Are We Still Having Fun?

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(By Loyd Ford) Does your sales team have any fun anymore? I know, I know. We gotta reach this goal. We have to make budget. There’s that pesky pressure. So, I ask again in another way: when was the last time your sales team had fun?

It might be hard for us to see that making sales fun is actually the job of the sales manager and market manager.

But what makes for fun in sales?

  1. Let’s start with seats on the bus. If you don’t have a really steady way to continuously recruit sellers, start studying up. Get engaged with people who recruit well. Pay attention to how it is done well. Who you put on the bus and the seat where they sit is very critical to your success.
  2. Then, let’s add confidence in one’s self. As crazy as it sounds, we often begin with new clients to find they don’t have proper levels of sales training. Some hate the very idea of investing in sales training. Don’t be one of them. If you want to have the best sales force in your market, they will be well-trained and that does give them the confidence they need to support the growth you want across time.
  3. Boost success by having a manager who sees the good in you. There are two kinds of bosses people talk about. The bad ones they make movies about and the ones that see the good things they do. But remember that being the one people remember as seeing value in them, the ones that catch them doing things right are often the ones with growing sales departments where others want to work.
  4. Create an encouraging environment. What do you think happens when you have a manager who consistently prepares encouragement for individual sellers?
  5. Give. Having a manager who is willing to give leeway on things and allow local sellers to have some breathing room and to know you listen to them is priceless.
  6. Be willing to go. When your manager rotates salespeople and goes out with them on sales calls. But here is the most important part of doing that – don’t make it critical. Catch them doing things right.
  7. Pull the ripcord. Consider inconsistently creating inside sales events (this is my code for a regular sales meeting that you disrupt completely with something fun instead of doing another meeting, which you know everyone hates*). 

*If this information about meetings is new to you, sorry. It’s true. And only you can fix it. So, consider that every week.

There’s a simple truth here. Sales is a real job and it involves steady rejection. As the manager, consider not being a part of that for your sellers.

We spend so much time focused on the math of budgets and goals (and we should). However, the most important element that could really elevate your sales is promoting fun. Fun sellers are not done sellers.

Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). They help local radio with ratings and revenue. Reach him anytime at 864.448.4169 or [email protected]. Read Loyd’s Radio Ink archives here.

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