Sales is an extremely stressful environment. From the constant rejection to the continuous need to win and compete with one another, sales reps deal with some of the most burnout in any field. All that stress leads to some of the most startling turnover rates of any industry, with many industries reporting up to 80% of their reps leaving year over year. If you are a sales rep, you know that there are just those days when you sit staring at the phone, knowing that you need to make those calls but dreading the fact that most of those calls are going to end in a negative response.
So how can you keep your sales reps motivated, selling, and fresh through all of these stresses? Sales gamification could be the key. Here are three steps to breaking the sales stress cycle.
Identify the problem
Burnout is extremely common in sales reps, with 67% of sales reps poled reporting that they were either currently experiencing or close to burnout. Essentially, burnout is what happens when stresses continue to pile up, and employees don’t take the appropriate time to process or come down from those peaks. There are dozens of issues that arise from this, but the most noticeable signs of burnout are a steep decline in productivity, a quick rise to stress when met with a normal workload, and a feeling of disengagement. On a personal level, burnout can manifest itself as physical exhaustion, depression, cynical feelings, and other issues. As a manager, the best way to identify these stresses is by asking the appropriate questions in monthly or quarterly meetings. Even simply asking about your reps’ current stress levels can help open the door to that conversation.
Implement Sales Gamification
If your team is having a hard time with their stress levels, the easiest solution is to make work less stressful. We’re not saying you should lower quotas or try to make work easier - far from it! Sales gamification takes all the stresses of a normal workday in sales and turns them into smaller, bite-sized actions that all lead up to a gamified reward. This, in turn, fires up the brain to get into that competition mentality that makes sales reps so efficient without triggering your employees’ fight or flight senses. In essence, gamification allows you to ramp up your goals without burying your salesforce in stress.
Make Smarter Goals
Although some goals are completely essential, like quarterly KPIs and sales numbers, some goals can drive themselves easier than others. We recommend that you break down your overarching goals into smaller, more actionable ones. For example, if you want your sales reps to close more deals (who doesn’t?), why not start by ramping up your call numbers? If your reps are currently making 50 calls a day easily, push that number to 60. You can do this by starting competitions based on call volume over 2 minutes or other metrics that help move the needle. These competitions and small increases in daily activities drastically boost pipeline and will inevitably lead to more sales, and a well-paid sales force is usually a happy one!
Burnout is the silent killer of any great sales team, and if left unchecked, could lead to you losing some of your best reps. If you want to learn more about how you can beat the burnout, check out our full guide here. And if you want to learn more about sales gamification, click here to book your demo.