National Sales Center

How To Motivate Salespeople

Salespeople create their own workload and that’s different from most occupations. For that reason, it’s important to motivate salespeople so they’ll increase their workloads and sell more. Most managers, however, are not sure how to properly motivate salespeople. I’ll give some insights on how to motivate salespeople and increase sales.

You motivate salespeople by answering two questions,
What?
Why?

The “What” of Motivating Salespeople

What are you motivating salespeople to achieve? When I ask that question, I often hear about quota and company goals. Well, salespeople don’t get out of bed in the morning to achieve a company’s goals. Salespeople work to achieve their own goals.

You motivate salespeople by first understanding their goals. Do they want a new car or home? Perhaps they have a child ready for college. Obviously, their goals will vary but it’s important to get those goals identified.

Next, you must show salespeople what they need to accomplish to achieve their goals. How much do they need to sell so they can afford that new car? Based on their close rate, how many new appointments do they need each week?

The key to motivating salespeople is to focus on the rep’s goals. I know managers have goals but salespeople are more interested in achieving their goals instead of their manager’s goals.

The “Why” of Motivating Salespeople

What’s new? Why will tomorrow be different than today? This question is on the minds of salespeople and must be answered if you expect to motivate them to sell more.

Many factors could address the reasons things will be better today than yesterday. New features or a commission improvement come to mind. However, the sales manager does not control most of these factors. So, what can sales managers do to insure tomorrow will be better than yesterday?

One simple suggestion is to launch an employee development campaign. Develop a formal sales training program to improve sales skills. Give the salespeople new sales strategies and techniques that will help them close more business. Education is a great way to motivate salespeople.

Remember to uncover a rep’s goals and then give that rep new tools to achieve those goals. Once you do, you’ll know how to motivate salespeople.

To your great sales success!

Nick

Tags: salespeople