How to motivate your team

You want to know how to motivate your team to sell more and get them sold on what they are selling.

Get them sold

And I mean really sold. They need to be truly sold on the solution and sold on its price. In fact they need to think the price is too low.

Each morning share success stories, case studies, any emails from clients – all this reminds them how their solution is of value to the client. With their self worth increased, their confidence rises and overall they are now pumped up and motivated, excited even, to get on the ‘ole blower’ reaching out to help more people.

This leads me onto…

Do they know what they are selling?

This is the key to successfully motivating your team – it’s essential they fully understand what they are selling.  Provide product training sessions that ensure they know exactly how the solution benefits the client. Moreover, make sure every person knows the questions clients may ask, plus the sorts of questions that they need to be asking clients to fully comprehend and demonstrate exactly how your solution fits into the mix. This includes your USP and as well as those of the ‘alternatives’ out there available to the client. The team need to be so polished on this, enabling them to be totally ‘present’ with a client, observing everything that’s being said [or not said].

It is crucial, as leaders, to read the signs when our team may not be understanding the solution or themselves are not convinced or sold on the value. If they can’t explain it, in detail, with conviction back to you then they are in need of more training. Make sure they feel comfortable speaking their truth, don’t humiliate anyone who is brave enough to show their cards to come clean that they are ‘not sure’ or ‘not sold’. This is a far better scenario than a rep who bangs their chest in confidence to appease you and save face, but has no substance and will unwind when faced with a questioning client.

Regular training is best, even with a really experienced team. They need to see training as a positive. They need to appreciate the value. You need to be constantly ‘bouncing about’ different variables on how the conversations might flow and refine your messages accordingly.

When I was first promoted to a manager (in those days if you were good at sales that was the next step – little did we know the skills needed are quadruple and many just wanted to rush back to the thrill of the chase.. alas back to the story..) I would have a FAQ ‘bible’ and everyone studied it. I would walk past someone’s desk and say (pretending I was a client) ‘I have no money’ or ‘I don’t have the time‘ or ‘I like what I already have, there’s no need to change’ etc. The team were all very prepared, calm and composed in how they answered that – trialling putting a client (me) in a ‘neutral state’ and then evolving it so that I was ‘open’ to considering an alternative thought. We smashed it and they had fun.

Today we do similar – although not as ‘bell ringing’ as was done back then,  but still those core skills of how to get into the right mindset at the start of each day, how to embrace, accept and utilise objections, how to put the client at ease, how to position yourself as the authority and subject matter expert, how to earn the right to be the ‘go to’ in your field. This is key for your team.

Weekly meetings

Times when everyone gets together is when you can really maximise motivating: the team meeting. Most team meetings tend to focus on figures, leaderboards and pipelines.  My thoughts are, there is a time and place for that, as much as there is a need for : Sharing Success Stories.   This is where you debrief ‘Tom’ beforehand, who just got that deal over the line, asking him how it came about.  You get him to dig deep on the journey that took place, the order and sequence of events which consequently resulted in a sale.  You then ask him to share it with everyone else.

You: Tom got ABC over the line, I’ve asked Tom to take us through that sales journey.

Tom: Well, a few years ago I reached out to the main decision maker on Li and every month I kept an eye on all the key personnel.  I dedicated one hour doing my due diligence in being across all the key people, their posts, occasionally adding a comment or suggestion. I then noticed that good contact “what’s-his-chops” from xyz had since moved over to work there and I realised I had my ‘in’ of sorts. I did a further four Li messages starting with ‘job congratulations’ and evolving up to ‘hey would love pick your brains about..’ and we had a call four months ago. I was able to flick it onto a Video conference whilst chatting with him, and so the eye contact evolved the relationship and we discussed how I may be of service to them. I then set about doing a lot of homework on what as an organisation they liked, what they didn’t like. Why they had not budged before, what the main problems were.

My main chap then pulled in the key players and we had a meeting. I spent over a week preparing, I upped my game, really set my head to be the best version of myself. 

I sent my calendar invite with an agenda, I had prepared many variables of how it might go. I had dome some thorough research prior. I called each individual and established their agenda and needs, and seeded some ideas. During the meeting I felt confident and was able to seamlessly introduce other relevant areas they ought to consider.  They originally wanted to buy XX and because of the homework I did I was able to get them to also consider four other components which were of added value. 

When you run success stories, it means each rep has a chance to showcase how they put forward a solution. This is extremely beneficial for other reps to pull themselves out of their own bubble and allow them open their minds to other, potentially even better approaches. It enables everyone to cross share and evolve more client questions to ultimately read the client better.  They arm themselves with refined answers to deliver a more flexible and adaptable message with a compelling, more suitable and aligned solution. The reps sharing their stories also provides you with a great insight into their abilities, revealing their skills and their gaps for development.

Keep evolving:

Read: ‘What’s needed to be a high performing leader’>>>

So you want to know more on how to further motivate your team – master all the above skills and more..? check out our programs, (virtual and online)>>>

Join us: