by The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC)
Question: How do you keep your startup sales team motivated to exceed their targets?
1. MONEY TALKS
“I like to throw performance bonuses in to the mix. Salespeople at their core really love money, so there is no better motivator to push results than that.”
– Justin Nowak | Regional Director, Prairie Region, Startup Canada
2. FRIENDLY COMPETITION
“Friendly competition is a huge motivator for my sales team. Great salespeople take an extreme amount of pride in doing great work, and they want to be the best. Competition with other salespeople brings out the best in them. However, it is still important to facilitate collaboration and make sure that the competition stays friendly.”
– Lawrence Watkins | Founder & CEO, Great Black Speakers
3. DON’T SET ANY TARGETS!
“Incentive-based pay is used by countless companies, but on a complex task such as sales, it has been shown to often be counterproductive. Instead of setting hard targets and riding your sales team for them to hit goals, work with them to help generate leads and act together. This will help you realize their pain points and may help you find a breakthrough on sales approach and strategy.”
– Patrick Curtis | Chief Monkey and Founder, WallStreetOasis.com
4. PROVIDE EVERY BIT OF SUPPORT
“I’ve seen major sales get hung up because the sales team was missing key information and they had to wait to get it. The more information and other resources your team has, the better they’ll be able to do their jobs. Do whatever it takes to get them anything they need.”
– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting
5. FOCUS ON THE RIGHT ACTIONS
“I’ve observed that making results-based goals instead of action-based goals can cause salespeople to underperform. By focusing on how many new leads they’re contacting, how many appointments they set up, and how many meetings they have each week, you can encourage your sales team to consistently take the right actions that will in turn lead to the right results.”
– Elizabeth Saunders | Founder & CEO, Real Life E®
6. RING IN THE REAL REWARDS
“Give the top-performing employee a sizeable (non-cash) reward such as an all-expenses-paid vacation. This is more memorable than a cash bonus and when the sales team sees the employee come back, grinning ear to ear with a great tan, they will work even harder next year to try and be the top sales rep.”
– Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala
7. NEVER STOP SELLING, NEVER STOP GETTING PAID
“It’s not uncommon to reward a salesperson with a commission for a sale. The sale shouldn’t stop there, however. If it applies to your product/industry, give your sales rep a recurring percentage of the customer contract so that he/she continues to nurture the relationship directly. You’ll find that this makes everyone happy and also reduces the risk of customer cancellations.”
– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon
8. GREET A LITTLE GAMIFICATION
“Competition breeds excellence. Pit your salespeople against each other with a series of challenges to tap into their competitive spirit. Sometimes a non-financial incentive is the best motivator.”
– Michael Tolkin | CEO, Merchant Exchange
9. PERFORMANCE-BASED REWARDS
“From the beginning, we really stress a performance based reward system. This system allows a sales team to be rewarded immediately for their actions. It also adds transparency to the process.”
– John Hall | CEO, Digital Talent Agents
10. FOCUS ON FORM
“Form is everything. Good form in business means you’re following a list of proven steps that lead to a consistent end result. All the while, you’re tweaking and experimenting with those steps to maximize results. Throwing lots of parties and displaying a genuine desire for everyone to succeed is also good form. This breeds a friendly, open culture where new, proven sales tactics are shared.”
– Matthew Ackerson | Founder, Saber Blast
11. STAY TRUE THROUGH TRANSPARENCY
“Too often, companies create goals for the sales team in a vacuum. Then, when the team meets or exceeds their goals, they expect very high compensation. As a startup, big sales will rarely hit the bottom line immediately, as the money needs to be reinvested. Being transparent about the state of the company — and the sales team’s critical role — will motivate everyone to beat their targets.”
– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches
12. USE CREATIVE COMPENSATION
“In addition to providing performance-based pay, you should also offer things like: “Exceed your target by 15 percent and I’ll buy you an iPad.” Or, “Close 10 clients today and you can have Friday off.” Learn what motivates your people and then give them chances to achieve those things on a regular basis. And don’t forget to praise them in the process. Praise is compensation too!”
– Robert Sofia | Co-Founder & COO, Platinum Advisor Strategies
13. SELL THE LONG-TERM VISION
“Talk to your team about the potential growth of the business and communicate to each employee how they can personally contribute to building something big. Also, present this in the context that they’ll have the chance to grow their careers with the company as the business picks up momentum.”
– John Berkowitz | Co-Founder & Vice President of National Sales,Yodle
