There are many ways to motive your sales team and improve your environment. Below are four areas to focus on when developing a plan to excite your team and produce effective sales people. The overarching message is to promote communication while creating individual incentives and recognitions.

Goals. Each person on your team is motivated by something different; it could be compensation, work life-balance, benefits, company recognition, development, succession planning & growth, etc. Have each sales person determine their top three motivators, discuss together a plan to accomplish their goals and put it in writing. Also consider how their career can help them achieve their personal goals.

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Compensation. While each team member is motivated by something different, every sales person is motivated by money. You need to create a fair and effective commission structure that is reasonable and attainable. Quotas, caps, bonuses, perks, etc. need to reflect the individual’s strengths and weaknesses to compensate where that individual is strong and motivate improvement where they are lacking.

Incentives. Daily, weekly, and monthly incentives are extremely important because it creates multiple goals that each sales person can work toward. Creating fun and challenging contests will push your employees to interact with each other in a competitive environment resulting in higher productivity. Offering coffee, lunch, time off, memberships, etc. encourages your team go the extra mile.

Recognition. It can be difficult working in a team environment without knowing your role and progress within the team. Daunting group targets can only be achieved with team work and a shared knowledge of the goal. Post where the team and individual are throughout the month at attaining the goal and recognize who is working harder at any given time. Try congratulating the top performers publicly, with a personal note, or by putting their achievements in front of upper management.