12 Best Leadership Tips to Improve Sales Motivation

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Sales motivation is the lifeblood of high-performing sales bullpens and call centers. Follow these 12 tips to get your reps in full Kraig Kleeman mode.

How are leadership skills measured? How do you measure the effectiveness of teamwork?

The answer is simple: everything starts and ends with sales motivation.

The 12 Best Leadership Tips to Motivate Sales Reps

If you improve your leadership, the shift will have a positive impact on the entire sales team. That’s why we’re here today; to tell you how to do it.

Tip #1. Elevate Your Leadership Style

Successful leaders and sales managers inspire productivity and innovation without imposing restrictions and impossible targets. They lead by example. How do you become a better leader in a way that inspires more sales? All tips that follow will help you with that.

Tip #2. Focus on the Buyers

According to a survey conducted by Hubspot, 50% of sales representatives avoid being pushy. 82% of them do their best to provide value to the prospect, and 83% of them listen to the needs of the prospect.

The buyers don’t think so. According to 84% of the buyers, salespeople are pushy. Only 34% of them believe they are getting value.

Source: Buyers Speak Out: How Sales Needs to Evolve.

Train your people to tailor a personalized offer of great value. Remind them that the entire sales process is focused not on the company, but on the buyer.

Tip #3. Make a Trustworthy Offer

When you’re trying to sell something, you have a serious problem: most people don’t trust you. According to another survey by Hubspot, only 3% of people consider marketers and salespeople to be trustworthy.

Source: Only 3% of People Think Salespeople Possess This Crucial Character Trait.

What do you do? Develop a believable marketing campaign around the strengths of your product or service. Train the members of your team to listen to the customers and have a conversation instead of a presentation.

Tip #4. Don’t Blame Salespeople for Failing

If you notice that the entire team is lacking on productivity, the salespeople are not the problem.

Are you selling the right product to the right target audience? Do you have a successful marketing campaign? What about social media marketing? Check and improve all other factors before you start blaming and firing salespeople for not achieving good results.

Tip #5. Hire the Right People

You may be the best leader in the world, but that would mean nothing if you didn’t have the right people to lead.

Roberta Moore, a manager from Essay Geeks, shares her experience: “With the team I inherited, motivation was hard. They were used to a marketing system that was too pushy and robotic. At one point, I started adding new people in the sales team. I focused on hiring extroverted, ambitious, and goal-oriented people. That made a real difference.”

Tip #6. Don’t Over-Manage

I bring to your attention: the famous Jelly Donut scene from Full Metal Jacket.

Yeah … don’t follow that example. Too much control makes your people feel like Private Pyle. Lead through inspiration; not through control. Lest you end up like Seargant Hartman.

Tip #7. Don’t Automate Promotions

Don’t base promotions on sales as the only factor. What if the best salesperson in your team doesn’t have the skills needed to lead? You’ll lose the sales they are successfully making, and you’ll simply waste their potential.

Promotions are good for motivating people. However, make sure you do them the right way.

Tip #8. Give Solutions Instead of Pitches

To truly improve the sales performance of your team, you have to understand two things:

The needs of the buyers.
Your product.

People are constantly looking for ways to make their lives easier. You can drive the team towards successful sales only if you, as a leader, truly understand the product and the way it helps its users. That approach will build credibility.

Tip #9. Turn to One-on-One Coaching

When the entire team is experiencing problems, individual members might use that as an excuse to give up. Don’t let that happen.

Ambition Coaching Feature: First Look from Ambition on Vimeo.

Develop a one-on-one training program and keep it consistent. Although each member is part of the team, they should still be motivated to achieve success as individuals within it.

Tip #10. Support Salespeople through All Stages

Travis Biggert, the Chief Sales Officer of the Mid-America Region of Hub International, gave an insightful tip for TimeTrade: “Really good salespeople are great at sales and often not as good at the follow-up and follow-through part.

The number one way I have found to create efficiencies is to put a strong technical team behind them and make sure that someone else comes in and manages the fine print details during the proposal process and again once the deal is closed. This allows my salespeople to do what they are really good at and what they enjoy – customer interaction and creating new opportunities.”

Tip #11. Invest in Technology that Helps Reps Connect

According to the info from The Sales Development Technology Report from TOPO, it takes 18 dials on an average for salespeople to connect with buyers. This doesn’t mean you should push them to be pushy. It only means that you should invest in technology that help your team find more potential buyers and boost the effectiveness of their pitch.

Consider establishing a strong email marketing campaign. Make sure there’s a live chat at your website. These strategies will help your salespeople connect with prospects willing to communicate and make a purchase.

Tip #12. Build Culture that Drives Ambition

Highly effective sales managers focus on establishing a strong culture that makes people love working for them.

They set realistic goals and offer incentives. They make the job fun and enjoyable. That’s something we should all aim for.

As a leader, you’re responsible to set the tone, inspire your sales representatives to get more engaged, and lead them to success. You have to provide not only the encouragement and knowledge they need for closing deals, but the right tools as well.

When you become a better leader, you’ll definitely make your sales team better, too.

About the Author

Chris Richardson is a journalist, editor, and a blogger. He loves to write, learn new things, and meet new outgoing people. Chris is also fond of traveling, sports, and playing the guitar. Follow him on Facebook and Google+.

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