Change management lessons learned from 575 organizations
Manufacturing cost reduction and productivity improvement experts.
Retail sales are tough, store traffic is down, your staff is feeling sluggish and the end result are lower sales. What can you do to increase sales and turn this trend around? Start by motivating your sales personnel. Positive and motivated salespeople sell more than the lazy and grumpy.
It is easy to become bored with products over time and this boredom can be reflected in sales presentations. It is also a problem if the quality of a product declines because salespeople lose confidence in said product and no longer push this product. If you have just brought in a new product, sales might be sluggish because your team lacks product knowledge. Lack of product knowledge might mean that they are not highlighting the features, advantages and benefits desired by your clients. You can do three things this week to improve your teams' knowledge and to motivate them.
- Set up a mandatory 30 minutes per week training session for your entire staff. During these sessions, discuss features, advantages and benefits of one or two products. Star salespeople love to share their knowledge because they know that it will lead to more sales. It is almost impossible to discover if your product will solve your clients problem or fulfill his needs if you do not have a thorough knowledge and understanding of which benefits your product does and does not provide.
- Set goals for each team member as well as a group goal. Place the group goal up on a wall so they can see it every day. Track how well they are doing as a team. If you really want to motivate them, attach a spiff to attaining the goal. The spiff does not need to be expensive, be creative and make it fun for everyone. Like any other goal, it must be SMART: specific (sell 30 gadgets), measurable (you can track gadget sales), attainable, realistic (if you have no inventory of said gadget, it is not realistic to believe they will sell) and time-targeted (before June 15).
- Get rid of negativity immediately. If you have a naysayer on your sales staff who brings every one else down the minute he walk in, it is time to have a talk with him in private. Address negativity by having him concentrate on solutions instead of the problem. Place him on an improvement plan with a deadline. When he starts to be negative again, talk about solutions, not problems. In the end, if this does not improve and your business is affected financially, you might have to make a difficult decision and either move him to another department where he will be happier or ask him to leave.
While there are so many other things you can do to motivate your staff, start with these three tips today. Motivated, happy employees simply produce more than negative employees, especially in sales. Lastly, consider smiling, even when times are tough, and giving at least one person a day a heartfelt compliment or words of encouragement. It will make a tremendous difference in your life and those who work for you.
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