Every successful sales rep knows that building better relationships with potential clients is the best way to generate more sales. Sales is and always will be an emotional game, and losing a sale can have implications far beyond losing a bit of commission. As a manager, the numbers and the analytics can often be black and white, but dealing with the emotional side of your sales teams can leave you feeling more like a psychologist than a sales manager. So how can you build in better practices, boost close rates, and fortify your teams’ emotional capabilities? Here are a few tips and tricks that any sales team can benefit from.
Celebrate the Cycle Instead of Results
We all want more sales, clients, and revenue, but if you are only celebrating and competing for closed deals, you will inevitably isolate top-performing reps, leading to a culture of burnout in your team. As a sales manager, one of your most important jobs is finding the wins on any given day and calling out the hard work that will get you to goal. An easy way to do this is to run competitions based on pipeline-building activities like daily calls, prospects added to sequence, or meetings booked.
Make sure you take time daily to call out good work. A simple shoutout from a manager can easily inspire a sales rep for weeks! We like to aggregate these shoutouts in a feed so that the entire company gets notified of those daily wins, and other reps can call out great work if a manager doesn’t see it. When your reps motivate each other with positive recognition, sales increase, retention skyrockets, and your managers have more time to manage!
Coach Regularly & Smarter
Sales coaching is essential for the stability of any team, especially with younger or newer reps. The more regularly you check in with your reps, the better off your team will be. After all, your managers know their sales cycle, how to engage with clients, and how to deal with common reasons a client might be reluctant to close. We recommend meeting with your sales reps once a week, or at least once every other week, and listening to a few of their calls before each session. Ask them where they are struggling, what is working, and their personal goals. Consistent coaching is the key to consistent sales!
Learn What Makes Your Team Tick
Every sales team consistents of four main personality types: Killers, achievers, explorers, and socializers. Killers are often considered the perfect sales reps as they are motivated, engaged, and want to win at all costs, but they make up less than 1% of the workforce. The largest group, socializers, make up ~80% of the population and are driven by social recognition, a desire to work together, and want to win as a team. Running group competitions is a great way to activate this massive portion of your workforce. Most importantly, try diversifying how the competitions you run, the rewards you offer, and the types of work you recognize. Your team is diverse, and your motivational techniques need to be as well!