How to motivate your sales force

Your sales force is vitally important. The revenue they bring in is the lifeblood of your business. So you need to know how to get the best sales performance out of each one. It is worth your time and effort to do this. This guide outlines the tactics you should consider when you want to motivate your sales force.

• Develop a good incentive program
• The rewards you could use
• How extra training could help
• Keeping your staff motivated

Develop a good incentive program

They should be understandable, measurable and achievable. They should meet the hopes of each salesperson on your staff. The programs can either be set for the whole team or each individual. Each part of the program must be stated clearly and put in writing. To discuss team programs you should hold a meeting and ensure that every member of your sales force completely understands what will be asked of them. If you set increased sales targets for the sales force you should involve the staff in setting them. This will ensure that they are realistic so you don't de-motivate your staff. For individual programs talk to them in regular one to one sessions.

• You can set programs designed for the whole team or each individual.

The rewards you could use

Offering bonus money and extra commission for more sales is an obvious tactic. You could try and reward the whole team for meeting targets or offer rewards such as a weekends use of a sports car to the best seller. It is also worthwhile to find out the personal interests of your sales force and align the rewards for more sales accordingly. So if they are interested in music then offer the reward of concert tickets or if they like sports to offer tickets to sporting events. You could use a whiteboard to display sales records which will encourage healthy competition between staff.

• Rewards can range from money through to concert tickets.

How extra training could help

Get your sales force involved in a series of workshops. These should have practical examples and not just be theory based. If you use an outside trainer make sure they are qualified and experienced enough to be able to motivate your staff. After the workshops you should reinforce the skills learned with relevant online learning which will keep their motivation and knowledge at a high level.

• Training workshops can be useful if they teach practical tools

Keeping your staff motivated

Setting new targets, giving extra training and offering rewards is fine but you must think about long-term motivation as well. You should pay a decent base salary in addition to the commission you give your staff. You should also offer competitive benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans and generous holiday times. This will help keep your sales force motivated to work for your company and be happy to stay.

• Look after your sales force well and they will work harder for you

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