Over the past year, I’ve spoken to many Sales VPs and Sales Managers who struggle to get their sales teams to do the right number of sales activities. The reps are consistently missing sales activity goals. They find so many excuses not to do the calls or have the meetings and come up short week after week. There is also the group that is hitting the activity goal, but with low-quality activity simply designed to check the box and keep their manager satisfied for the week. For either group, it’s clear that they are not motivated to do the activity.
So, whats the problem? Salespeople are smart business people motivated by commission checks. So, why wouldn’t they want to do activity that leads to success and, therefore, commissions?
My observations tell me two things.
First, companies can do a poor job of requiring activities that actually lead to sales success. Too often the sales activity standards are almost a distraction from the activities that actually influence sales. Reps resent having to do these activities since they don’t see the activity standards contributing to their success.
Second, sales managers fail to show reps the reason for the activity standards. If the sales activity standards are done correctly, then the activity should move a rep closer to goal achievement. As a sales rep, I had a manager who regularly led a conversation with our sales team about which activities were proven to lead to sales success. Occasionally we adjusted our activity standards upon examination of the evidence. Everyone felt confident that the activities were a great use of time and not just busy work. Too often sales managers don’t take the time to demonstrate through examples and evidence the REASON for the sales activity standards. The activity standards are not there to torture a sales rep, they are there to help them succeed.
If you are a sales manager who is struggling to get your rep to meet minimum activity standards, take some time to examine the activity standards, look for evidence they are worth the effort and explore the value with the team. If someone is trying to lose 5 pounds and they are told to do 20 push-ups per day, they won’t lose 5 pounds. Guess what, it will be hard to get them to keep doing 20 push-ups per day just because someone told them to. Now, if you tell them to eat 1200 calories and run 5 miles per day, they will lose weight and understand the value of the activity. (Now, it’s true, some will still choose to NOT do the activity and then you have a motivation issue which is another article topic entirely.)
Make sure there is evidence to demonstrate the value of the sales activity and then demonstrate the value to reps through collaboration. Contributing to their own success in controllable activity is extremely motivating. Sales Managers may just need to lead them there.
This post brought to you by Jill Myrick at Meeting to Win, LLC. Meeting to Win helps Sales Managers motivate and lead their teams through an interactive, sales-focused weekly sales team meeting. Visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.
