Motivate Your Sales Team
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Teresa Rampulla |
If you think about it, there are only two reasons why customers will buy your products. One is that you have made a logical, rational argument that appeals to their mind. The other is that you have made an emotional connection that appeals to their heart. Any guesses as to which one is more powerful?
In the world of sales, that’s why it’s so important to be able to explain what makes your product so unique and appealing. If you really want a customer to buy your product, you need to create a deep emotional connection with that customer that resonates not in their mind, but in their heart. You need to be able to present a vision of how that person’s life is going to change forever when they use your product.
The most obvious example, of course, involves automobiles. Think about it – there are two ways to sell an automobile. You can present a long list of rational reasons to buy the vehicle – the fuel efficiency, the safety record, the long list of awards and top rankings. Or you can create an image in the mind of the consumer of how their life is going to change – that SUV is going to be an adventurous off-road vehicle that helps them lead an exciting outdoor lifestyle, or that sports car is going to mean long afternoon drives along the scenic coastal highway and the wind blowing in their hair. You get the idea, right? You’re selling the dream.
The first step to motivating and inspiring a sales team, then, is helping each and every member of your team buy into that dream for your product. You need to take your belief in the product and infect each team member with that passion. Focus on what makes the product so appealing. What makes you want it? What are some of the messages that will resonate in the hearts – not minds – of consumers? By answering those two questions, you can determine how to help them have one of their own.
From there, you need to get your sales team to set personal goals and create a plan to achieve them. Each member of the team needs to be able to deliver on the sales goals for the quarter, for the year, or for whatever period of time that you are using.
But you cannot just let members of your sales team sink or swim on their own. Remember, it’s a team effort, and that means you need to constantly find ways to help them with their performance. You need to be able to think of ways that you can inspire others with your work ethic and determination. In doing so, you can think of yourself as the captain of the team, making sure that everyone is performing at peak capacity.
Remember – anyone can sell you on a product, you must think bigger and sell them on the dream. That dream can transform an ordinary product into an extraordinary product, and can become the basis for motivating and inspiring your sales team to achieve goals they never thought possible.
