HOW TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE AND IMPROVE MORALE FROM YOUR SALES TEAM DURING A RECESSION

During difficult times it is the survival of the fittest. The strongest, most skilled, positive, hard working, self motivated and success driven sales people who will succeed in a recession. Weaker sales people can easily use the recession as an excuse for poor performance especially when the going gets tough.

 

So how can you enhance performance from your sales team during difficult times?

A great leader is someone who can lead the team through the toughest of times and come out on top or a greatly improved position. Football is a great example of this, how many times have great football managers moved their team from the bottom of the Premiership halfway through the league to bounce back to nearer the top or even win. It can happen!

When I look back in my 17 years of sales I have had the pleasure of working with many sales managers and the ones who gained the best performance from me & my team applied these principles:

Motivate & Boost Morale

We are all driven by different things, referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs once we have gained our safety, biological and physiological needs our needs extend to belongingness, esteem and self actualisation. Do you know what motivates each of your team members & knowing this do you ensure you use this to help motivate and drive enhanced performance from them? An example of this was when I worked for an advertising company, the 4 nights a week away every week was becoming a strain on my home life, and I asked if I could work a 4 day week but longer hours. This was agreed on the basis I would have to hit target. This was a big personal motivator for me, I worked extremely hard and was highly motivated. The result was I hit every target and was top performer for the quarter which proved if you can find out someone’s motivator and work with it rather than against it you will see enhanced result & increased dedication and loyalty.

In a CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development)2006 survey 2/3rd’s of people said they left their job due to lack of personal or career progression which proves not all people including sales people are solely driven by money so investment in their personal self development can help not only improved their ability to conduct their current role but make them more loyal and valuable to the business in the longer term. In a recession employees who are skilled in other areas provide themselves a more secure future and employers now look for 'learner agility' as a requirement when searching for new candidates.

During tough times it is difficult to offer expense incentives and rewards, however it costs nothing to thank people for their contribution in person, in writing or by phone or to have small token prizes awarded at sales meetings. Bring the fun back into sales meetings is a perfect way to uplift sprits during a world of gloom. A great way to develop people in a fun way is to have team events e.g. quizzes on the latest products, ‘Sales X Factor’ line up where they have to pitch to you, ‘I am a celebrity sales person get me out of here’ with challenges they have to overcome. During my training sessions I always incorporate a non work & work related fun quiz or task with prizes, it helps cement the learning and boost morale. A happy team is a productive team! Using this approach I managed to take 48 tele- sales personnel from being negative about the current climate and fearful of selling a new product to being highly motivated, positive and confident to hit the phones. Through using the team game approach this helped foster greater relationships amongst the team and a greater shared learning culture was created.

Inspire

Providing inspiration is the key to the success of any manager. Quote some independent articles & quotes which are relevant to the topic you wish to cover to help you inspire your team; this will make your case or message more believable and credible. Give examples of success, use performing team members to share their knowledge to help others on a contract they have secured or retained. Encourage the sharing of positive ideas, delivery your message positively, passion and belief will provide inspiration and hope to your team.

Emotional Intelligence reports there was a 32% increase in performance from optimistic sales people verse pessimistic, inspiring your team could help improve a positive attitude within your team thus creating an improved sales result.

Some of my favourite quotes include:

‘ the difference between a mountain and a mole hill is your perception’ – unknown author

 

‘success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving, they make mistakes but they do not quit’.

 

‘the best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.

 

‘ the difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will’ – Vincent Lombardi

 

Ability is what you are capable of doing, motivation determines what you do and attitude determines how well you do it. Lou Hoetz

 

It is not your aptitude, but your attitude that determines your altitude’ – Zig Ziglar

Support

How often do you go on sales visits or spend time coaching your sales people? It is extremely lonely out there in a field sales role especially when you are mainly home based. Sell the benefits of going out with your sales executives on sales calls and schedule and commit to doing a certain number each month. You will gain a valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities presented to your team, identify areas where they need some development and also build an improved relationship with the team. Be approachable to enable your team to come to you and use your expertise. For problem solving try to use your coaching skills to help them come up with the solutions themselves to help them become more independent at dealing with issues and utilise your time with brainstorming ideas to secure and develop business.

Development

2/3rd’s of people say they left their organisation due to lack of personal and career development (CIPD survey 2006). Do you spend time understanding your team’s career aspirations and working with them to achieve them? Not everyone wants to progress into sales management however they may wish to improve their performance in their job or progress from SME to Corporate Sales or diversify into another part of the business. Managers who are seen to show an active interest in people’s career and personal aspirations become managers people want to work for and therefore attract the best talent. You may lose them to another department in 5 years time however you will benefit from a loyal employee who will perform their best for you and provide additional skills to your department whilst they progress their development before moving onto a new role in the future. For example an individual wanting to move into training would greatly assist your team by providing some training to existing team members which will enhance performance; this being of no cost to you however increased value towards greater team performance.

Summary

During times of a recession help, support and turning fear into hope and opportunity will help you successfully lead your team to success through difficult times.

This article has been written by Debbie Sweeney of Solutions2Success.

Solutions2Success provide sales, interpersonal & sales management training courses, workshop facilitation,coaching and consultancy. Temporary contract placement of trainers or coaches is also available to compliment existing HR and Training functions.

If you are interested in gaining some external support for your sales meetings, training or coaching requirements then please contact 0800 027 8858 or visit www.solutions2success.co.uk for further information.

Email info@solutions2success.co.uk for a free sales visit performance checklist to help assess and coach your sales executives to help identify potential areas of development & support.