Once you have a top performing sales person on your team, how do you keep them motivated to keep going? And how do you prevent them from NOT going? Here are 6 tips to retain your sales stars.
#1. Feed their desire to learn.
A successful sales professional is eager to gain new knowledge. Satisfy their appetite with ongoing sales training. From webinars to conferences to one-on-one coaching, give them a steady diet of ideas that will keep them motivated. You want a group of people who are enthusiastic because their passion impacts their prospects. Don’t let them get rusty!
When a salesperson stagnates, they’ve given up. They are either too comfortable where they are or too lazy to make a change. The good ones move on to better opportunities. Unfortunately, that leaves you with the ones who are just there to collect a paycheck,
#2. Create challenges with rewards.
A great sales professional is competitive by nature. They thrive on challenges of all sizes. Give them a variety—some tougher than others—and vary the incentives for achievement. It’s best that you don’t tie every incentive to financial gain. Maybe you give them a trip to a conference they’ve been wanting to attend and that happens to take place in a very appealing destination. Find out their passion outside of work and give them something tied to it, which also recognizes the value of work-life balance.
#3. Offer public displays of appreciation
We all need praise once in a while. To retain your sales stars, occasionally deliver that praise to a worthy new home sales professional in the presence of their peers. Don’t solely center them around hitting sales goals. It can be as simple as acknowledging that someone overcame a tough challenge or came up with a useful way to work with a client.
#4. Cut back on meetings.
Meetings are important for some tasks, but many of them can easily be achieved with a group email. Remember that a new home sales professional’s time is their inventory. Don’t waste it with ineffective meetings. Not sure which meetings are necessary? Ask your team!
#5. Prevent monotony.
Boredom is the killer of motivation. Give your top sales performer a change every now and then. Break up the routine. Send them out to shop a competitor (and have a nice lunch on the company, see tip #2). Ask your sales stars what task is most tedious and reassign it, if possible, or find a way to make the dull stuff a better use of your salesperson’s time.
#6. Build a strong team around them.
One of the most common reasons a new home sales professional leaves is because the environment is not conducive to their needs. Often, they are surrounded by mediocre people who are tolerated by the company’s leadership. If you have one all-star on a team that isn’t championship caliber, that superstar will look for a better club. They want to thrive and can only do that in the company of other exceptional talent. If you want to retain your sales stars, purge your roster of the people who are holding you back.
When you’re ready to coach your team to a higher level, reach out to me and let’s build an entire team of stellar sales talent!
