A salesperson has a justified interest in making sales and earning commissions. However, there’s more to building a strong sales team than just offering a generous salary and bonus structure.
Boosting morale is crucial to keeping sales team members happy and to retaining top talent. To help you do this, we asked 15 members of Forbes Business Development Council to share some things sales managers can do to effectively improve their sales team’s morale. Here are their recommendations and why each strategy works.
1. Lead From Behind
Ensure you hire heroes or those who have the will, the means, and the need to successfully orchestrate and drive sales. With such heroes on your team, ensure you lead from behind, never from the front. All sales heroes pine for three things in their careers: to make substantial money, have a ton of fun, and be recognized and promoted based upon merit. Ensure all three and morale will be very strong. – Peter Weedfald, SHARP Home Electronics Company of America
2. Recognize Their Work
It is safe to say sales is a grind. Typically, the most successful salespeople are highly competitive individuals. You should make sure they are receiving company and peer recognition for success. Even the most humble salesperson inside wants the team to know they won. A good sales manager delivers this. – Jeff Hicks, Fastenal
3. Put Employees First
Companies should invest in great managers. Having a great manager that employees can trust, has their best interest in mind, gives them opportunities, and supports their career development can be equally or more valued than compensation alone. – Diana Beckman, Autodesk
4. Acknowledge When They Do Something Right
There are several things to do. One is catching employees doing something right and acknowledging it. Many managers focus on the bad stuff and don’t promote enough of the good things that happen. We all forget to do this in the busyness of our worlds. Also, you have to give them continual goals they’ll strive to attain. – Wayne Elsey, The Funds2Orgs Group
5. Be Open And Vulnerable With Them
Share how you motivate yourself as a manager. By sharing our own struggles and vulnerabilities, which we all have, we show our teams that everyone needs support from time to time and that they aren’t alone. This also opens us up to invite help from our own managers, peers, or third-parties from a coaching perspective, as well as for mental and emotional health during these especially challenging times. – Julie Sokley, Autodesk
6. Coach Them And Set Defined Goals
Coach with defined goals for the team to understand how to achieve success in their role. This will ensure they know how they will be measured and what activities will lead to their success. Most important is setting the standard that everyone is equal. Keeping everyone on the same playing field builds team unity by ensuring everyone has the same amount of accountability. – Donald O’Sullivan, Pegasystems
7. Encourage Experimentation
Encourage creative thinking! Allowing employees to have the freedom to experiment and try new things can shake off the dust that gathers during mundane, everyday tasks. Managers can create an environment where employees feel comfortable discussing and trying new ideas, allowing creativity to thrive while boosting morale. – Sarah Knapp, Spruce Technology
8. Help Them See The Big Picture
The “boss” concept doesn’t exist anymore. Sales leaders must be coaches, making each sales rep see the areas of improvement. Within sales, there is always room for improvement. Sales managers must help employees see the big picture and make them understand how much their actions can positively or negatively impact sales. Communication and being available is key. – Claudio Yamashita, SS&C Intralinks
9. Take An Individualized Approach
Boosting morale requires an individualized approach for different people. Some people are money-motivated, whereas others are more motivated by praise and recognition, opportunities to learn and grow or career advancement. Figure out what motivates each person on your sales team and cater to each person as an individual rather than trying to boost morale for everyone in the same way. – Brandon Rigoni, Lincoln Industries
10. Lead With Emotion
Ask them how they are doing and actually care to hear their answers and make changes with them. Leading with emotion is crucial—this is what next-generation leaders are doing well. Knowing how to emphasize, connect, and inspire your team will be rewarding all around. – Oluchi Ikechi, Accenture
11. Know What They’re Passionate About
Not all salespeople are strictly motivated by money. Giving employees the proper amount of one-on-one meeting time is critical. Salespeople need to know that you, as a leader, understand their role in the organization. Being empathetic and knowing what each individual in sales is passionate about is a critical building block in your relationship. – Tyler Trimbath, Mihalko’s
12. Highlight Sales Accomplishments Company-Wide
Most companies have sales awards that highlight their accomplishments, but we took it one step further by putting out a monthly newsletter that highlights their monthly accomplishments in sales, new accounts, hometown business and tracks their yearly awards. We use their picture to highlight the success and it is sent out to all our employees electronically and their home. – Angie Barnes, NAVCO
13. Dole Out Praise And Recognition Frequently
Sales managers can use praise and recognition as an easy, inexpensive, and effective tool at raising morale among their sales team. Examples of recognition include helping a team member with a sale, creating a new sales tactic or even having the highest market share change. Highlighting individual performance among peers and senior leadership goes a long way. – Kirk Barnes, TransPharMed
14. Validate Their Contributions And Career Growth
Improving employee morale beyond compensation requires validating the importance of their contributions and how they are progressing in career growth. This is achieved through consistent one-on-one coaching, highlighting individual employee contributions in team meetings, and laying the groundwork in alignment with their future career goals. – Michael Ahlberg, Workato
15. Make Them Part Of The Customer Success Story
Make the sales team a relevant part of the customer’s success story. In a professional sales organization, the salespeople should be the voice of the customer and provide feedback for continuous improvement to all aspects of the product or service. If they are incorporated as such, they will have more control in the sales cycles and will win second and third deals more readily. – Manoj Tandon, Dark Rhino Security
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