We all look forward to the summer, when the days are longer, the sun is shining and we spend most of our time outdoors soaking up the vitamin D. After being in lockdown since the new year, this summer people will be especially eager to enjoy themselves and make the most of it. However, there’s one industry that our favourite time of year isn’t so kind to – sales. It’s common during the summer months for potential customers to be more hesitant about buying and put off making any decisions, which leads to lower sales figures for many businesses. This has a drastic effect on sales team’s and their motivation to carry on selling can quickly deteriorate. So, what can you do to ensure your sales team stays motivated and eager to sell?
Take a look at these eight tips to motivate your sales team this summer…
Explore What Motivates Your Sales Team
How well do you know your team? If the answer is ‘very well, then you should be familiar with what motivates each individual team member. First things first, before you start putting in attempts to keep your team motivated, you need to find out what drives them. Are you dealing with salespeople whose work is driven by a desire to succeed and reach their full potential? Or, are they more driven by money and public recognition for their triumphs? These are two very different types of salespeople, who will respond differently to motivational tactics.
Opportunities To Learn More
This might not be a factor to motivate every sales team, but many people are constantly looking for ways to improve their knowledge and better themselves. Chances are if sales aren’t going well, your team is going to be wondering what they could do better, especially if they’re the sort of people who are driven by success. Offering them the opportunity for additional training is a great motivational tactic and a chance to increase their skill set. You could also ask the sales team if they feel like they’ve got all of the necessary tools to improve their selling abilities during the slow summer months, you could find that an aspect like technology is letting them down. It’s your job to kit them out to be able to work to the best of their abilities!
Recognise Success
Although your sales team might not see as much success throughout the warmer months, it’s vital that you give credit where credit is due. Make sure you praise every person who contributed, there’s nothing worse than not getting credit for your own work and this can decrease motivation. Celebrate even the smallest of accomplishments, to set a pattern of positive reinforcement. Once your sales team realises that their hard work will get rewarded, they’ll be motivated to get the best results. This can really help in the summer sales drought!
Friendly Competition
If your sales team is feeling unmotivated, incorporating a little bit of fun and friendly competition could be the way forward. You can create a sales contest involving every sales member, which gives the opportunity to offer additional compensation. However, you need to make sure it only creates healthy competition and doesn’t encourage any tension. You can make it fun by designing a leaderboard for everyone, so they know how they’re doing at all times. This will encourage them to strive for the best sales results!
Public Recognition
When you’re giving an employee praise, make sure you do it infront of the whole team. This will make them feel accomplished and appreciated, which should inspire them to succeed even more. It will also motivate other employees to work towards the same goal, who doesn’t like getting recognition for their hard work? This is just what you need in the summer slump!
Be Understanding Of Rejections
Let’s be honest, no one likes being told ‘no’, and in the summer this is a word that salespeople hear A LOT. So, as the employer, if you can see that a member of your team is working really hard but still receiving a lot of rejection, give them praise for their efforts. They will stay motivated if their hard work is recognised, even if they’re only hearing the occasional ‘yes’! In the summer months, salespeople will face a lot of rejection, so this is an essential tactic to motivate your sales team.
Celebrate The Wins
We’ve spoken about rewarding rejection, but what about the wins? Although at the moment it might not be so easy to hang out as a team, by the summer this should hopefully be possible. Celebrate with your sales team by taking them out of the office to do something fun, whether it’s an afternoon of rounders or dinner at a nice restaurant. Anything that allows the team to celebrate together and enjoy the win as a group will motivate them and foster a stronger team bond to get them through the tough summer months.
Tiered Commission Rates
When there’s a chance to reach the next level and increase your money, who wouldn’t be motivated by that? Introducing tiered commission rates in the summer months means that people will be motivated to keep selling so they can reach a higher commission. If there are people that are making a lot more sales than the rest, they should be rewarded for that. This will motivate them to keep going for their own gain!
So there we have it, 8 effective ways to motivate your sales team this summer. An effective company requires dedicated, motivated salespeople to achieve success, especially when the sun is shining and the sales really aren’t!
