Motivate Your Salesforce to Achieve Selling Success

Your salesforce -- and the revenue it brings in -- is the lifeblood of your business. When sales are up all is rosy; when they're down businesses wither and sometimes die. If your business relies on a team of salespeople to generate revenue, it's worth your time and effort to understand what motivates them.

One effective way to motivate salespeople is with an incentive program, but devising one isn't as simple as defining a series of goals which, when met, reward people with a monetary payout. If money were the only ingredient for an incentive program, salespeople would simply sell more without additional incentives. Therefore, begin by understanding what each salesperson is hoping to achieve: Is to be the highest-selling person for the quarter? To best a personal sales record?

A good incentive program must be understandable, measurable, and achievable. Any program that doesn't include all three of these critical components will quickly become confusing and therefore counterproductive. As a business owner or team manager, it's your job to state the sales incentive program in clear terms and put it in writing. Hold a meeting to make sure each member of your sales team understands it in its entirety.

Next, make sure that you only reward measurable, monetary results. If you choose to measure profits, make sure you measure gross profits and not net profits, because net profits often contain hidden costs such as overhead.

When it comes time to decide on what the reward will be, make sure it's in relation to the sales goal. Higher goals deserve higher rewards. An all expenses paid, seven-day trip for a family of four to the Caribbean might seem costly to you, but if its cost is a mere fraction of the generated sales, it will have paid for itself from increased revenue. Smaller rewards can include tickets to concerts or sporting events, extra vacation days, or restaurant gift certificates. Find out what each person's personal interests are and use that information to come up with creative ideas.

Other ways to motivate your sales team include:

• Offer a base salary in addition to commission. If you can, pay your salesforce a decent base salary in addition to their commission. Forcing them to work on commission alone can create stress, which leads to burnout and high turnover, whereas a balanced approach will help you retain top talent. Striking the right balance between a base salary and rate of commission can be a tricky undertaking, however. For example, while paying your salespeople a higher base salary will likely allow you to keep a closer eye on how they spend their time, a package that's more heavily dependent on commission may motivate them to spend more time pursuing strong leads instead of engaging in activities that don't lend themselves to a high sales rate.
• Offer competitive benefits. Your salespeople need to feel that you support them and value what they bring to the table. One good way to show your appreciation is by providing each employee with a competitive benefits package that includes health insurance, a retirement plan such as a 401(k), and generous vacation and sick time.
• Provide the right training. Investing in your employee's professional growth is investing in your business, so provide your salespeople with the proper training and encourage them to attend tradeshows and seminars, take classes, and pursue other avenues of professional development.
• Set achievable goals. Having concrete goals to aim for is essential to success, no matter if it's in sales, sports, or education. But don't set your people up for failure by setting lofty goals that they cannot achieve.
• Maintain an open-door policy. If your salespeople don't feel they can air their grievances with you, those grievances will fester and lower morale. Make yourself available for any salesperson that needs to check in from time to time to share concerns or ask for constructive feedback.

Want more advice on how to help your salesforce succeed? Be sure to read How to Build and Motivate a Sales Team.