Leadership tips to motivate your sales team 

Keeping your sales team motivated can help to boost productivity and innovation – here are 10 leadership tips for keeping your team motivated 

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on The Sales Ace

Sometimes it can be hard to keep your sales teams motivated. However, as a leader, motivating your team is important because it can have a significant impact on the team’s productivity, morale and overall success. Here are 10 of the best ways to engage your sales teams.

• Define your expectations: what are the goals? Are they different from last quarter? Right from the off, you need to be setting clear expectations, targets and KPIs for every member of your team. Start next quarter with the right attitude and energy.
• Keep everyone in the loop: nothing kills motivation like feeling you lack autonomy in your role. Keeping team members in the loop, and letting them know what’s going on and how they need to perform or adapt, leads to more motivated workers.
• Lead by example: your team will lose motivation exceptionally fast if they suspect you are not living up to the standards you expect of them. Setting a good example, and leading from the front, is key to keeping your team engaged.
• Ask for their opinion: everyone loves the opportunity to express themselves. Creating a culture where feedback is both facilitated and welcomed helps you stay abreast of your team’s feelings and needs and, therefore, better able to meet them.
• Reward achievements: when a team member excels, especially in circumstances where the goalposts and expectations have changed, remember to acknowledge and reward them.
• Keep up with training and opportunities for progression: if a team member wants to progress, or needs to be brought up-to-date with something, make sure you’re engaging with those needs and offering training where applicable. Regularly check in with staff members to ensure they’re happy.
• Keep your praise flowing and your criticism constructive: this one speaks for itself!
• Don’t micromanage: especially if your team were working from home over the pandemic, they’ll have become used to managing their time and workloads effectively. Returning to the office, or to full capacity, and suddenly being micro-manged from above, will do a lot of harm to morale and motivation.
• Offer flexibility if you can: one of the best things to have come out of lockdown is new recognition of the value of flexible working. Many employees will be keen to maintain that dynamic if it’s something that’s worked for them. Unless you have a very good reason for not doing so, allowing staff to maintain some flexibility will do great things for your team.
• Create a company culture that staff want to be part of: this goes without saying really, but creating a company culture that people want to be a part of is a wonderful way to ensure your staff stay engaged and motivated.

A motivated team is more likely to be engaged and committed to their work, which can lead to increased creativity, innovation, and collaboration.