Motivation Techniques on How to Motivate Employees Using Sales Team Training and Free Web Resources

Motivation techniques and how to motivate employees is an area many sales managers find difficult and time consuming. They find it easy to present and supply sales team training on selling skills, but what about motivation techniques. To motivate a sales person you need to offer a regular boost of self motivation. It can take time to constantly find new and refreshing ideas, and give different angles and perspectives on how to get into the most effective selling state. The sales motivation techniques offered here will give you a sales training and motivation program for your sales team using a minimum amount of time. It uses the free resources available on the Internet and it won't cost you a penny. It also gets your team involved from the start and asks them to contribute as the idea grows in size and benefits. 

How it worked for my sales teams

The objective is to build a list of free online sales training and motivation resources available on the Internet and use them in an ongoing motivation program. You probably have some links saved in your favourites list. Your sales team will have some as well.  As a starting point imagine if you had a list of links to all those sales and motivation websites you already know about, all in one easy to access place. This is how I started when looking at how to motivate employees in my sales teams. Then we added all the other sites we came across that had effective sales training or good motivation techniques.

How to put these motivation technique sinto action today

Here's how to put this sales team training into action with your sales teams. First, build the list of good quality links to websites. Present the idea of building an Internet based training and motivation resource to your sales team. Show them a few examples of websites that you use for sales training and information. Ask them to submit their own. Get them to go through their favourites list on their PC's, log into their search history, and ask them to click around the Internet to find new and interesting websites. Get them involved, show them the benefits, and ask for their feedback.

Decide where to keep the list of links

Decide upon the best place to keep your list of sales and motivation websites. You want somewhere that is easy to access, will be remembered, and is accessible by all the sales team. It must also be somewhere that the information and new links can be added regularly. If your organisation has a company intranet then that may be a good place to start building your sales training resource. Shared drives and folders are another good place to park the list of links. You might think of other ideas such as sending it out in a company newsletter, or simply emailing the list to your sales team on a regular basis.

Add some information to each link

To make this list of sales team training and motivation links effective, add a brief description to each link. It only needs a few comments to indicate if the link is about motivation techniques, sales training, or product and industry knowledge. Ask your team to add these comments when they submit a new link to be added to the list. You could take this further and add a rating system from 1 to 5 on how effective and useful they think the website is.

Keep the list updated

Keep the list updated and over time you will build an enormous resource of sales training and motivation techniques. The more comprehensive the descriptions and comments about the website are the more effective and useful your list will be. Think what could happen if you expand and develop the use of this free resource. What if you included more people within your organisation and expanded the topics covered by this list of websites. As long as the list is separated into categories for each topic, and perhaps even a contents page written, it will remain useful and effective.

Add a motivation training schedule

Once we brought all these great website links together we set certain times of the week to make the best use of these motivation techniques. Motivation training works best in short bursts with specific objectives. There a certain times of the week when a quick burst of motivation, a new sales training idea, or examples of proven marketing techniques, are most effective.

Monday morning after a weekend break 15 minutes on a good website, with short sharp self motivation techniques, can get you into a selling state. Friday morning we have found clicking on websites with time management, or prospecting tips, which can be used the following week, can have a great effect. When you have a tough day facing difficult objections and can't close sales, then a sales training site is a good way to finish the day. These are examples of how we use these sales team training motivation techniques. You can adapt them, develop them, and find how to motivate your employees using a list of good Internet links. The sales team have bought into the idea because they helped to build the list. 

I'm Stephen Craine, a working sales manager and trainer. If you like the motivation training techniques offered here then my advice is to take that first action today. You know what will happen if you put it off and leave it for later, it just will not get done and you'll miss out on the benefits of these techniques. Take one step towards creating your list now, and also think about where you are going to store it. It only takes one person to start this list rolling and others will soon join in and want to share the resource. So let me offer you these first links and descriptions to start your sales team training and motivation list of web pages and free resources on the Internet.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

The home page of my sales training website for all sales people, self employed and small business owners, and sales managers.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-training-free.html

Free sales training that you can use today and start using to increase your sales results. Sales training on: Basic sales training for people new to sales. Sales training on using a sales process. How to make sales appointments. Simply copy and paste the above links and descriptions and you have started your list of sales training and motivation techniques for you and your sales team. Mail these first 2 links out to your team and let them know about the free training resource you are starting. Add the links to your company intranet, shared drives or folders, or send out a regular update by email. This could be the start of something big and you will get the credit.

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How to Motivate Sales People Without Money?

It is common knowledge that many sales people can calculate how much commission they have earned faster and more accurate than any super computer. Indeed, money is a key driving force that motivates most, and certainly for the more successful ones.

However, is money then the ONLY motivator, or are there anything else?

If you were to ask anyone why they want to be one, there will usually be 3 answers:

1. For the money (of course);

2. Being able to directly link their efforts to tangible results; and

3. Having the (relative) independence and flexibility in their jobs

As such, while money may be the key driver for most, it certainly is not the only one. They are also motivated by a sense of achievement, and the more successful ones usually have large egos as well.

If we were to look deep into what motivates people, here are 2 factors that we need to consider:

1. Are the rewards attractive (or punishment severe) enough?

2. Am I able to achieve it?

Avoiding Pain vs. Seeking Pleasure

While making money is a great pleasure for many people, including sales people, some are first motivated by avoiding the punishment of NOT achieving their monthly, quarterly or annual sales targets. Hence, it's a very common practice for sales people to "hide" potential contracts to "save them for the next financial period", rather than to risk NOT meeting the sales targets for that period.

Sales people are indeed masters of work flow optimization in this sense. However, this does not help you in getting results from your sales team, and sometimes deals may be lost due to the delays caused when sales people want to "save them for the next quarter".

When companies use money as the only motivator, it is also a riskier proposition. There's nothing to prevent competitors to use the same motivator to entice your best people (along with your best customers) to defect. While there may be some non-competitive clauses in employment contracts, these are seldom enforceable, especially in Asia.

As mentioned earlier, successful sales people usually have large (sometimes over-sized) egos. Nothing feeds the ego other than believing (correctly or otherwise) that you had singlehandedly contributed millions of dollars to your company's sales revenue. However, massaging the sales person's ego (either by making them superstars when they succeed, or "humiliating" them when they don't deliver the intended results) is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it will drive people to achieve super-human results. On the other hand, they may be so focused on their self-achievement that they become insensitive to issues such as:

Serving customer needs,

Maintaining healthy margins,

Ensuring cross department support and

other factors that will impact business results.

When the egos become over-sized, some people can have a false sense of "invincibility". Some live on past glories, even when current sales results are not as good or outstanding as before. To overcome this, Dell Computers have made sure that their egos are in check by just focusing on the present and future. Past performance mean nothing to Dell's sales managers, and a top performer is only as good as the next sale. They are as such motivated to maintain their "successful" status every single day.

Eventually, sales people get burnt out. Depending on the industry, they usually achieve their peak about 1 to 1.5 years after joining a company. How they perform beyond the peak period is a matter of how you motivate and nurture them.

Besides dishing out ever better incentives (usually money-related), many companies chose to promote their top sales to be sales managers. Unfortunately, both motivational strategies are not effective. When they feel burnt out, it's not an issue that can be resolved with money (or most incentives). In addition, only 15% of top sales people can be competent managers.

When they feel burnt out, it is usually they found that they are not further developing themselves or learning anything new anymore. Usually, they found they have reached some kind of plateau in getting better sales results, and the repetition of doing the same old thing is becoming boring to them as well.

This is also the phase when good people are the most vulnerable to defecting to your competitors. To overcome this, we will have to looking into other overlooked motivators.

Can I Do It?

As mentioned earlier, the other aspect of motivation is whether you feel you are able to do your job well.

In some industries where sales management practices tend to be Neanderthal (email me to find out which ones), the attrition of new sales hires are astonishingly high. These new hires are motivated by making more money, just like any successful sales person will be. However, due to the lack of proper training, coaching and guidance, as much as 90% of these new hires leave within 1 month. If they don't see brightness of the future, they'll just go.

While such companies do provide some level of sales training, as much as 87% of all sales training evaporates within 1 month of the training. And this statistic refer to companies with better sales management practices in place. For companies with weaker sales management, most of these training are outdated and don't really prepare the sales person to handle customers in the real world. Without a post-training supporting environment, the new hires feel overwhelmed and and helpless, and then they just leave.

When sales people find that they are not able to achieve better results, or net bigger deals, or improve margins, what they need now is support from management on how they can achieve breakthroughs. They know that if they can do better, the monetary incentives are all there waiting for them. What they really need is the right guidance and support them how they can do so.

Besides providing the usual training, here are other ways that managers can get their people proceed to the next level of performance:

Align sales strategies to market realities. Sometimes, due to rapid market changes, sales strategies mapped out 6 months ago may have already be outdated. A sales strategy re-alignment may help close more sales;

Provide recognition of improvements in sales process. While people are rewarded (or punished) based on results (sales targets), few sales managers actually recognize the improvements that sales people made in their sales process. If sales people made sales process improvements, it is very likely that this will lead to better results. Such improvements need to be recognized, reinforced and made as good examples for others to follow.

Motivating the Sales Force Without Using Money

In a nutshell, when people join the sales force, they may do so in the hopes of making more money. However, if you want to get them to perform to the next level of performance, you will need to improve their skills and abilities to achieve better results. In fact, management guru Ram Charan mentioned that if using incentives as the main means to get better performance from the sales team is an outdated approach

If you find isolated cases of poor performance from your team, then perhaps these few bad hats are just making excuses not to work hard. However, if you find that poor performance is widespread and pervasive in your sales force, then you, as manager, are making THE excuse for not providing the necessary support and guidance for your people.

Pls. see www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for explanation of some key concepts discussed here.

c.j. is an Affiliate with HR Chally Group in China. Founded in 1973 through a grant from the U.S. Justice Department, the HR Chally Group provides predictive and compliant assessment system for management, sales, technical, customer care, and administrative talents. Unlike other assessment tools that just conducts personality profiles, Chally profiles what is exactly required by specific job descriptions and responsibilities and predict if these talents can succeed in future. As such, you'll get:

* Up to 40% reduction in staff turnover

* Up to 30% increase in employee productivity

* 85%+ accuracy in identifying effective performers

Prior to this, c.j. was Asia Marketing Manager for a Fortune 500 logistics company, as well as Corporate Training Manager for Ringier AG, Switzerland's largest media group, in China, where he was responsible for sales team development, and helped increase the % of new hires to close their 1st sales within 2 months by 30%, as well as increase overall sales targets by more than 50%. Visit http://www.psycheselling.com for more info.

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How to Motivate and Coach a Winning Sales Team

We have heard that success is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. But sales is a profession that requires large doses of inspiration and motivation on a regular basis in order to be successful. Professional sales people face a lot of rejection and for every 'YES' there are at least nine "NOs'. It can be difficult sometimes experiencing all the rejection successful sales people recognize that the constant barrage of "NOs" is not to be taken personally, but that its just part of the sales game. Even if one gets used to the rejection over time, the stiff competition from rivals, adverse market conditions, and the need to keep meeting or exceeding sales targets can affect the performance of a sales person. Even top achievers are not immune to this. At such times the antidote is the motivation from the sales manager. Applied in the right amounts and at appropriate times, motivation can lift the sagging spirits of the sales force. Their body language changes, they start performing better, and their results improve.

Know Your Sales Team

Strengths and Weaknesses: As a sales manager you must know your sales team thoroughly. You must know the strengths and weaknesses of each member of your sales force. A sales manager has to work with the sales team that they have been given. Each sales person has certain strengths and drawbacks. The talent of a sales manager is to optimize the results by capitalizing on the strengths. It helps if you know that X is good with institutional sales and Y is better at individual sales. Or that A can get along with up market clients better and B can maintain a certain type of account. If you know that C has worked in the service industry earlier in his career and can gel well with professionals from that industry it would help you both. It also helps when you know within the team who works well with whom. Ultimately you want them to perform better and having a coherently working team is always good to achieve the sales goals of the individual and the organization.

Driving Forces: Even knowing about their personal lives is helpful when it comes to dealing with the sales team. It is hard to compartmentalize personal and professional lives. Somehow they affect each other no matter how hard we try to segregate them. If their personal life is going great, things are more likely to be brighter on the professional front and vice versa. If you know that sales people are interested in earning extra incentives by working harder to pay their new car loan, they would show all the enthusiasm to do so. It would be wise to give them the opportunity to do so. Young sales people will be keen to earn more money to pay off their student loans or finance car loans. Middle aged sales people would like to finance their kids' college education or pay-off their home mortgage. It is important to know the driving force of each sales person on your team.

Encourage them to Share with You

Professional: You should encourage your sales people to talk to you about things that are influencing their work. This includes product information, sales processes being followed, sales support, their relationship with co-workers, attitude towards the management policy, their equation with you, and any other factors. You should sort out if there are any issues. If a sales person provides valid suggestions about improving the sales process then the best motivation for them would be to modify the sales process and attribute the credit to them. Some members of your team may be interested in periodic training and workshops. Encourage them by providing the opportunities for such skill sharpening and enhancement training.

Personal Joys and Sorrows: As a sales manager you can be the friend, philosopher, and guide of your sales staff. Encourage them to open up with you and discuss their personal matters with you on a one-on-one basis. Try to provide friendly counseling. Offer solutions and ask them to put everything behind and march ahead. Knowing their personal joys and sorrows you can be a part of their lives and they would trust you more as a leader. This will help you in getting things done. Also it will be easier for you to understand that the reason for somebody's poor sales performance in a given month are the challenges in their personal life.

Rewarding Achievements

Recognition is the key in sales. When a sales person achieves something appreciate it by way of incentives, perks, and gifts. Also acknowledge the success publicly so that he feels recognized and appreciated. This acts as the best booster to perform better.

Be Gentle Yet Firm

When somebody on the team is not reaching their sales goals be gentle with them. The worst thing would be to single them out in a sales meeting in front of everybody. Try to find out why they are failing. Ask them to meet and talk to you one-on-one and find out their problem. Provide the solution if there is any. Point out where they can improve. Be gentle and firm with such people. Allow them enough chance to improve. A little compassion and understanding goes a long way as a sales manger and can help your sales team to get back on track to sales success.

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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If You Comp Them, They Will Come: The Simple Way To Motivate Your Sales Force

In most companies, the sales force is the most loved and simultaneously feared organization in the company. Often perceived as the corporate "breadwinners," any attempt to change the behavior or process of the sales force is met with skepticism and trepidation.

"You just can't risk upsetting the sales force! Do you know how much revenue is at stake here?"

Any initiative or strategy that might change the way sales works, or perhaps more closely track what it is the sales forces actually does is perceived as a threat in all levels of a sales organization. New systems or processes mean only one thing to sales: a learning curve that means less time to sell, which in turn leads to lower commissions. Therein lies the simple answer to all change management challenges when dealing with a sales force: commissions.

Arguing that commissions are the key lever to influence sales may seem to imply that salespeople are a bunch of money grubbing capitalists, forsaking all else in pursuit of the almighty dollar. This however is largely untrue, rather the sales force is one of the few areas in most corporations where a very simple metric, and corresponding lever exist to manipulate behavior. Commissions are both a key part of compensation, but also a hard, numeric metric to indicate how well a particular person has performed. If Jane received higher commissions than I did, there's a very strong case that can be made that Jane is a better salesperson than I.

Whereas many positions have complex evaluations, peer reviews and other "soft" analysis, in sales, you either made the sale or you did not. At the end of the day, a customer needs to cut a check to pay for the sale, so you know exactly what that sale brought in to the company's top line.

At their most simple level, commissions give the salesperson a "piece of the action" they generate, and encourage a beneficial behavior: selling more products. This is where some level of sophistication enters the process. Rarely does a company simply give a salesperson a fixed percentage of each sale, rather higher margin deals usually receive a higher commission, or new product sales are rewarded more than sales of an older product to an existing customer. Combining your commission model with your process improvement strategy is where the magic happens. If your sales force is consistently selling products in a manner that creates extra labor and sunk costs on the backend, change your commission model to encourage sales that follow the new and improved process, and generate higher profit on the bottom line rather than big dollars on the top line. All it takes for the new commission model to be wholeheartedly embraced is for one salesperson to get a higher commission using the new model, or for a hard line rep to lose his ticket to the annual sales meeting in Hawaii before word will spread that the company is serious about change.

I'll never forget a discussion I had with an Operations Exec at a large office equipment company, which I'll call BigCo for the purposes of this article. He had recently assumed the new role, and was telling me of his first experience with Sales leadership. A SVP had come into his office the prior week and proudly announced that one of the sales reps was closing a multi-million dollar deal with one of the large overnight package handling companies. The sales rep had promised that BigCo would move all of their shipping to this carrier and hand wrote this clause into their contract, and the SVP was thrilled that this deal would put sales well ahead of its quarterly revenue metric.

The operations exec, who had just signed a multi-year deal with their current carrier, and recently completed a nine month project to optimize BigCo's logistics operation, was stunned. He did some analysis on the costs of switching carriers and revamping the systems and processes he had just put in place, and even with the million or so of revenue generated by the sale, the entire deal would result in the company losing two to three times as much. On their next meeting, the operations guy tore up the contract in front of the sales SVP, to dumbfounded silence. Even with the reams of figures showing how detrimental the deal was to the company as a whole, he still spent quite a bit of time on the sales forces' "Top Ten Most Wanted" list.

The moral of this story is that sales comp must be analyzed from a holistic perspective. What is good for sales may not be good for the company, and the implementation of new systems or new business processes is the perfect time to perform this analysis and determine an appropriate commission model. Make no mistake that this is difficult work, but once completed, getting the sales force to change is as easy as sending out an email detailing the new commission model. Old behaviors, which were not profitable to the company as a whole should not be highly compensated (if at all), and profitable deals, which use the systems and processes correctly should be the most valuable to the salesperson. As soon as reps realize the new plan is there to stay, more "good" deals will begin appearing almost overnight.

The magic here is the simplicity of implementing the change. Existing motivational structures such as compensation, bonus programs and free trips to an exotic location are already in place, the new commission model simply changes the focus from what is good for sales to what is good for the company as a whole. If a new CRM system is deemed as good for the company, the commission model should provide compensation if a deal is correctly entered into the new system, and reduced commission (or no commission) if the systems and processes are not used. If you want to get even more rigorous, you could track the time required for back office processing of a sale, and deduct compensation for difficult to process (more costly) deals.

Despite all the dire predictions on sales acceptance of a new system or process change, like any other employee most salespeople want to be high performers (if they do not, they should be shown the door, but that is a topic for another time). If you add systems and overhead without showing any benefit, in the form of commissions, your company will join the litany of those complaining about and fearing their sales forces. If your commission model is designed to reward use of tools that benefit the company as a whole, not only will your sales force rapidly accept the new systems and processes, but will be bringing in new business that provides the highest margin for the entire company.

Patrick Gray is the President of Prevoyance Group, the leading consulting company dedicated to helping companies ensure their large IT projects deliver organizational value on time and on budget. To find out how to increase the value produced by YOUR IT organization and become a hero in the C-suite, please visit http://www.prevoyancegroup.com/whitepaper for a complimentary whitepaper.

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How to Motivate Your Sales Team So They STAY Motivated: Build a Foundation of Motivation

Do you feel that your sales team needs constant motivation? Do you feel you continuously have to pump-them-up just to meet minimum sales quotas? Of course, there is always a need for continuous positive and constructive input from sales management. However, your sales force should never become completely dependent on motivational food alone. When the team becomes hooked on the regular and excepted motivational high, they become like addicts who, without that fix, slip into the sales abyss.

If you feel sales production rises and falls according to the amount of handholding or cheerleading time the sales team receives, then you need to build your team on a motivational foundation rather than motivational rhetoric.

My team is already motivated

Some may be thinking, "My team seems to be as motivated as they can be and not always when I am around to pump them jump." Many sales managers and directors believe that since the team seems to be moving right along; sales are ok, production is par-for-the-course and no one is complaining, then the team must be on track. Since you have received no criticism and no one has quit this week, then everything must be OK---right? The biggest sign of an under-motivated team is no sign at all. That is when you get a quiet, steady flow of the "Just enough to get by," mentality and sales people who meander in a maze of mediocrity. Build on a foundation of motivation and reach new levels of production.

Silent Motivation

Unfortunately today, many sales managers believe that motivating a team means to engage the impressionable, unsuspecting souls in some ear-shattering, tambourine banging, adrenaline pumping rah-rah, you-can-do-it pep rally for an hour or two. While others feel that motivating is to utter the right words at the right time, lifting someone's spirits after she has lost a big sale. Or, to deliver a speech at the sales meeting to fire the team up so they will believe they can do a little better this quarter than the last.

While those thoughts have their merit, they are temporary and superficial. However, there are real, tangible, technical and structural measures that you and your company can take to help sales people develop true enthusiasm in their hearts, and a sense of self-motivation that will inspire them to greatness. True motivation comes from within.

Below are three motivational pillars to build a foundation for your sales force.

Concentrate on these three concepts, and the rest of your problems will take care of themselves! Be forwarded however, that these tips are probably not what you were expecting and some people are not going to take this very well. However, like most good medicine, it may taste bad going down, but it is what you really need.

Pillar #1: Show Your Sales Team That the Company Cares

Contrary to popular belief, the primary motivating factor for sales people is NOT the money. It is true that most sales people originally join the organization they work with primarily due to the lure of money. However, the primary reason they stay with the firm is that they feel the company cares about them-personally. Prove to your sales team that you care about them: their personal welfare, their success. Let them know that you put their success before yours and the company's, and they will stay motivated from the inside.

Sales People Come First

Frankly, as a sales manager, putting the sales person first, should be your personal philosophy anyway. If they fail, you and the company fail. Their success does come before yours. Often however, sales people feel as though the company puts everything and everybody before them. Many sales people feel the firm only cares about the money, and that they, as individuals, are as expendable as any tool or pawn. When people reach this low self-worth mindset, no amount of money, cheering or anything else will motivate them to reach high levels of success. To build on a foundation of motivation, first you must show sales people that the company cares, and note, I said SHOW them not TELL them.

How to SHOW Your Firm Cares

So, how do you show, demonstrate or otherwise prove that the company cares for the sales person? In fact, how do you know if you are doing that now or not? Look at some of your organization's policies and begin with your pay schedule. I am not referring to the amount you pay your sales people, nor the commission structure. The question is WHEN do you pay your sales people?

In many an organizations, the sales person, who is responsible for generating the money in the first place, receives his or her pay (the commissionable portion) last. If your firm pays the receptionist, the secretaries, the cleaning people, the VPs, you, the CEO, CFO, CIO, and everyone else first, then pays the sales person out of the leftovers, you are not putting the sales person first. Now of course, one could argue that technically, everyone is involved in the sale, not just the sales person, and that is true. There is the CIO and the website that attracted the lead, the marketing crew that created the sales collateral, the receptionist who answered the call, shipping who got out the literature on time, etc. However, if that sales person does not go out and close the sale, the fact is, none of those people ever get paid. Look at your pay schedule, your charge-back rules, your benefits plan, the sales break room, your intranet. Look deep and be honest. Are you putting the sales team first?

Pillar #2: Treat Sales People like the Executives They Are.

Treat your sales team as if they are true executives; directors or CEOs and give them the support they need to perform as such. Create a sales support system that allows sales people to do what they need to do: SELL.

In an effort to save money, too many organizations pile a bunch of petty, non-essential, non-sales tasks on the sales team. Someone figures that the organization can save $25,000 by NOT hiring an administrative person to handle some paperwork. Instead, "Let's just have the sales people do it." Well, you might save the $25,000 salary of the admin person, but you will lose a million dollars in the process. What is obvious and quantifiable is the time your sales people must spend doing things other than selling. What is much harder to calculate is the enormous loss you suffer due to the damage to the sales person's psyche. How can you convince someone that they can go out and secure a seven-figure deal, when you have them doing four-figure work all day? Give your sales team a support system and staff so they can spend 90% to 95% of their time on income producing activities, and they will feel like executives and you will see motivation from within.

Pillar #3: Get Sales People Involved in Company Decisions

One of the main reasons people become sales professionals is because they want to be in control of their destiny. Most sales people will tell you that feeling in charge of their income and controlling their fate is a driving force in their career decision.

When a sales person feels that the company will do whatever they want, whenever they want, it's all over. With total disregard for the sales person, the company makes blatant decisions that significantly and often adversely affect the sales person's life and family. The sales person feels like they no longer control their own fate when they have no say in decisions. Also, keep in mind that every sales person believes they know more about the industry and what is going on in the field than anyone at the office or corporate. Whether that is true or not, the fact is the sales person's primary security of being in charge of his or her fate is lost.

Before any major or reasonably significant decision, meet with the sales team, individually. Let each know that their opinions and ideas count. This does not mean that you have to agree or follow their suggestions. In fact, the sales team will be grateful no matter what happens because they feel involved.

Build a foundation of motivation for your sales team:

Show the sales team the company cares about them
Treat the sales team like the executives they are
Involve the sales team in company decisions

Once you establish a motivational foundation, you will significantly decrease turnover, increase sales and maximize productivity. Then and only then will those rah, rah, you-can-do-it pep rallies begin to make sense, dollars and sense!

John Landrine http://www.writebusinesssolution.com is a former CEO/GM with 25 years real world experience who provides article, book and e-Book writing and ghostwriting with strong SEO, keyword dense content. John also produces high quality self-help and motivational writing and training. He can create training manuals for entry-level to advanced direct sales and telephone sales training, motivation and consultation. In addition, John can supply professional sales presentations, sales manuals and collateral, sales and marketing strategy, planning and design and database/CRM training.

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