Ways to motivate a team when sales are down

As a manager, you wouldn’t like to see poor sales results. However, declining sales graphs isn’t a pleasant sight for your sales team too. Constant failure leads to demotivation. They aren’t able to think clearly due to low morale. Demotivated sales reps find even the simplest of tasks challenging. 

Being the head of the team, you need to empower your sales team and boost their morale. Sales is like a puzzle; you need to help your team put the right pieces together for creating win-win situations. 

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better – Jim Rohn 

How to motivate the sales team when sales is low?

Falling into the pit of failure is the most horrible thing for sales reps. They feel stuck in one place and aren’t able to do anything to get out. If you want to see good sales results, you’ll have to put in efforts and pull out the team from the pit. 

Here is how you can motivate the team when sales is low.

Call in for a  meeting and discuss the root cause 

Why is your sales team performing poorly? Why aren’t they able to persuade the prospects to purchase a product? What obstacles are they facing on the path to sales closure? 

To find answers to these and many other questions convene your team fro a sales meeting. 

Give everyone a few minutes to speak about the issues there are facing.

Make a list of the key issues. Find out the reason for these issues.

Example- Most of the sales reps aren’t able to push the deals from the presentation stage to the next one. So, a lack of follow-up might be the reason. 

44% of sales reps give up after 1 follow-up

Similarly, look at other issues and try to find the solution. For instance, your sales team can automate the follow-up using the advanced tool and save a lot of time. 

Even brainstorm new sales strategies with your team. Since old ones aren’t effective, your team will have to change their approach.

Blur the line between the sales manager and reporting employee

When there is a tone of authority, the sales reps cannot speak freely discuss their problem freely. So try to build a good rapport with each member of your team. Some introverts aren’t comfortable sharing their problem in front of the whole team. They cannot articulate their thoughts clearly. This is why sometimes one-to-one meetings are required. 

Earn the trust and make them comfortable to share the problems they are facing without hesitation.

Only when you have a clear picture of their roadblock, you’ll be able to provide a solution and motivate them to work harder. 

Train your sales team 

Constant training is pivotal in sales. The competitors are doing all that it takes to attract your target audience. So when your team uses obsolete selling methods, they lose the prospects to the competitors. 

Therefore provide regular training to your sales reps. Share new sales tactics to deal with challenging sales situations. Even encourage self-learning. Make sure your sales reps stay updated about the changing trends. Ask them to give suggestions for improving sales operations. 

Create a culture of transparency and honesty 

Some of the sales reps step on other’s feet to achieve their quota. For instance, a sales rep is working on a deal that was about to close. Due to a medical emergency, he was on leave for a few weeks. In the meanwhile, his teammate called the prospect and tried to close a deal. 

Such instances lead to negativity and demotivate the sales reps. Their sales performance is affected. So make sure you break the wall within the team and try to maintain transparency. The best way to do it is by implementing CRM software. Deals can easily be assigned and tracked. You can see who is working on which deals and what is the progress. This will decrease clashes and increase productivity. 

Step in and support when required 

Sometimes sales reps need a little guidance, help, and push to seal the deal. In a challenging scenario, you might have to step in and handle the situation. A small hint can help the sales reps solve the puzzle of sales. 

You can listen to their recorded sales calls and see where are they going wrong.  You can show them how a little tweak in their approach could change the result. Explain what more they can do to persuade a prospect to purchase a product. 

Let people pick their own reward

Sales rewards motivate sales reps to put in more effort. So make sure you have a reward system in place to drive performance. The best thing to do here is to allow the sales reps to choose their own rewards. 

Sales reps will be motivated to work hard and achieve their sales goals to receive the rewards they wanted. Besides, when you acknowledge the hard work of the top performer and reward them even others get motivated to work harder. 

Conclusion 

Being a sales manager, you’ve probably walked in the shoes of a sales rep. So, you are aware that selling is not an easy task. It is filled with challenges. Prospects don’t easily purchase a product. Constant rejections often demotivated the sales reps. So you to ignite the fire by motivating your sales reps. Keep guiding your sales reps and direct them on the path of success. Find out the problems they are facing and show them how those problems can be resolved. 

Keep analyzing your sales rep’s performance – the best way to do it by using a sales reporting tool. You can either opt for an individual reporting tool or go for a CRM like Salesmate that not allows you to create insightful sales reports but do a lot more things to improve the sales results of your team. You can keep track of your team’s performance and see the progress of your deal. You can find where your team is investing their time. Besides you, sales reps can manage, nurture, and close deals efficiently with Salesmate CRM.