Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

Why should you care about engaging your sales team? Engagement means motivating your staff so they adopt positive values, mindsets, and behaviors of your brand that are conducive to success. Employee engagement is the glue that binds your business and is a fundamental motivator for your staff. A company’s sales team is on the frontline of both customer interaction and company representation. The sales team is also responsible for bringing in the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, so wouldn’t you want to keep this essential part of your workforce engaged?

As a sales manager, it is your job to engage your team, not only with tools and training, but positive reinforcement so that they are successful. It is important to establish engagement with defined principles to help your team grow. This is critical for new hires but it is also important to deliver ongoing sales training to your team to reinforce all of the good stuff.

We spend a good portion of our lifetime at work, which is a long time if we're unhappy in our jobs. Not only is not enjoying what you do completely dispiriting for the employee, it's very bad for business. It is safe to assume that everyone wants to work for an employer where they feel fulfilled, respected, wanted, and happy.

The biggest drivers of engagement are feeling valued and a confident in the leadership/management team, along with having a voice in the organization. When it comes to motivating people toward great performance, it's not just about the paycheck.

So, what are some ideas to engage and motivate your salesforce?

One example is to celebrate personal wins. If someone on your team hits their monthly or quarterly goal, make it a win for your department or the whole company. Announce it to the rest of the team and celebrate it with an outing or company happy hour.

It might be worth noting, especially for sales pros who often put in extra time to make sales happen, that emphasizing a work-life balance is crucial. Work-life balance is going to mean something different for each employee, so speak with your team to see what you can be doing better as an organization to enhance it. Often times you’ll find that a flexible work schedule will be the easiest way to help people feel more balanced between work and leisure.

Of course, happy employees are engaged employees, and a lot of that happiness can be met with some simple praise for a job well done. When you hear about someone’s achievement, go over and personally congratulate them. This little step can go a long way.

Successful engagement has a substantial bottom line impact. Over time, your operation will become more efficient as workers go the extra mile to meet personal performance goals and exceed your expectations.