How do you make sales staff become hungry for sales?

Question

The are satisfied with minimal sales and minimal income.
I am the mentor. I need to make them get more sales.
Should I approach this issue by finding out what are their dreams
and then plan how to reach it.?
Do I first try to find out whether it is a lack of skills, knowledge, perception or needs?
Does anybody know of a case of someone in a similar scenario who has changed to become a productive sales person.

Answer 1

incentives to sell..they won't push sales if there is no incentive.. it becomes just a job that pays?...they gain nothing more than a paycheck w/ no incentive, commissions or bonus...

Answer 2

As always, alot of good answers here. You are certainly on to something regarding people's dreams and helping them achieve them and while that can be a great long-distance incentive, people (especially Americans like myself are sort of spoiled and also need shorter term, instant gratification kinds of things).
First of all, schedule "ride along days" so you can assess their talent and address what needs addressing. Once you're sure they have the talent, you can proceed to motivating them.
While going to strictly commission drives people harder, it also sends quite a few employees with families looking elsewhere for employment. These are people that want and need SECURITY, as most Americans do and is how our society is structured. I did this for a number of years, but I also understood the underlying message was, "if you can't sell, we can't pay you", leaving me wondering if every action I took in my spare time would risk my paycheck i.e. my life. While it appeals to the small-business owner's bank account, it's no way to live for an employee. You may get a few very talented street-wise and hard-core people to sell this way, but it will certainly impact your employee-pool.
You didn't mention if it's inside or outside sales and what the products are, but with 20 years of direct sales experience it's been my finding that additional incentives are really what drive the competitive spirit in sales people. People will always be people and even sales can become mundane, regardless of how good you think your Monday morning meetings are.
There HAS to be a lucrative commission structure, or you'll get a lot less talented and driven sales people. Now, if you add a weekly prize (cooler, whatever), a monthly prize (nice boombox, TV) and a quarterly prize (weekend at B&B, etc) based on the products you really want them to promote dring that period, you begin to seperate the wheat from the chaffe, or the cream from the milk, or whatever they say (please note that these prizes are lower-lowel and may not be appropriate for your industry). One of the things I noticed about the prizes I strived for was 1) The recognition. Have a board that is up to date on the daily (at most, weekly) results and who is in the lead, and so forth. There is a lot of pride and ego in good salespeople and the good ones hate playing second best to anyone and worse, having it there for all to see. Remind them that it's just a little friendly competition to keep things interesting, but understand that there are deep emotions behind the prizes being offered. 2) It was usually something that I wanted to have, but didn't feel like spending the money on. Sure, I wanted a new television when I started in sales, but I also wanted to go out on weekends, pay my car insurance and whatever. Play on their egos. If you find a few people don't mind consistently being in last place, well, time to have "the talk" and consider the alternatives. I am assuming you already have a monthly sales tracker board on the wall for all to see. If not, this should be your first step.
Hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a line if I can answer any questions. Best of luck.

Answer 3

At my Agency all employees are paid a base salary plus commission. They get 25% of the Agency commision for every new sale they make. If the Agency is paid $100 commission for a policy the CSR gets $25. All commisions are paid on a monthly basis.
We also have a smaller sales "contest" each week, If the combined total sales by all CSR's reaches the set target then I take all employees out for an extended lunch at a restaurant of their choice. The target is sometimes 25 quotes per employee or a set amount of premium sold. My Agency is small-only 3 personal lines and one commercial CSR so I set them a target of $5000 written premium per person per week. We check sales every Monday and if the target has been met, the person who wrote the most gets to pick the Restaurant. It's a small price to pay for a happy work force.
If your sales still don't increase you would then need to look into whether your staff have the skills to sell policies.
I really enjoy handing out the commission checks each month - my star employee made $1700 commission last month and regularly brings in upwards of $50000 in new premium per month. Multiply that by 4 and you will really start to grow.
You also have to have a product that sells, I'm an Independent Agent so my employees have over 20 Insurance Companies to choose from to get the best price. If you have multiple companies you need to get a rating software program that will rate all your companies simultaneously. Try ITC Turbo rater or Rackley systems. It will save your employees time.
You need to get to know your employees on a personal level too, show them you care about them and they will begin to care about you, your Agency and what happens there. I have occasional get-togethers at my own home, I invite the employees and their families - this is NOT a compulsory attendance event- everyone brings a dish and we hang out together. Work is NEVER discussed at these events.
I think I have a happy workforce because my employees can approach me, we can chat about what's going on in their lives and they know what's going on with me & mine. I have one employee who has been with me 16 years and she's the "newbie"

Answer 4

I hate to say this, but it works. Remove the salary from their position. Make income 100% commission, with residual income opportunities and a commission schedule that rewards the best with the most income.

For example, a sale bringing in an estimated $1500/mo revenue would pay a lower commission rate than a sale bringing in an estimated $10k/mo.

Or, a no commission or residuals for a 6 month or 1 year contract, versus higher residuals for a 3 or 5 year contract.

Answer 5

Try a production contest, with a nice prize for the winner. A little friendly competitiveness amongst co-worker is always fun to watch. That's the key if it is fun they will love it. If it doesn't work maybe they are just not the sales staff you need. Good luck!!

Answer 6

make the place as bright as possible change the power of your light bulbs also spread some flowers about the room, if your workers feel happy they will work harder maybe try some music too, this is the only thing that may motivate them other than incentives, read up on the hawthorne studies it was a study to make your employees more productive and motivated

Answer 7

I work on direct sales and we have monthly competitions, winners get 75 to 100$ ...I think you should start out stronger, with weekly competitions

Answer 8

If your motivated then you should be able to motivate your staff, offer bonuses and/or incentives, and if that does not work there is always that old saying, "Shape up or ship out", hopefully the first will work.