Data from a 2015 Bridge Group study<\/a> shows that average sales rep turnover is 34 per cent among 342 software as a service (SaaS) companies surveyed. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n Among those employers, one in 10 had sales rep turnover rates above 55 per cent. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Aside from the productivity loss and replacement costs when sales staff leave, a rotating door of salespeople can dampen team morale. Generally, the most successful sales teams have strong employee retention because they have highly motivated sales reps. <\/p>\n Below, we explore different strategies to motivate sales teams so you can build, scale, and grow your business sustainably. <\/p>\n Traditionally, managers use incentives to motivate salespeople and disincentives to discourage underperformance. <\/p>\n Positive reinforcers include: <\/p>\n Awards<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Bonuses<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Career growth<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Time off<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Negative consequences include: <\/p>\n Bonus limits or forfeiture<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Reassignment to less-favorable sales territories<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Mandatory workshops to refresh product knowledge or sales skills<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n While these tactics worked decades ago, modern sales teams require a different approach to keep staff engaged and productive. To answer the question of \u201chow to motivate a sales team,\u201d sales leadership needs to understand the social science behind motivation.<\/p>\n Forward-thinking brands need to think beyond motivation strategies tied to extrinsic rewards and punishments, explains business analyst and best-selling author Daniel Pink<\/a>. \u201cTraditional management is fine if you want compliance. Twentieth-century motivators do work but only in a narrow band of circumstances.\u201d The narrow band of circumstances Pink refers to are basic, straightforward tasks that require little flexibility, critical thinking, or problem-solving abilities. <\/p>\n Enterprise sales and B2B sales do not fall into the narrow band. Today\u2019s sales situations require a mastery of three key elements: <\/p>\n Critical thinking<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Business and sales acumen<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Product knowledge<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Pink points to numerous studies<\/a> over the past 40 years showing that rewards tied to behaviour or contingent motivators can decrease performance on tasks that require cognitive skills.<\/p>\n Gradually, companies should shift away from motivating salespeople with only extrinsic rewards, such as perks, prizes, and cash. Instead, managers should focus more on intrinsic rewards.<\/p>\n Before further explaining intrinsic rewards and how to motivate your team, let\u2019s make it clear that compensation plans matter. <\/p>\n Pink advocates paying employees enough so that they don\u2019t worry about money. A 2010 study from Princeton University<\/a> found that happiness does, to some extent, have a price. And that price is $75,000 per year. Any income beyond that point, while nice, does not have a material impact on a person\u2019s emotional wellbeing. While we should shift the $75,000 salary benchmark to account for inflation and cost-of-living, the underlying fact remains that more money isn\u2019t the solution for happiness. Instead, other factors drive people and can cause them to feel engaged or disengaged on the job. <\/p>\n When managers allow individuals to focus on tasks in a way that matters to them, the outcomes are greater than within the traditional reward system. <\/p>\n Pink asserts businesses have largely ignored the past 40 years of social science research on how to motivate sales teams. Learning the value of intrinsic motivators \u201cis one of the most robust findings of social science and also one of the most ignored,\u201d emphasizes Pink. \u201cThe solution is not to do more of the wrong things . . . to entice with a sweeter carrot or threaten with a sharper stick.\u201d<\/p>\n The question of how to motivate people, especially how to motivate salespeople, has long been a puzzle. To make a meaningful impact, Pink insists, requires the use of intrinsic motivation. The three principles of motivation Pink advocates are: <\/p>\n Autonomy<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Mastery<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Purpose<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Sales teams feel a greater sense of ownership and motivation when businesses give their employees more flexibility to decide these factors. <\/p>\n Priorities:<\/b> Allow salespeople to focus on higher-impact projects and avoid micromanaging them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Schedules:<\/b> If possible, give sales reps the freedom to set their hours as long as they get the work done.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Goals:<\/b> Set personal performance benchmarks that avoid placing excess or undue pressure.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Work habits:<\/b> Give employees the opportunity to adjust where and how they do their work as needed; for instance, allow them to telecommute.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n While scheduling autonomy may be difficult in a call center or customer service setting where employees need to cover hours, you can increase autonomy in other areas. For example, you may want to allow sales or customer service reps to establish their own goals and choose metrics.<\/p>\n The second tenet of sales motivation is mastery. When a salesperson or team has a slump, it may indicate an underlying skills gap. One way to motivate your sales team is to proactively provide them with training and tools to help them succeed. <\/p>\n When companies invest in resources that make selling easier, sales reps are more likely to feel fulfilled at their jobs and outperform their peers. Companies may benefit from providing staff with these resources. <\/p>\n Courses that cultivate critical thinking skills<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Coaching and trainings that enhance business and sales acumen<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Sales enablement resources such as marketing collateral, case studies, and contract templates<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Technology that saves sales reps time, builds better presentations, analyzes customer data, and configures complex quotes<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n As sales reps become better equipped to handle all types of sales scenarios, they find more opportunities to deliver value at each customer touchpoint. They also have the bandwidth to focus on higher-impact aspects of the sales funnel. The right sales skills can be taught<\/a>. Therefore, sales organizations must commit to empowering their staff with better skills and tools and more effective closing techniques.<\/p>\n As companies invest in sales automation and enablement, reps have more time and headspace to pay attention to crucial customer details, signals, and needs. They may be able to tweak their sales pitches and tap into more effective sales closing techniques.<\/p>\n For the best results, both managers and salespeople should have the opportunity for mastery. In the book Cracking the Sales Management Code, sales expert Jason Jordan explains that the biggest problem of mastery comes when sales managers are not equipped with the skills to help their sales teams set and meet the right goals. <\/p>\n \u201dWith extremely rare exception,\u201d teaches Jordan, \u201cthe best sales managers we\u2019ve encountered are unconsciously competent scientists. They hold formal meetings with formal agendas on formal schedules. They set rigorous expectations for their salespeople and track progress against those goals with equal rigor. They manage by analysis rather than anecdote and by measurement rather than gut. They are continuous-improvement experts with action plans galore.\u201d<\/p>\n Before sales managers can solve the problem of how to motivate sales teams, they must be disciplined, experienced, and competent sellers themselves. A great sales manager can motivate sales reps to master the skills needed to achieve.<\/p>\n The last key to motivating people is purpose. Largely, says Pink, people achieve more when they serve a mission larger than themselves. As a company, seek to define a purpose beyond profit. Your purpose may be to deliver the best product or service for your customer or tangibly create value for the end-user. <\/p>\n Embrace values such as excellence, service, and teamwork. A sense of purpose becomes even clearer when companies team with charitable organizations. <\/p>\n Foster a business environment of cooperation and friendly competition to ensure everyone lifts each other while striving for excellence. Gamifying performance can help a culture strive for a larger purpose. Some companies use their CRM dashboards to track personal goals for department-wide or organization-wide contests, which brings people together and solidifies relationships. When companies use gamification to help charity, sales incentive programs take on a purpose higher than increasing the bottom line.<\/p>\nHow to Motivate A Sales Team (And Keep Them Motivated)<\/b><\/h2>\n
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People are Motivated by Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards<\/b><\/h3>\n
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<\/img> <\/p>\nThe Strategic Importance of Compensation <\/b><\/h2>\n
Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose.<\/b><\/h2>\n
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1. Autonomy<\/b><\/h3>\n
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2. Mastery<\/b><\/h3>\n
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3. Purpose<\/b><\/h3>\n
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<\/img> <\/p>\nTeach Goal Setting<\/b><\/h2>\n