great stuff!

Thanks for getting up with the birds and driving 120 miles just before the customer cancelled the meeting.

I know about your relentless efforts preparing the excellent questions you did not get to ask the prospect because they wanted to talk about something else or got called away for an emergency.

We learned and laughed (later!) when your fully rehearsed product demo fell over because the technology failed.

Yet, what I appreciate most in you is your unrelenting desire to be the best you can be.

You never give up and always look for the good in a situation. You just get on with it. This is what is needed now. Please, keep in close communication with customers and prospects. They need your expertise now and in the future.

I am very lucky to have you in the team, an ultimate professional who go the extra mile for their customers, company and team.

Gert, you have my unconditional commitment to your success. Together we are going to get through the current climate and make 2020 a sales success. I am looking forward to it!

Stay safe

John.

————————————————————————————————-

In addition to clear direction , sales people need that extra motivation right now.

You might be surprised how much of a difference a personal hand written note can make. It is personal and adds to your appreciation.

If you want to know more about motivating sales people, feel free to get in touch.

#motivationallettertoteam #salesteamleader #salesteammanagement #salescoaching #inspiration #highsalesgrowth

Sustainable sales people motivation


If you have ever wondered how you can motivate your sales team to make more sales and achieve high sales growth, then read on.

Motivation is a funny thing.

New starters begin their their career with bags of it. They break through the initial barriers with ease, yet slowly doubt starts to creep in and for some salespeople sales stagnate or come to grinding hold. It can affect other team members dropping their sales focus.

After endless 121s and perhaps some gentle pressure, you may decide to invite a motivational speaker who entertains your team and makes one or two salient points.

For some sales people this injection lasts for a long time and they take themselves to the next level. Yet, for others (and often many) it only lasts for a day or so before they are back in an ‘excuses’ mode where everything is blamed for under performance except personal ownership of motivation.

The reason why so many motivational speakers’ messages are not as effective and long lasting as you expected, is that they do not really understand sales and the daily challenges sales people face. Their ideas are valid and often very true yet how do these concepts translate to every day sales challenges? It is a missing piece in the sustainable motivation puzzle.

This why I invented the ‘making sales and making music’ event.

I combine two personal passions in an innovative one hour full-on motivational musical experience. ​It entertains yet reminds experienced and new sales people of the critical skills and attitudes needed to win more sales. I link certain tunes and music styles with important selling concepts related to all stages in the sales process.

​

Making sales and making music demand surprisingly similar skills, knowledge and attitudes

For instance, sales people and musicians know the importance of engaging emotion and reason at the right time and in the right manner.

​

The session is highly interactive and ideal for your sales (or other customer orientated) event. Your team will be singing to high sales growth success!

Making Sales and Making Music

  • Motivational
  • Educational
  • Fun
  • Action-packed
  • Practical

​

​This event sets the tone for sales conferences where participation and commitment are key.

​

Call me direct on 07738010170 or

for more information. I happily make the session bespoke to your conference themes.

I’ll even bring my own piano!

#salesmotivation #keynotespeaker #salesperformance #highsalesgrowth

Trust the journey | sales resilience

One thing that successful (sales) people have in common, is their ability to translate rejection and failure into learning and achievement.

Sales people appreciate rejection is part of the sales job. When they lose a deal, they review what went wrong, press their re-set button and move to the next prospective sales opportunity. They are resilient and have the skills, knowledge and attitude needed to stay in the game no matter the odds or the number of times they fail.

So what is this sales resilience and, more importantly, how do we develop it ?

I believe sales resilience is defined in terms of skills, knowledge and attitude:

Sales Resilience Skills

Sales skills develop sales resilience. Communications skills such as producing effective emails, asking the right questions and presenting products in a compelling manner, help to build robust selling systems that quickly home in on good prospects. Prospects that are not in the market to buy are identified too and put in the back of the queue. A good sales process is a framework of repeatable steps that identify, develop and win sales opportunities. Learn how to use this framework and your sales resilience will improve. Trust the journey you are on. The sales process is well rehearsed by many before us.

Sales Resilience Knowledge

Understanding why sales resilience is important and how it forms part of the sales role, helps to build resilience. When I started in sales, I took any rejection personally. I thought prospects were saying no to me as a person. It was not until I learned they were saying no to a voice on the telephone or a product they did not believe in, my sales resilience went up. So expect obstacles to occur and don’t take it personally. Learn about objection handling techniques and why prospects resist change. Understand the buying process as well as the selling process. Knowledge increases confidence and confidence builds sales resilience.

Sales Resilience Attitude

Our attitude towards obstacles and rejection is instrumental in building sales resilience. Our view of the world shapes our behaviours. The glass is half full or half empty. It is our choice to decide what it is.

A positive attitude means optimism, hope and belief that if things do not work, success lies around the corner. From personal experience I can report that activity = results. When there are few prospects in the sales pipeline, it needs to be filled. I believe this, therefore I will pick up the phone and start dialling despite the rejection that is going to follow.

Here are 8 tips to change your attitude and embrace challenge:

  • Develop your attitude by mixing with positive people. Their attitude will fuel yours. I would avoid the negative people at all cost. They are likely to pull your down in their world of destructive sales thoughts.
  • Earlier I mentioned we should trust the journey we are on. Every obstacle, every call not answered, every presentation and every lost deal, are part of that journey. Embrace them and decide to view these as learning opportunities.
  • Visualise your end results before your start. Image how it will feel when you bring in that big deal the company needs.
  • Remind yourself how far you have come and what you are good at.
  • Invest in your personal development and read books, attend seminars or webcasts about Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Other have gone before you and you are not alone.
  • See any setback as a real life example to reflect and learn.
  • Take personal ownership and accountability when things do not work out. Don‘t blame others for your current lack of success.
  • Strap yourself in and go for it!

Sales resilience is something all successful people have in common. The good news is that when broken down in skills, knowledge and attitude, sales resilience can be improved so you become unstoppable in sales.

If your sales team needs to build its sales resilience, feel free to get in touch.

When (today) will you start?

#salesresilience #salestraining #salesattitudes #winningsales #salesknowledge #salesprocess #salesmanagement

Dear Sales Professional,

This sales tip is aimed at sales leaders who seek a new way of motivating their sales teams.

Thank you for the tremendous efforts you are making this month. Nothing is a problem and everything is an opportunity. You are fearless, committed and completely aware that in sales it is down to efforts to get results.

I am confident your attitude and actions will pay off handsomely this month.

Here are the reasons why:

  • You have enough new suspects going in the top of the funnel every day
  • You are constantly qualifying suspects into prospects
  • You are always qualifying prospects and arranging meetings/calls
  • You qualify prospects during discovery meetings through questions
  • You use questions to gain commitment
  • You present our products with passion, knowledge and true customer focus
  • You are closing business every day
  • You put customer and company first

We are exactly half way through the month today. With the above in mind I know bonuses will be payable this month, once again. That is fantastic and you deserve every penny. I will be very happy to write the cheque.

I am excited with you and look forward to another record.

Best wishes

If you like to know more about sales team motivation feel free to contact me on 07738010170

#motivationallettertoteam #salesresults #salesteammanagement

Words to inspire others

This sales tip is aimed to motivate sales people hitting a brick wall.

When one of your newer team mates feel a little down because they did not achieve what they set out to do, reach out and let them know you care. Let them know you too went through these stages in your sales career yet never gave up. Perhaps share the below with them and inspire them to do better next month.

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns As every one of us sometimes learns

And many a failure comes about When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell just how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

By John Greenleaf Whittier

Inspiring the next sales generation

I am a lucky guy working with many young sales people and their leaders. My job is to share my experience and light the passion for all things sales. We actually inspire each other and together we are building businesses serving customers, earn a living and achieve a sense of belonging to something worthwhile. We have a joint and individual cause.

Besides customers and great products, building a business is done by focusing on the following 3 areas:

Processes

I am fascinated by processes that are simple yet highly effective. If you can do repeat a great results and know why, you have the building blocks for great process. Here is an example:

Asking customers for referrals and recommendations once they have become your company’s advocate. This will grow your business fast without high Marketing efforts/costs. Here are the process steps:

  1. Deliver outstanding customer service
  2. Confirm customer is happy
  3. Ask for a referral based on “help me to help others”
  4. Contact referrals

Back to top 1) Deliver outstanding customer service.

Systems

Why do things that can be done faster and better by a system? I am curious about systems that help sales people make more sales while delivering outstanding customer service. Working with young IT professionals we have configured CRM systems like Salesforce.com or Pipedrive to deliver two connected objectives; outstanding customer service and making more sales/profit.

People

Despite my fascination with the above, I am most passionate about sharing my sales experiences with the next generation of up and coming sales folk.

Of course, I share sales techniques and sales strategies using an innovative Making Sales and Making Music programme. I go out on sales visits with sales people and provide constructive feedback. Customers are our best teachers. Where the real inspiration gets tapped into is when I share my personal reasons for being in sales all my life as well as my other passions in life. My personal WHY is my personal inspiration. It is not how I do it or what I do. It is my WHY that drives my personal mission and purpose.

And some days it all happens right in front of us. We are at a team meeting or out on the road driving to the next sales appointment. I keep sharing my WHY and it inspires the next generation to also state their personal WHY.

And when we are in front of the customer and I hear the new sales rookie say:

“I joined this company because I believe I can make a difference in the field of xyzzy”, my mission feels momentarily complete…………

The wonderful thing is that this authenticity of purpose, is the strongest USP out there. It will inspire customers to buy more than any other such as price, features and benefits or customer service helplines. We all know by now, people buy from people (with an authentic cause)

Inspiring others starts with knowing WHY you do something. Try it and enjoy!

Find out more about my WHY

#inspiration #thenextgeneration #salesprocess #peoplewithacause #authenticity