Help with sales force management and motivation can often come from the team itself. This article looks at five key areas that a sales manager can use to manage and motivate with the help of the sales force.
Various objectives of sales force management and motivation are better achieved in a group situation than in individual discussions. Here I cover five areas where the sales manager might wish to harness the power of the group environment to achieve an objective.
1. To dramatise feedback. Praise has a much more lasting effect on a sales person if it is experienced in a group situation. Express appreciation therefore in the presence of other members of the team if you want to particularly emphasise the performance of an employee. Be careful, however, when criticising a salesperson in the presence of the group. Criticism in front of a gathered team can destroy the self-esteem of the employee. Public warnings also have an extremely negative effect on those not involved. They worry that the same thing could happen to them.
2. To encourage consultations. Many members of the external sales force are reluctant to accept something their superiors say. They are much more willing to learn from colleagues, on the other hand. A new route planning technique discussed during a conference by a successful member of the external sales force, quickly leads to positive experience and is quickly accepted. Use colleague advice given in the group specifically for your own training purposes.
3. To awake ambition. Comparison of performance carried out in a group situation is one of the strongest methods of spurring sales people on to greater efforts. Members of the external sales force are motivated if they see themselves in front of colleagues who are given a poorer assessment. Discuss performance results in great detail in the group therefore and make use of the “acceleration effect” given by success. If there is a “sporting spirit” in your team then the negative aspects of colleague comparisons (envy, jealousy, resentment) rarely arise.
4. To discipline. Groups have their own unwritten laws. The norms of a motivated sales team are: a positive attitude to the company and to the product/service, constructive collaboration, a will to succeed, commitment. These norms affect educational processes within the group. Misbehaviour by sales people (destructive attitude, notorious fault finding, lack of punctuality, unfriendliness, dereliction of duty) are eliminated simply by means of the regulating mechanism of the group norms, without the need for disciplinary measures. During a discussion with sales people, ask the group for their views on a problem which you are experiencing with one employee. Keep out of the discussion yourself and just act as mediator. A team of sales people with positive norms will soon bring a “black sheep” back onto the right path.
5. To create a sense of identification.The members of the field sales force need more today than just an emotional filling station. The group situation is ideal for providing sales people with “fellow feeling” and moral support. Sales people should meet together every four to six weeks for a conference in which they can exchange experiences with colleagues, work out new objectives with the sales management and experience team spirit. Sales people who only meet as a group two or three times a year lack identification and enthusiasm.
Application of these techniques will have a positive impact sales force behaviour and results. You can learn these techniques and more on a good sales management training course.
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