Sales Team: 6 Original Ideas to Motivate Them

Updated on April 26, 2017

Is your sales team demotivated? Your company isn’t doomed by it. Having motivated salespeople is vital for any business, and fortunately, it’s possible to re-engage your team!

To motivate your field sales team, it all starts with establishing a fun, results-oriented sales culture that encourages both internal competition and the individual aspirations of your salespeople.

And if you think monetary incentives will be enough, you might be disappointed! Firstly, because your financial resources are probably not unlimited. Secondly, because monetary rewards aren’t everything when it comes to motivating salespeople. To boost motivation, it’s better to find original ideas that make an impact. That’s why we present 6 new ways to motivate your sales teams.

Motivate Your Sales Force: 6 Original Ideas

1) Offer Public Recognition to Your Sales Team

Being recognized as competent and good by one’s peers has become one of the main drivers of motivation. Public recognition allows you to sustainably motivate your employees who feel valued.

The Incenteev application allows you to broadcast public congratulations with a single click. A manager can therefore easily congratulate their employees on their performance. On Incenteev, congratulations take the form of a photo accompanied by a congratulatory message visible to everyone on the platform. You can choose the success criteria and vary them to highlight different performances.

Some companies opt for physical badges or rewards, such as a trophy, to recognize the efforts of top performers. These symbolic rewards are given out regularly (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually). Trophies and badges are not acquired forever, and salespeople must fight to keep their rewards. For your salespeople, rewards are good, but recognition is better!

2) Launch Challenges Within Your Sales Team

Salespeople are a very competitive group. They love to play and compete with their colleagues. With the Incenteev application, they can challenge each other.

Thus, in a few clicks, a salesperson can challenge another on a specific metric and period. Once the challenge is accepted, the salesperson must strive to achieve the set objective. Allowing your salespeople to challenge each other helps maintain internal emulation and positive competition.

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3) Make Your Sales Team Laugh!

We laugh an average of 5 to 6 minutes per day. Doctors recommend laughing between 10 and 15 minutes daily to be healthy. Indeed, laughter, just like exercise, releases pleasure hormones: endorphins. Laughter relaxes the diaphragm, thus allowing better blood oxygenation. And it doesn’t matter whether the laughter is forced or not! The effects are the same.

Since 2002, laughter yoga workshops have appeared in companies to contribute to employee well-being. Laughter yoga sessions are practiced in small groups. In companies, employees and managers participate together, accompanied by a facilitator. Often, the workshop begins with forced laughter to reach uncontrollable laughter; this is what is called “laughter meditation”.

Although making your team laugh is not a priority for managers, laughing as a team creates bonds and a sense of well-being.

If you’re not yet ready to organize such sessions, favorifoster a friendly atmosphere conducive to laughter within your teams. And don’t forget: humor is an unparalleled management tool!

4) Reward the “No”s!

Being a salesperson means facing many rejections. A salesperson’s talent is to turn “no”s into “yes”s. Based on the principle that those who receive the most “no”s are the most dynamic, companies reward the “no”s received to motivate their salespeople to persist in their efforts.
With Incenteev, launching a challenge on the number of calls takes 2 minutes. Challenge participants will report the “no”s received, directly from their mobile phone or computer, without going through a CRM.

5) Reward Behaviors

The classic approach in sales management is to reward objective achievement. However, your sales team’s results are not the only measure of their involvement. That’s why rewarding solely based on results, often revenue generated, is not necessarily motivating in the long term.

Incenteev tracks the virtuous behaviors of your employees, such as sharing best practices and interesting content, in order to reward them. For each virtuous action performed on the platform, points are awarded to employees to recognize their involvement.

6) Celebrate New Deals!

Contract signings are the culmination of a sales team’s work. To motivate salespeople, it’s therefore important to celebrate these moments. Be innovative!

Provide a bell to ring for each new deal signed or choose a song like, for example, “We Are The Champions” by Queen. You can let the top performer of the month choose the music.

To make these moments unforgettable, choose a team-building activity such as an escape game or an Olympics-style competition which, in addition to valuing your employees, will bring them closer.

Ultimately, your ability to identify what pleases your salespeople will make the difference in terms of motivation.
And you, how do you re-motivate your salespeople?

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