10/14/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/14/2024 08:25
Modern media will have you believe sales motivation is best delivered in the form of an inspirational quote. But, while an inspirational quote can go a long way, it's simply not going to fix any deep-rooted sales performance issues.
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to diagnosing and fixing a performance issue on your sales team.
That's why we've created this sales performance checklist. This sales checklist will help even the most seasoned sales leaders pinpoint and correct problems happening on their teams.
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If you want to improve performance, the following checklist represents the questions you should ask yourself about your sales team and processes. Reflect honestly on your answers, and you'll be able to identify the problems that are holding back your team's performance.
The foundation of any good relationship is trust, and relationships in sales are no exception. If your team doesn't trust that you have their best interests in mind, they won't respect your decisions or take your direction. Without trust, your team will feel they have to look out for themselves - because, in their minds, no one else is.
So how do you foster a culture of trust on your sales team? Unfortunately, there's no quick fix that will help you build trust instantly. But, over time, if you stay true to your word, and act with transparency, your team will begin to trust you. Here are a few of our top tips for earning the trust of your team:
Having a team that trusts you only makes your coaching and direction more impactful. In fact, research shows employees who trust their leaders are 260% more motivated to work.
Whether an individual sales rep fumbles a deal or you miss your goals as an entire team, how you react sets the tone for how your team will behave moving forward. If your team interprets your reaction to failure as angry, defensive, or negative, you'll have trouble rallying them around their next set of goals.
Here's where you need to be fully honest with yourself. Do you trust your sales team to execute on your direction, do the work needed to hit quota, and represent your organization in a positive light? If you find yourself micromanaging or keeping close tabs on your team, it might be a sign that they don't have your trust.
Of course, you may have a good reason to withhold trust. Perhaps your team isn't performing, doesn't listen, or messes up from time to time - it makes sense why your trust might be a bit shaky.
But when you don't trust your team, it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You feel like you can't trust them, so you start to tighten the reins and apply more pressure. As time goes on, this pressure only makes the situation worse, reps begin to crack, and they behave in ways that only decreases your trust in them further. After a while, it can spiral out of control.
So how do you build trust in your team? Here are a few recommendations:
When you trust your team to do the job you hired them for, not only does it free you up to do other work, but it also promotes confidence and motivation among your reps. Think about it - when someone trusts you to do quality work, don't you feel more inclined to live up to that expectation?
Before you answer yes, think about it from the perspective of your team. How often do you follow through on the things you say? Do you ever mention you'll look into something or follow up with someone, and then months later realize you never did it?
Moving forward, think about what you say you'll do and what it may mean to the person you're talking to. Will it save them time, provide clarity, or move some kind of an obstacle or blocker? If so, you should make an effort to keep your word. If, for some reason, you can't keep your promise, make sure you follow up and close the communication loop.
Small gestures like this can drastically improve the trust between you and your team and, as a result, improve sales performance.
Employees in the modern workforce understand their value and they want to commit their working hours to companies who also understand their value. So if you don't provide your sales employees with a clear path to advance their career, you're setting yourself up for failure.
If you don't have a career progression strategy in place, you'll risk losing your best talent to an organization that does have one.
Do you really know each member of your team? Think beyond surface-level details and ask yourself if you know what motivates each rep, what their preferred work style is, what type of feedback they prefer, what their home life is like, etc.
The more you know a person, the easier it is to tailor your management style to their wants and needs. No two people are exactly the same, and therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to management will never be the most effective sales management tactic.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, spending time away from work and prioritizing work-life balance can dramatically improve a person or team's performance. Check in with your team and see if they're experiencing burnout. Stress the importance of balance and make sure they're taking care of themselves.
Also, make sure you lead by example. If you tell your team not to work unreasonable hours, you shouldn't be working unreasonable hours. Take mid-day breaks to show your team it's okay for them to do so as well. It's one thing to hear a boss deliver empty platitudes about work-life balance - but it's another thing to see them practice what they preach.
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Every sales team has goals, which typically come in the form of a sales quota. But, if you're struggling to hit your goals or notice your team's performance dip, it might be time to revisit these goals just to confirm nothing's amiss. Using the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework, here's what we recommend you look at:
As a sales leader, it's important to dedicate an hour or so each week to meeting with your team as a group. Come up with an agenda and allow your team to weigh in on the items included. Then, use the time to go over numbers, offer sales training, swap anecdotes, and allow your team to interact with each other.
Team meetings also give you the opportunity to address your reps all at once. Not only is this helpful logistically when making important announcements, but it also helps with consistency. Your reps will hear the same information delivered at the same time and in the same exact way.
Meeting with your reps one-on-one is just as important as meeting with them as a group. The group setting is all about camaraderie and consistency, but when you're meeting with an individual, you have the opportunity to dig a little deeper and personalize your management approach.
This is where you have the opportunity to get to know your team members as individuals and coach them in ways that aren't possible in the group setting. To ensure your one-on-ones are effective, be sure to always set an agenda or framework and let your reps know ahead of time what you expect them to bring to the table.
Traditionally, most organizations use their compensation plan to motivate employees. As a sales leader, you already know that not all sales incentives are created equal. Nor are they all financial - you might also offer non-monetary incentives like a President's Club, travel vouchers, awards, gift cards, flexible schedule privileges, etc.
While you might think you know what your team finds most motivating, do you actually? We recommend giving your team the opportunity to weigh in on what types of incentives they can earn. Their answers might surprise you!
While competition can drive performance, it's important not to forget the value of camaraderie and how powerful it can be to win as a team. This is why it's important as a sales leader to establish a shared sense of purpose.
Your team might know their goals and how to achieve them - but do they truly have a reason to come to work each day? Something they can lean on in tough times, or use as their compass to guide difficult decisions? If your answer is no, your sales team might be lacking a shared purpose.
Let's look at a few vision statements some of the top B2B companies use to establish a sense of shared purpose:
As a sales leader, it may not be your job to create a vision statement. But, it is your responsibility to make sure team members understand the organization's vision in a way that is meaningful and motivating to them.
Other ways to facilitate a team-oriented mindset on your sales team include:
The phrase "transparency in the workplace" typically refers to the idea that freely sharing information across teams, seniority levels, and peers will ultimately make for a better work environment. But it's important to foster a transparent culture in the right way.
So what does good transparency look like in sales? Here are a few ways you can bake transparency into your sales processes:
If you're not sure where to start when it comes to creating a more transparent sales culture, ask your team what information they wish they had access to or what information might help them sell better.
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Having sales data to support your decisions makes you much more credible as a leader. It tells your team that you're rational and rely on facts to do your job. Moreover, it's important to share the data that drives decisions with your team. Otherwise, it's easy for reps to make assumptions about how and when you make decisions.
A transparent, data-driven sales decision-making process takes away the guesswork and leaves no room for assumptions or judgment.
Successful sales teams have strong partnerships with many other teams within a typical organization - marketing, finance, sales enablement, customer support, implementation, and onboarding just to name a few. These partnerships are important to the company's success and ensure a smooth experience across the entire customer lifecycle.
But, alignment with other teams doesn't happen by accident - it takes a coordinated, strategic effort and ongoing maintenance. It's your responsibility as a sales leader to make sure you are aligned with the other teams in your organization to give your team the best possible chance to be successful.
Here are a few quick tips to help you encourage and facilitate alignment between your team and other departments:
Although alignment alone might not be the source of poor sales performance, it's often a contributing factor that can fly under the radar.
It's easy to celebrate big wins - closing a big deal, exceeding quota, etc. Smaller wins aren't always celebrated as often. But here's the thing: it takes a string of small accomplishments to ultimately hit those bigger targets you're aiming for.
Therefore, in order to reinforce the right behaviors in sales, it's important to celebrate small wins on the path to bigger ones. Pay attention to small improvements and recognize growth on your team. Make sure your team knows you're paying attention and recognizing those successes - even if they seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Does your team know how to reach you on any given day? Do they feel comfortable reaching out when they're stuck or blocked? If the answer to either of these questions is no, consider making yourself more available to your team. This means making it known that you're a resource and should be utilized whenever and however your team needs you.
Nothing kills morale or sales motivation like a bad apple: someone who's constantly negative, hard to work with, or gets away with bad behavior. This person isn't necessarily bad at their job. In fact, they might actually be great at their job. But good performance doesn't mitigate the impact of a rotten attitude.
As a sales leader, it's your job to recognize detractors and address the negative impact they're having on the team - and in serious cases, remove them from the equation before they start to infect those around them. Not only does this prevent others from developing bad habits, but it also shows your team you have their back and are willing to deal with tough situations to keep them happy and engaged at work.
We know money isn't everything, but it's an important piece of the puzzle. Sales compensation and commission planning are much more complex than simply paying your sales reps a "good" salary. It's much more strategic than that.
Ask yourself, what kind of behaviors is this commission structure enforcing? Is it motivating the right behaviors? Or does it promote bad behavior? Are you missing your targets because the compensation structure isn't aligned with the overarching business strategy?
Look closely at your commission plans and identify areas for improvement that can directly impact sales performance in a continuously positive way.
Can your sales team pull up a dashboard in a few clicks and see how their progress is measuring up against their short term and long term goals? Or does your team have to manually build and maintain their own reports just to have a vague idea of whether they'll hit quota?
Too often, the latter scenario is the case. Data lives in too many places, there's no single source of truth, and sales reps end up with no choice but to maintain their own commission spreadsheets. This eats into reps' selling time and dramatically impacts productivity.
As the person responsible for removing barriers, confirm that your team has what they need to be successful - including transparent reporting, accurate commission data, and tools that automate unnecessary admin work.
No sales team or sales leader is perfect. There will come a time when you miss a number or come up short. Understanding the reasons behind poor sales performance isn't easy, but it's important to diagnose issues as they happen so you can continue to steer your team back on track. Failing doesn't define a team. But bouncing back and learning from those failures absolutely can.
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Molly is an experienced marketer and content professional with more than 12 years of B2B SaaS experience covering topics related to revenue generation, sales operations, GTM strategy, organizational alignment, and more.
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