"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." These Abraham Lincoln words still vibrate in the minds of those who have sold themselves over to win. Every sales manager or any other business executive overseeing a sales team understands that preparation is necessary for success. Therefore, they spend time sharpening their teams to achieve stellar results.
But why should you bother yourself sharpening your sales force? The reason is that different surveys show most salespersons don't meet their targets. For example, a HubSpot survey reveals that 66% of sales people are not reaching their quotas. They fail for the following reasons:
- They hate their sales jobs
- Some don't feel like they have mentors or coaches to guide them
- They lack proper training
- Insufficient prospecting skills
- Low drive to sell
- A poor understanding of their company's services or products
So, how do you overcome these challenges in your F&I Sales team? Here are four great ways of motivating your team to outstanding results.
- SET BETTER GOALS
Although it sounds obvious, most salespeople fail because they lack proper goals. You have to give your team achievable and measurable goals. Moreover, the goals should be hard and challenging enough to stretch them out of their comfort zones and grow. Therefore, Joe Vitale wrote this on his Facebook page: "A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot. Think BIG. And then think bigger than THAT." However, know what motivates each salesperson. The reason is some sales reps work well with quotas while others like contests where they emerge tops. Moreover, others prefer working with personal goals. Therefore, set goals that work best with each team member.
- PROVIDE EXTERNAL TRAINING
Second, provide external training to motivate your F&I Sales team. We understand internal trainers are excellent and more readily available. However, changing the trainers when necessary motivates your team to greater success. First, it breaks the atmosphere of familiarity and monotony. Also, it adds external experiences from an outsider so your team can look at things from a fresh angle. Consequently, you will complement your internal training and motivation efforts for better results.
- RECOGNIZE SUCCESS
It's not enough to build a winning attitude in your F&I Sales team. It's also necessary to recognize success when your team achieves it. Therefore, recognize it with the same passion you had when you were urging your team to win. First, acknowledge it verbally. Second, create proper recognition measures that will motivate them beyond the commissions or salaries they are entitled to. For instance, you can have a dinner to celebrate outstanding performance. Also, you can introduce year-end fully paid vacations for the year's best performers. Such measures go a long way in motivating your sales force.
- ENCOURAGE THOSE STRUGGLING
Salespeople differ the way your children do. Therefore, expect to have strugglers in your team and devise ways of helping them. The reason is that salespeople are at different levels. Therefore, they will manifest different types and levels of weaknesses along the way. As a great manager, you need to figure out the most appropriate ways of helping willing and growing salespersons to catch up. Having a tracking system will let you know their performance better, hence, help them personally.
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The sales team is like a team's striking wing that gets the necessary goals for winning. Therefore, your team needs motivation to surge ahead to greater success. We hope the four practical strategies we shared will enable you to propel your team to greater results. Contact us today!
