How to motivate your field sales representatives?

Is it accurate to say that you are battling with your sales target? All things considered, you are not the only one. 8 out of 10 managers battle in accomplishing their sales target regardless of taking all the measures at their disposal: giving rewards, giving incentives, streamlining process, etc. As a sales manager you will soon understand that there isn't a simple method to get your field sales force to assist you with accomplishing your area sales targets fluently . Additionally, a little examination of the idea of field sales and behavioural science can reveal to you that the reason for this is only an absence of motivation among the field sales force. You cannot sell easily and on a huge scale in the field until your field sales force is motivated to do so. But is motivation really that important and what are the different ways in which you can motivate your folks? Let’s find out.

Why do you need to motivate your field sales team?

You certainly know about the complex nature of field sales. Selling more than 100+ SKUs to around 35-40 outlets daily with nonstop weight of accomplishing targets isn't a simple activity. A field sales force agent travels 25 km every day by and large, and this excursion often is loaded up with  fatigue, tension, rejections, complaints, and objections.

If technology such as Unolo is not given, the complexity can increase manifold. Also, the field sales force needs to work alone practically almost all of the time. They need to determine issues that emerge while selling, all alone. In such a scenario, the field sales force can get caught up in a pool of negativity or fatigue which will always hamper the sales progress drastically. The only thing that can help them to go on in spite of the situation is a commitment to the cause. And the only thing that can establish commitment is motivation.

So it’s very clear why motivating field sales force is not just an exercise in creating but employee experience but also ultimately and integrally related to the over business goals of the organisation. The higher your sales reps are motivated, better are your chances to achieve your weekly or monthly targets. So now the question is, how can you, as a sales manager, motivate them to keep their focus on sales? Here are a few thoughts on the same.

How can you motivate your field sales reps?

Build an Innovating and smart Incentive structure

Do you have an incentive system set up? Is it delivering anticipated results? What KPIs does the incentive system measure? How is the performance of the field salesman identified with the accomplishment of their sales targets?

You may have answers to these questions and you may be persuaded that you are doing it in the correct manner. In any case, my question to you is that when did you last revise the incentive model? Is it the same as it was a year ago? At that point I am certain that it won't give the results you were anticipating.

You may wish to change or improve the incentive model frequently as per the business requirements and your field sales force's feedback. For instance, you can create your incentive model to improve sales coverage, but once you are at the industry level, you need to change the objective and reframe the incentive model. Keep doing this, and you will have a self-motivated team.

Encourage your middle management to help their team on the ground

As talked about before, the life of a field sales representative is loaded up with multiple challenges. Some of the time they need different viewpoints to comprehend the issues. In this way joint working with their manager encourages a field sales representative to overcome different retailing challenges.It also helps them to improve their approach towards product selling across different outlet categories.

Empower your middle management with Limited and Focused data in the hands

How many of your middle managers are tracking their field sales force's performance daily? Is it true that they are appreciating their team for daily accomplishments? It is safe to say that they are helping struggling field sales executives? Do they have real-time on-field data to track their team performance?

Your middle managers should have access to real-time data, and it should be appropriate data so they can make better decisions on the go. Unolo provides data such as real time location, orders taken and the personal journey plan for a particular field sales representative. With this sort of data the centre manager would be able to figure out where the problem lies. Is it because of the commitment issues of the field sales representative or is there some other problem? Hence the middle manager can approach the problem in a more confident manner.

Reap benefits of Unolo

One of the tormenting jobs of a field sales representative is manual reporting as it requires a lot of time investment in getting the reports ready and submitting them. The best way to keep them concentrated on selling is to enable them with the most recent technology available. Unolo is one of the tools which a large number of brands are utilising to empower their field sales force. Unolo has features like task management which can help the field sales representatives know the tasks for the day and even fill custom forms when they mark them as complete and they can track their performance on daily/weekly basis and don't have to create custom reports which makes them motivated and keeps them aligned with their target.

Little thanks are a big motivation tool. You ought to make a culture of gratefulness where everybody acknowledges each other's little accomplishments also.

At the point when you make motivating field sales representative a significant aspect of your responsibilities, it will make your life simple. Eventually, with time you will find out about more subtleties and exact things that can make your field sales representative ready to go that additional mile.

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