High earning sales professionals, like any other professional, are passionate about what they do. They develop strong relationships with their clients and customers, and are able to leverage that, along with their creative problem-solving ability, to consistently close sales, exceed sales quotas, and make a difficult job look easy.
There are also average and below average sales professionals on any sales team. These individuals, just like the top salespeople, are often very passionate about what they do. Still, they lack the confidence, approach, skills, techniques, and “sales know-how” to move into that elite top sales bracket.
All of these sales professionals are motivated by specific intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. The best motivators for one salesperson are not motivators for another, which creates a challenge for sales leaders if they are using a blanket approach.
Know Your Sales Team
Sales leaders can utilize the best motivators for each sales professional by understanding what those motivators may be. Some people may be motivated by a cash incentive for top sales or meeting quota, while others are highly motivated by recognition by management or leadership.
Knowing what each sales professional sees as a motivator to reach their goal is critical in making the motivator a reward worth achieving.
Set Reasonable Goals
For the low, average, and high earners in the team, one of the best motivators is for the sales rep to be actively involved in setting his or her goals. Setting standard goals across the team reduces the incentive for the top earner while simultaneously frustrating and overwhelming the lower earning sales professional.
Working with each sales rep on goals is also time to use in mentoring, coaching, and making recommendations for professional training to assist in reaching and exceeding goals.
To learn how to set the best motivators for each team member, book a training or coaching session with Doug Dvorak.
