20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work [Cheat Sheet]
20 Ways To Increase Sales Coaching Focus At Work
[Cheat Sheet]
Sales Leadership Insight
Virtual Selling Tips to Help Reps Win More Deals [Cheat Sheet]
Virtual Selling Tips to Help Reps Win More Deals
[Cheat Sheet]
Creative Tips for Rewarding Top-Performing Sales Reps
Let’s talk about sales rep rewards. With employee engagement at an all-time low and more reps leaving their employers every day, we’ve got to find new and creative ways to show appreciation to our top-performing employees to entice them to stay!
If you lead a digital sales team, you’ll probably remember the days you brought big-screen TVs to the front of the sales floor for the quarterly contest. My husband and I both came up in sales, and we have patio furniture, a few game sets, and LOTS of electronics. We’ve been to countless baseball and basketball suites and even visited Maui, Whistler, and the Bahamas thanks to President’s Club Trips. I bet you’ve enjoyed the big three sales incentives yourself: Sports, Electronics, and Travel (oh my!).
They’re classics for a reason, but every once in a while I have to remind myself that classic can actually mean outdated. Here are a few creative ideas to refresh your sales rep rewards and incentives with the new generations and dispersed teams in mind:
- Combine travel and service. I love how this generation wants to give back. Can you build homes before hitting the resort in the Dominican Republic? We learned about a group called Wine To Water that provides sustainable water resources in 3rd world vacation destinations. Let your winners pick from a few choices!
- Focus on growth trips. Today’s sellers are ALL about career growth. So make the trip to a great industry conference + pre-conference certification. Or send them with a few colleagues to off-site career training + a weekend of fun instead.
- Add family. That’s right, not all your reps want to be seen in a swimsuit with the rest of the team, so give them the voucher to take their family instead!
- Go big with recognition. The top rep gets a billboard. They pick the message!
- Make quality time even more quality. How about an elegant dinner with the executives and their families? Fly them in, let them bring a guest, and have the head honchos serve them! Bonus, invite them to your President’s home to do it.
- Go social. Refresh your standard prizes by helping them post their win with a photo backdrop, custom frame, or even a great new title or award honor they can hold and post online. Because it’s not just about DOING great, it’s about being SEEN doing it!
- Combine development + time. Leaning in again to their desire to learn and grow, gift them professional training AND Friday afternoons to study, or Wednesday mornings + a personal coach for a year, or 5 Monday morning shadows with 5 top performers in the company!
- Recognize their individuality by letting THEM pick! There are really cool services today like Postal.io and Blueboard that let reps pick their own rewards. Add the recognition component by posting a picture + interview of them with their prize.
While you’re refreshing your prizes, I invite you to also refresh your criteria. Sales incentives get eye-rolls FAST if the same people always win. Do you have a contest for the newbies? For call quality? For attitude? For key performance indicators? For metrics? All of these can help spread the love for different kinds of talent and behaviors you want more of – not just for the tenured reps with the big accounts. This is critical for keeping fresh diverse talent interested! Folks are watching your leaders and your winners for signs of favoritism and inequity, and sales incentives are definitely in that fishbowl!
Not sure where to go? Pull in a few high-potential reps and ask their opinions! That’s a reward in and of itself.
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Improving Sales for the Next Generation of Talent
I’m in Sales! I’m not a Growth Manager or a Chief Delightment Officer, or anything else that people say at networking events because they don’t want to admit they’re in sales. I’m proud to be in sales, but if statistics tell us anything, my chosen and beloved profession needs to change.
Every day, more jobs are being replaced by AI or being sent offshore. The jobs that are left are harder and faster than they were 10 years ago. The entry-level jobs need to ramp even sooner and convert deals that much quicker. If you’ve been at this for a while now, that probably sounds exciting. If you’re stepping into your first role, it’s probably terrifying.
We’re finding the job pool of sales reps features fewer experienced candidates, all while customers are becoming savvier and with higher expectations. The game has changed and we need to change along with it.
Remember when you first got into sales. How have you grown? What did you learn? Over the years you’ve gained experience, tooled up, and added to or adapted your tech stack. We need to change the way we are looking at entry-level sales and improve the first impression we are giving new employees.
Think about the sales calls you receive on any given day. The majority fall into two groups. It’s either a robocall or it’s a fresh-faced recent college (or high school) graduate in their very first sales role. These unseasoned front-line employees are being thrown to the wolves with nothing more than a phone and a script. It’s no wonder we lose A LOT of reps every year.
Overall, 50% of all graduates go into sales. That’s not just business school, that’s all schools across the country. In the first year alone, we will lose a staggering 40% of those new reps. This is not sustainable. At this point, we can’t recruit enough people to fill those front-line seats.
Leaders, it’s time to shift our thought process.
Right now, when a new employee walks in the door we give them a product demonstration, a Salesforce login, direct them to the phones, and say “Good luck, better hit that quota!” We’re not teaching them how to engage or converse. They’re simply memorizing scripts and pitches. WE are teaching the next generation to hate sales. Slowly and systematically, we are scaring away bright, brilliant, young people from the sales profession and if we want it to stop, we need to be better.
It’s going to take all of us, together, to make that happen. Here’s how…
We need to ditch the script. New sellers (and some existing sellers) need to be taught how to stop talking AT customers and instead engage with them. Sales is where the technology stops. It’s where one person has to talk to another person about their challenges or their needs. At its root, sales is about helping someone else. It’s about human connection. Right now, only 3% of customers trust salespeople. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but if we want to regain our customer’s trust we need to start by improving our conversations.
We need to make room for failure. I’m not saying that we let employees slide every time they miss quota. What I am saying is that instead of treating an employee like the black sheep, maybe we dive deeper. Treat that failure as an area of opportunity. Let’s help normalize failure and find the “why” behind it. Every missed deal can help your employees, especially the new ones, land future deals. All we have to do is encourage people to talk about it and then help them find the solution for next time.
We need to shift our focus to retention. According to a report from The Bridge Group, the average tenure of a sales rep is 1.5 years. The old me would have said, “That gives me 18 months to find someone else to fill that seat.” What if instead, we said, “I have 540 days to make them love sales, stay, and continue in their career.”
We’ve sold everything under the sun and WE LOVE IT. So, let’s make the next generation love it just as much as we do.
We can do this! Together, we can have sales reps proudly shouting “I’m in Sales!”
Want to improve the sales industry for your new sellers?
By training and developing your employees, they’ll perform better and stay longer.
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
Strategies to Improve Your Remote Leadership Capabilities
The concept of work-from-home isn’t new, but in recent years this mode of work has quickly become the norm. The pandemic restricted everybody’s mobility, and adjustments had to be made in order to compensate for the physical limitations.
Studies show that the increasing benefits that many have experienced with remote work — such as flexibility and productivity — have given birth to a new culture. More companies continue to consider making permanent work-from-home arrangements to reduce office space. An example of this is Morgan Stanley. Around 90% of their employees worked from home during the pandemic, leading to Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman noting that the company now needed much less real estate. Companies, like Morgan Stanley, are now trying to strike a balance to minimize the risks and maximize the gains.
Finding balance can be tricky, however, which is why a remote team requires strong leadership. Top executive leadership plays several roles in an organization, including effectively delegating tasks, as well as managing relations among different individuals (which is why the median wage is far above the average at $103,950). Executive leadership is particularly important for designing programs and setting standards so that organizations can meet their goals.
Improving remote leadership capabilities means executive leadership can do their work. Fortunately, this can be easily developed with consistent practice. Read on to know the tips for effective leadership in a remote team.
Keep track of your goals
It is easy to feel disconnected when your work environment all lies within a screen. This is where designing programs and setting standards come into play. It helps to establish clear and measurable goals with quantitative objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and a set schedule. This sets a direction for the team.
Above all, these goals must be consultative with your team members. Business development goals usually go through multiple phases before completion, so keeping track of everyone’s progress allows leaders to adjust accordingly.
Pay attention to your team
Transparency and consultation are key to ensuring that your goals are realistic. This is where checking in with your team and remembering their needs come in. Our previous post discusses the different ways leaders can engage their remote team, which surprisingly means strategies like fewer calls – Zoom fatigue is real, after all.
The important thing to remember throughout is that numbers and performance are important, but teams are composed of individuals. Only a healthy, collaborative team can produce great outcomes in the long run.
Trust in your team
The fear of a dip in effort and production can be overpowering. Some leaders may find themselves micromanaging their teammates to compensate for the distance.
However, it is actually the lack of trust that causes a breakdown around employee autonomy, perceived competence, and respect, and that ultimately affects productivity in your team. Remember that your goals are their goals as well, so what’s left is to guide and lead the way.
Focusing on improving communication skills
To build trust, open channels to discuss company goals aren’t enough. Leaders need to cultivate a workplace culture of clear communication. Sharing every little detail about your life isn’t necessary — a level of independence in working is essential after all — but transparency allows your team to understand one another and fosters empathy. It also encourages asking questions, which minimizes the chance for misunderstandings.
The physical distance of remote work is hard enough to manage without knowing what your members are going through in their homes. Having a clearer picture of this allows you to adjust accordingly and provide a safety net for the entire team.
To lead is to be responsible for others, and this weight is never easy. However, under effective and collaborative remote leadership, not only will you be watching out for your team, but they’ll also be watching out for you.
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6 Warning Signs Your Employee Is Quitting Soon
Ever been blindsided by an employee quitting? You were worried about Rep A and it was Manager B who resigned? According to Gallup, managers have higher disengagement than reps today – and we’re at our highest overall dissatisfaction since 2000!
Here are some behaviors to keep on your radar to prevent your top employees from quitting:
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Disengagement.
You may think it’s the active nay-sayer who’s your problem child, but it’s actually the quiet ones. This is especially true if you used to hear from them. As employees move from “engaged” to “disengaged” they withdraw. You may find you have to call on them in a huddle when they used to speak up. It might be that when you do ask for their input, it is short and not well thought out.
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Absence.
It takes work time to interview elsewhere and if your employee is virtual it will be harder to notice. Look for long response times on Slack or email and 90-minute call gaps. If they’ve gone radio silent, they’re likely searching and interviewing elsewhere. They won’t be asking for all of this time off, they’ll likely just be taking it during lunches, starting late or ending early. If your spidey sense says there might be a problem, look for numerous gaps over several weeks.
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Low Performance.
You may not see it right away, but when you look for it, you’ll see productivity or ratios declining. Probably over several periods. Often I find that one big miss will start the disengagement for normally great reps. For example, Bobby was a solid A or B player and he had a big whiff three months ago. As per policy, he went on a PIP. He pulled himself back up, but never back to the “A” status. Start checking for declines in outbounding and longer absences. Call on Bobby in meetings and see what happens. You lost him at the write-up, and in the absence of great ego coddling, he may have checked out back then.
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High Demands.
You won’t find this one in any research, but I tell you I’ve seen it. As an employee starts to check out, they don’t all fade out. I’ve had some make it my fault. They start asking for more and more demanding requests – perhaps even the impossible. When I can’t or won’t deliver, they have “no choice” but to leave. Look for rising demands around hours, travel, or approved expenses. They may even be shopping you against another job posting or company.
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New Requests.
Be careful not to classify new requests in the high demands category. In the past few years, priorities have shifted and hyper-engaged employees expect their employers to be doing more. If you don’t have diversity plans in place including employee programs, training, equality hiring, and pay practices, you are soon to be in trouble. The same goes for work hours/days, location flexibility, and career development and training opportunities. These are all top demands of the new generations and you’ll need to meet them to attract and retain employees. If you’re getting requests here and you don’t have it in place or are soon to be deployed, get ready for some resignations.
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Disinterest in Learning.
The best salespeople are lifelong learners. When they stop engaging with training opportunities, books, or team training, you know they’re checking out. You’ll see the same with decreasing engagement with other departments, special projects, and all-company concerns.
When all else fails (and even if it doesn’t), sit and talk with your team about their engagement. Wait, what? Address it head-on? Absolutely! Gallup also reported that it takes more than a 20% pay increase to lure an employee away who is engaged with their manager. Turns out YOU are the difference. See what reports, emails, and silly tasks you can delegate so you can do 2 more coaching sessions this week. The more time you spend with your team getting to know them and developing them (read: NOT talking about the numbers), the greater your chance to retain your stars and you’re at-risk.
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5 Powerful Strategies to Retain Salespeople
It’s easy to blame the Great Resignation on COVID-19, but according to Harvard Business Review, resignation rates only feel high because they were below trend in 2020. In 2021, resignations were exactly on par with the ten-year trend. Does that mean the “Great Resignation” isn’t real…?
Tell that to your open sales positions. Since employees are reluctant to go back into the office and they’re deep in the “life’s too short” feeling, many are switching jobs. That means they’re leaving your sales jobs too.
Most people who quit are switching jobs rather than leaving the labor force altogether, according to Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed.
In today’s times, you’re not just battling your competitors for talent, you’re competing with non-sales jobs, out-of-state jobs, and complete career changes.
That’s right, you’re actually competing with quality of life to retain salespeople.
It’s an important distinction because that’s also how you’ll keep them. Stop focusing just on salary and pay close attention to what employees want in the workplace.
Here are a few tips on how to retain salespeople:
1. Personal Meaning at Work
It’s not easy to get people emotionally invested in the selling of widgets and the making of profits. So try to link their efforts to what you’re solving for customers. Walmart’s tagline isn’t “Cheaper goods sold at the highest volume possible.” It’s about making people’s lives better.
At Factor 8, we’ve shifted from counting clients and revenue to reporting on “lives impacted.” We change people’s lives by making them more successful at work. This definitely trumps, “We teach people to sell more stuff.”
Spend a few hours brainstorming in your next executive meeting and then get it out there fast and often.
2. Career Development
If you don’t have a line item for development per employee in your budget, you are officially behind the curve. Training, career paths, career growth, and personal development all show up in top wants for Millennials and Gen Z. Not to mention you’ll need great sales training to get your new hires with less education and experience up to speed. Invest heavily here as soon as possible. Now advertise it on all your job openings and internal communications.
At a conference last month, I met two guys who stumbled on a hidden education benefit. Like, they literally found it in the handbook and then chased it down through several levels of bureaucracy in order to go to a career development conference and have the expense reimbursed. Likewise, over 70% of the women in our #GirlsClub management certification program couldn’t get it funded internally. #YoureDoingItWrong
3. Flexibility
This means hours, days, locations – everything. Kill the work policies and empower leaders to do what’s necessary to engage their teams. For some it’s compressed work weeks, others it’s work from home, flex-time, job-sharing, or relaxed management. If I can’t leave mid-day to pick up a sick child, plan a long weekend with friends, or work from my hermetically sealed office, I’m looking for a new job.
4. Fairness & Inclusivity
Pretty please go and check your salaries right now for equity. Do it as if you’re trying to prove yourself wrong, not right. See two people in similar positions of different genders or persuasions or skin colors making a different base salary? FIX IT or plan now to budget the fix for next year.
We simply won’t stand for it anymore and the new generations are savvy. Mark my words, they WILL find out and they WILL leave.
Remember, it’s an employee’s market now, not the employer’s market we came up under. It’s our job to attract and retain them, and trying to hire people for as little money as possible to save a buck will cost us a fortune in the long run.
Don’t have a program for inclusivity that includes some groups, some awareness, some training, and some strategies to root out bias? Get some and get the word out fast, or you’ll soon be left behind.
5. Culture of Well-Being
OK, so I combined a few demands on this one. Here’s why:
According to a recent Adobe survey, over 50% of Gen Z and Millennial employees feel pressure to be available at all times, and most blame their company for their long workdays.
This is a far cry from the “work-life balance” everyone says they want. In a sales setting, this means you may actually need some rules to combat our technology. I’m guilty of this myself. Slack is easy, fast, and on my desktop and phone. I have an idea, I send a message. It’s tough for the people who work for me to not feel like they need to answer this when sent (even though I say it all the time). Saying it isn’t enough.
Try automatic notification snoozing at 4 p.m. (spend the last hour with quiet time to prepare for the next day and wind down). We put time off on a group calendar so nobody will contact them when out of the office. I’ve also seen “no email” or better, “no message” rules for evenings and weekends. Want to go the extra mile? Talk about instituting this with clients as well.
Our actions set the precedent and teach people how to work with us!
The first time you reply to a client’s midnight message and your team sees you do it, you’re implying that this is acceptable and maybe even encouraged behavior.
We the workaholic generation will have to work hard to actively undo this one.
Ready to retain salespeople by investing in sales training and development?
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
Best Practices for Coaching and Promoting Your Top Reps [Webinar Recording]
Best Practices for Coaching and Promoting Your Top Reps
[Webinar Recording]
Manager Triad Call Coaching [Cheat Sheet]
Manager Triad Call Coaching
[Cheat Sheet]