No matter what industry you are in, everyone is selling something, and at the foundation of every company is a hard-working sales team. At Kaspo we refer to our sales representatives as Brand Loyalists since their focus is on building loyalty for their clients brands rather than just selling promotional options. As I have reflected on myself as a leader, I have found that I have failed to use my ability to intrinsically motivate with my Brand Loyalists. Seeing this pitfall, I made the quick decision to organize a sales meeting with the outcome of scheduling weekly 30-minute sales calls.
The focus of the meeting was to remind my Brand Loyalists why they are working at Kaspo. While I may want them to be here because they love promotional products, or working with their clients, or because they have the best boss, we have to get real. My Brand Loyalists are not here because of all of those things. They are here because they see it as a place to elevate themselves and accomplish their personal goals of travel, providing for families, and purchasing nice toys.
That is the beauty of the work that we do and I want to remind them that this is really why they work here. So we took the time to write down the dreams we had for our futures at Kaspo. We then looked at our goals and our previous quarters sales results to see what activity it would take to reach these goals.
Immediately I saw their eyes light up, I saw them reengage. Rather than telling them what sales goals I needed them to reach I allowed them to define meaningful goals that could help them reach the levels they wanted.
We went over a few nuts and bolts and parted our ways with a sales call on the calendar and a new sense of purpose.
The day of the sales call came. Everyone hopped on the line and reported their numbers. Hearing each other’s numbers ignited the fire, we collaborated on the issues we were having, exposed inefficiencies in the system and left feeling like a well supported team.
The conversation always comes back to this: why are your sales reps working? What is really driving them to pick up the phone and build new relationships? Once you uncover their true motivation, you can attach sales activity to those goals and watch your representatives step into a whole new game. When you tap into their personal goals you will see it in their entire being. Look for this, encourage this, and work with this.
