Every career has challenges, and that’s certainly true for sales professionals who often experience selling highs and lows.
Sales pros face numerous obstacles in their quest for success. They might have a difficult sales territory that requires lots of travel away from home. They might face a selling slump because of factors beyond their control such as an economic downturn or even a pandemic like COVID-19.
Sales managers can support their teams by motivating them to weather the rough times and inspiring them to keep growing in their careers and persevering even when their goals seem difficult–even impossible–to attain.
Here, we’ve created a resource to help managers motivate their sales professionals to keep striving and building their careers day after day.
Sales can be a dynamic field, and many individuals seem born into the role. Others may need more time to develop their skills. Many managers have teams that encompass various types of personalities and skill sets.
By motivating each member of your team, you can build a stronger, more resilient team that can support your company’s success. Use the following quotes, speeches, and other resources to inspire your sales team.
Sales Motivational Tips
To motivate your sales team, try the following tips:
Demonstrate Appreciation
Sales managers should take time to recognize salespeople who achieve great milestones like setting records and exceeding their sales quota. While it’s important to recognize the achievement of big goals, don’t forget to celebrate other activities that support your team’s success. Recognize when salespeople display positive and inspiring work habits. Highlight employees who get up after they’ve been down.
Promote Autonomy
Companies will find that their employees invest more of themselves into their job when they’re trusted and are able to enjoy a sense of autonomy.
When a salesperson is micromanaged, their success isn’t quite their success, is it? Hire good people; teach and train them; motivate them; then have the courage to let them own their own work. Be there for support, but encourage them to build their success. They’ll feel more invested in their work, and the benefits of their work can be enjoyed by the company.
Focus on Key Activities
During a sales slump, there’s no time to sit back and wait. Encourage your employees to continue to act. Help them focus on key activities like mastering their selling tools, learning about new resources, and practicing good selling habits.
Offer Meaningful Criticism
It’s not always easy for managers to confront employees with criticism, but don’t shrink from it. Advise your salespeople from the start that when you offer criticism, it’s to help them grow–not to condemn them.
Have two-way conversations with your sales professionals. Discuss problems; don’t simply talk at them. Professional growth is a process, but it doesn’t have to be a negative one. Criticism, when offered in the right ways, can actually be motivational too.
Promote a Positive Business Culture
As a manager, you set the tone for your sales department. You can create a positive culture that prioritizes support and minimizes those behaviors (i.e. backbiting, negativity, jealousy) that tear other teams apart.
Your talent will never have a second thought about leaving a negative workplace. Many people will stay with a company simply because they’re happy there. Keep that in mind as you focus on ways to inspire your team.
Sales Motivational Quotes
Share these sales motivational quotes to inspire your team. In fact, you can even write your own motivational speeches based on each quote offered here.
- “Make a customer, not a sale.” Katherine Barchetti
- “Don’t watch the clock. Do what it does. Keep going.” Sam Levenson
- “Either run the day or the day runs you.” Jim Rohn
- “One may go a long way after one is tired.” French Proverb
- “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them yourself.” Eleanor Roosevelt
- “A success is someone who decided to succeed–and worked. A failure is one who decided to succeed–and wished. A decided failure is one who failed to decide–and waited.” William Arthur Ward
- “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” George Addair
- “You may not hit a home run, but there’s no reason to stop swinging.” Dr. Idel Dreimer
- “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110% all the time.” Don Zimmer
- “A single leaf working alone provides no shade.” Chuck Page (on teamwork)
- “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” Conrad Hilton
- “It is always too hot or too cold for every man who wants to quit.” George Horace Lorimer
- “I never lose. I either win or learn.” Nelson Mandela
- “Fall seven times. Stand up eight.” Japanese Proverb
- “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” Peter Marshall
- “Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.” Henry Ford
- “Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits. Robert Brault
- “A pint of effort is worth a gallon of excuses.” William Arthur Ward
Motivational Speeches and Videos
Click this link for a compilation of motivational speeches and videos: https://blog.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com/20-motivational-videos-for-your-sales-team
Here are a few other resources for motivation videos:
- Selling Ain’t Hard When You Know How
- https://ambition.com/blog/entry/2015-2-2-10-epic-videos-to-inspire-your-salesforce/
- https://www.resourcefulselling.com/motivational-videos-for-sales/
- https://www.calllogic.com/blog/sales-motivational-speeches-to-pump-you-up/
Sales Motivation Articles
5 Sales Podcasts That Motivate Sales Teams
6 Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team
Motivating Sales People: What Really Works
New Research Reveals Unexpected Source of Sales Motivation
Three Important Elements of Sales Motivation
Motivational Playlist: Recommended Best Songs for Sales Teams [VIDEO]
Conclusion
Use these resources to inspire you to find new and meaningful ways to motivate your sales team. You’ll find that some of your pros have their own inner stores of motivation, but others may need your support, especially when they’re not on their game.
By taking time to improve your own motivational skills, you can become a better manager that can truly deliver what your team needs to achieve their goals.
