Tips for inspiring sales teams, breaking them out of common ruts, and avoiding pitfalls.
A great leader has a knack for recognizing and developing potential: they pick great team members, train them, and prepare them to rise to the top of their game. But successful managers focus on inspiring sales teams, not just creating efficient performance machines.
Still, even the best sales managers can misdiagnose slumping sales or unwittingly foster an environment of hostile competition rather than winning teamwork. There’s good news, though. If you can identify some common leadership pitfalls and address them quickly, you’ll stay on top of your game and continue inspiring sales teams every day.
Mix it up, inspire and innovate
Over time, even the best salespeople can begin to feel like robots if nothing is changing. Where they used to have a personal connection, they now go listlessly through the motions. Even your top performing team members are likely to get bored and feel disconnected if they don’t have the opportunity to grow.
While you have to maintain checklists and procedures, you don’t have to let it get stale. Mix things up. Allow team members to contribute ideas and bring personality into their jobs. You want a team that will connect with their leads; give them the reins and let them do their job.
A well-rounded team has well-developed communication skills
Are you spending time coaching and investing in the development of your team’s communication and soft skills? Leading by example has to happen from day one. It’s up to you to demonstrate the value of establishing a relationship with leads.
A team member could have all the motivation in the world to excel and close a deal, but if they don’t feel empowered or confident while pitching, they can’t succeed. Pay attention to developing a well-rounded set of communication skills, even down to the handshake!
Once your team is fired up and ready to succeed, schedule a free demo of the Blitz CRM and we’ll show them how to turn leads into customers with less work!
Inclusion and innovation for further inspiring sales teams
Don’t just ask your team to close deals for the numbers; place equal emphasis on inspiring sales teams as their leader. Include your team in the bigger picture of your business. Invite them to strategy meetings! Discuss sales projections and metrics with them so they can see how their contributions matter.
For managers, sales conferences are an important vehicle to keep up with the latest trends, network, and build your lead base. But why go alone? Attending sales conferences can be an enormous boost for your team! Many conferences now have digital sessions or webinars to attend right in your office, while others live stream talks or post them online later. TED talks showcase innovation and are brief, so it would be easy to incorporate some time to watch and discuss new trends in weekly or monthly meetings.
Strive for balance, team success and a focus on the customers
When your team isn’t engaged or is in fierce competition with each other, it is the connection to the customer that suffers.
The Harvard Business Review emphasizes a need for balance when it comes to assessing what makes a good salesperson. “It calls for a very special, balanced ego to need the sale intensely and yet allow the salesman to look closely at the customer and fully benefit from an empathic perception of the customer’s reactions and needs.” In short, your team needs to care about and value their part in the business, feel driven and appreciated for successes, and not be looking to win just for status or reward.
Emphasize and celebrate team success, not just individuals
Consider a business structure that relies on mentorship, having top performers work with newer team members or lower performers to encourage them to rise. If the team members are focused and invested in the success of your business and celebrating outcomes as a group, they are less likely to fall behind or go rogue to compete. With a balanced approach, everyone wins!
Once your team is fired up and ready to succeed, schedule a free demo of the Blitz CRM and we’ll show them how to turn leads into customers with less work!
What are some other pitfalls you’ve seen when it comes to motivation? Share your best tips for inspiring sales teams in the comments!