Hitting all of your KPIs is tough, success can fluctuate, so it's incumbent upon team leaders to know how to motivate their reps through dry months.
Direct sales is not for the faint of heart! It requires grit, perseverance, and an unwavering ability to dust yourself off each time you fall flat on your face. It also requires reps to have a firm grasp on their KPIs or Key Performance Indicators as laid out by their organisation.
As a direct sales rep, hitting all of your KPIs is far from an easy task, though: success can flow in and out like the tides, so it's incumbent upon team leaders to know how to motivate their reps through dry months, and support their ongoing growth through more bountiful periods. Here a few ideas to get the ball rolling!
1. Make it personal
When it comes to encouraging your sales reps to hit their KPIs, intrinsic motivation is a much stronger driver than the singular goal of putting more money in the company's pockets.
It may seem obvious at first glance, but it's important to make it very clear to employees that hitting their KPIs also means supporting their own success whether that means an eventual promotion, higher commissions, or a bonus at the end of the year. You can communicate this gentle reminder every now and then at team meetings, or during one-on-one check-ins with individual reps.
2. Be there, no matter what
Even the most experienced sales reps need a hand from time to time. Instead of sending them off into the sales battlefield on their own and waiting for them to return victorious, a little support goes a long way when it comes to keeping employees motivated.
The journey to success should involve lots of facetime between reps and their superiors, not only to define and map out their KPIs together, but also to follow up on how things are going. You can determine your own follow-up schedule according to the KPIs in question: in some situations, a weekly check-in would be best, but more "big picture" goals may only require a bi-weekly or monthly meetup.
3. Reward progress
KPIs are as much of a journey as they are a destination, and one of the best ways to encourage reps to keep their head up through thick and thin is offering sales incentives when they hit certain checkpoints.
For example, if one of your reps wants to book 50 meetings over the next three months, consider offering them a "halfway mark" reward when they hit 25 meetings (and, of course, another when they complete their goal). Not only do incentives foster a culture of appreciation and loyalty, but breaking each KPI goal up into smaller pieces is a great way to help your reps preserve an optimistic attitude along their journey.
4. Display progress front and centre
Science has proven over and over again that humans are naturally competitive, and sales roles tend to draw in people with a particularly well-developed competitive streak. Creating a leaderboard that actively tracks your reps' progress is all but guaranteed to light a fire inside of each one.
Whether it's displayed on a TV screen or using an online dashboard, sales reps will always have a reference they can glance at to find out how they're doing compared to their peers. The system isn't meant to "name and shame" by any means it should simply act as a background motivator to send that extra follow-up email or make that final cold call. In many cases, it can even foster a stronger sense of community between sales reps, and encourage them to help each other out if one person is extremely close to hitting a goal or besting a record.
At Power2Motivate, we know direct sales. Our sales-specific incentive programmes are tailor-made to boost revenues and help your teams meet their KPIs with flying colours, all while building a healthy foundation to attract new talent and retain your very best reps. If you're a sales team leader, we know how to build out a rewards programme that will supercharge your business! Contact us today to learn more.