Look at any industry’s list of ‘best places to work.’ Then look at lists with titles like ‘most profitable’ or ‘fastest growing.’ Chances are you’ll find a lot of the same companies in both places.
This is no coincidence. Virgin reports that “companies with happier workplaces [deliver] 22 percent higher shareholder returns, 30 percent higher productivity,10 percent higher customer satisfaction, and a huge 54 percent increase in staff retention.”[1]
The same can also be true of a sales team. Here are 5 ways to make your reps happier and more productive:
- Set clear expectations.
Whether it’s a left tackle with a blocking assignment or a sales pro with a quota, people are happier when they work towards a goal.[2]
The clearer and more attainable the goal, the less the anxiety it creates.
Be sure to communicate what your company’s hopes to achieve and let each member of your team know how their role or assignment fits into that strategy.
- Give people tools to meet those goals.
You can’t expect a left tackle to get to his blocking assignment without cleats. If you want your sales team to produce results, they need technology to get the job done.
Mobile apps, for instance, have been shown to boost worker productivity by 34%.[3]
You see this in outside sales, where mobile apps help reps nurture and close a sale anywhere. But even inside sales reps can be more productive with voice- and text-based mobile interfaces.
- Coach your team members.
Along with clear expectations, you need to build evaluation and feedback into your processes.
This puts an onus on you, the leader. You’ll want to go into the CRM, extract intelligence about what’s working and not, and coach each team member accordingly.
This means having comprehensive, accurate and timely data. And we all know how sales people feel about data entry.
- Make sure sales pros have time for themselves.
The typical rep’s schedule can include client meetings, team meetings, management meetings and, yes, meetings about meetings. They’re part of the job.
As is entering the data about all these meetings into the CRM.
Yes, you need the information and so do they. But data entry takes away from selling time. Over an hour a day, according to HubSpot.
If your team is real busy with activities and meetings, then this least favorite part of their job can cut into personal time. When that happens, resentment and burnout are sure to follow.
- Give each team member a personal assistant
Consider giving team members an assistant for data entry. After each activity, the rep texts or says, “Hey, here’s what happened” and they’re done. 30 seconds of verbal or texted instructions replace 30 minutes of manual data entry.
The assistant updates Salesforce for them.
Rollio uses an Artificial Intelligence engine to turn a rep’s verbal or texted instructions into populated Salesforce fields.
You give your sales team more time to sell. More time for themselves. And more reasons to be happy and productive.
[1] https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/our-community/what-every-business-leader-needs-to-know-about-happiness
[2] https://www.thebalance.com/what-s-the-big-deal-about-clear-performance-expectations-1919253
[3] http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/intelligence/2014/05/apps_boost_worker_productivity_34.php
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