In 2014, boost your sales team with an Enterprise Social Network!

The Enterprise Social Network is an innovation that increases business productivity, especially in sales departments. This tool helps companies with their major daily challenges:

• Ensure fast and fluid internal communication
• Foster collaboration and teamwork
• Effectively manage document centralization and sharing
• Develop employees
• Energize, motivate, and retain the sales force

This last point is what we will discuss in this article: sales team motivation through the Enterprise Social Network.

According to the article “Employee Motivation – A Powerful New Model” from Harvard Business Review (August 2008), there are 4 main drivers of employee motivation: A B C D.

Acquire – “Acquire”: being rewarded for one’s work, gaining something
Bond – “Connect”: social aspect, culture, atmosphere, value, sharing, and collaboration
Comprehend – “Understand”: knowing one’s role, knowing one is useful to the company, progressing
Defend – “Defend”: feeling secure, transparency, trust, recognition

The Enterprise Social Network is an excellent tool to leverage these 4 drivers of motivation, because it helps you to:

• Collaborate effectively: Create private and public work groups to exchange and collaborate on specific projects, share information and documents, and form best practice sharing groups. All these features allow you to effectively foster teamwork, social connection, and leverage the talents and skills of each employee.

• Communicate effectively and be heard: With specific topic discussion groups and idea boxes, spontaneous posts, comments, and simplified file and information sharing, you give your sales team a voice and offer them a real “connection” with you and their peers. Communication on an ESN is transparent and accessible to all, which will increase your sales team’s trust and thus their motivation. Each employee feels heard, recognized, and has the sense of participating in the company’s success. These reassuring factors will make them feel secure, but also allow them to understand their role in the organization. An internal e-reputation is then created on a modern platform that conveys the company’s culture, values, and image.

• Stimulate and foster competition: From tracking sales team results on profiles, to organizing and running sales challenges with rewards, and recognizing performance, you can engage and motivate your teams with a single tool. Some private social networks, like Incenteev, allow you to create challenges and thus boost sales. You can thus reward your sales team for their results, congratulate their performance, and thereby act on the “acquire” factor of motivation.

• Develop skills: Create quizzes, training groups, peer support groups, and best practice sharing. With an Enterprise Social Network, you effectively train your employees quickly and simply. You also promote the sharing of best practices, to help everyone gain skills. It is also a recognition tool where every progression is valued, thus encouraging self-improvement.

With an Enterprise Social Network, the 4 drivers of motivation outlined by the Harvard Business Review are optimized. You indeed offer your sales team a means to acquire skills and rewards based on their performance; you give them a social connection tool and collaboration; you allow them to understand their true role and establish their position within the company; and finally, you reassure them daily by demonstrating transparency and recognition. In 2014, it’s time for you to adopt an ESN, the modern, complete, and effective motivation tool!