Keeping your sales team engaged

​In the competitive world of sales, team engagement is hugely important. An engaged and motivated team is the key to superior productivity. Simply put, if you want your business to reach its sales goals, you need a team of highly productive and enthusiastic salespeople. As a leader, it can be a challenge keeping your team engaged while juggling various tasks of your own. However, it’s crucial that you develop a strong relationship with every person in your team and ensure they feel valued, and that their opinions are always welcome.

Research has shown that companies are 21% more productive with high employee engagement. Employees who feel engaged at work will work harder and more efficiently – but this engagement must be maintained by internal leadership. Your management team must have clearly defined methods for keeping salespeople engaged. With most teams today now working remote, it’s all the more important you manage your staff effectively. To help, we’ve listed four of the most effective ways to keep your sales team engaged.

Deliver honest feedback

When you’re managing a team, you need to provide quality feedback consistently. The goal of a sales manager is to ensure that their team’s targets are being met. This means you have to keep your team motivated and understand each of your employees’ strengths and weaknesses. It can take time to build strong relationships with your team, but one of the best ways to keep them engaged is by offering feedback and coaching as frequently as possible. Given that sales can be a challenging environment, you need to give constructive feedback that keeps your employees assured and happy. It’s also important to inform your team members when they need to improve. For example, if they missed their sales targets in the previous month, you need to create a plan to help get them back on track and to be successful in the long-term.

Inspire confidence

One of the best ways to keep your sales team engaged is to continuously inspire confidence and be supportive. Having confidence is fundamental to the success of any salesperson. It’s one of the biggest indicators of strong morale and motivation, and people want to do business with confident and self-assured people. That’s why you need to create a plan for your sales team. Always make sure they’re properly trained and are prepared before making a call and talking to prospects.

Provide structure

If you want your team to grow and to stay interested in the work, you need to provide a strong foundation. This means creating a daily structure and processes that streamline work. Schedule regular calls with your team to discuss the activity for the week and to keep them progressing. When you give your team a structure and the tools they need to manage their responsibilities, it creates consistency and shows that you care about what your employees achieve day-to-day. This ultimately leads to a stronger relationship with your team, which means they’ll be more engaged.

Upskill your sales team

Upskilling is essential for equipping your team with the right skills needed to thrive. In today’s fast-moving landscape, you need to make sure your team’s skills are always fresh and up-to-date. For a sales team, provide them with additional training, such as collaboration exercises and coaching. Make sure your team understands how to use different sales management tools to measure analytics and insights. As much as sales roles are about closing deals, you also need to spend time tracking the results. When you show the results of your team’s actions, this can increase their engagement on a personal level. Always be thinking about how to improve your team and use upskilling as a way to make people feel valued, and respected.

Let BMS help you build your sales team

Now you know what it takes to keep your team engaged. But what’s the next step? If you’re looking to recruit new salespeople, why not read about the signs you’ve hired an outstanding salesperson. Keeping your sales team engaged requires effective leadership and hiring the right personnel. At BMS, we’re experts at finding the best sales talent with the skills to help your business grow. Our team of consultants have years’ of experience and are always ready to work with new clients. Contact us today if you’re looking to hire or take a further look at our careers blogs.