It's official: happy teams sell more. When it comes to boosting productivity and turnover, there is nothing more effective than simply ensuring that your employees feel valued. Happy sales consultants secure 37% more sales, are 31% more productive, and have 19% more accuracy when completing tasks.
So how can you keep your sales team happy? Simple. Regularly recognise and reward their performance when they're doing well, rather than just being critical if they're falling short.
Regularly celebrating your teams' wins not only keeps your consultants motivated and engaged in the short-term, but also helps to build a positive company culture and employer brand. This leads to better talent attraction and retention in the long run, meaning that your top performers are more likely to stay with you for longer, and contribute more as they do so.
If you're looking to inject some fun into your office life, read on for some great ideas.
Video game makers have long used core loops to motivate players. Core loops are linked activities that lead to a dopamine hit. Take an action, get feedback, feel good – it's that simple. But 72% of workers get praised less than once a week. That's a lot of missed opportunities for creating good habits and good feelings.
Here are five perfect moments to celebrate with your consultants:
1) When placements are made
Obviously!
2) When key metrics are delivered
This could be interviews for white-collar recruitment or jobs filled for blue collar.
3) Smaller targets and little wins
For example, hitting phone times for the day. If you only mark the big milestones, resourcers could end up feeling isolated (as they won't be closing revenue themselves!)
4) When whole-team or business targets are achieved
Business targets create context for team members. Celebrating them together helps to create a great company culture that will keep the team together for longer.
5) Milestones on a structured promotion path
If hitting £250K in a year triggers promotion, there’s nothing worse than management missing it. Have your congratulations ready on time, every time.
Build a Culture of Recognition With OneUp
A sincere, personal 'thank you' goes a long way, but on its own, it can get a bit boring. How could you add variety and a bit of 'wow' to your team celebrations? Here are a few ideas from the OneUp party store:
Personal theme tunes
Put the deal bell back in the cupboard. Let each team member choose a personal anthem (or pick one for them). You could also record personalised voice messages or rig up some rapturous applause. Would your team get a kick out of this?
TV screen triggers
Take some of the admin out of team recognition. Automatic TV screen triggers link to your OneUp dashboard and broadcast good news to the whole office. It's a great way to foster some friendly competition and make team members feel recognised.
Variable rewards
Variable rewards are another great idea to borrow from the video game sector. These are rewards that are delivered unpredictably and in varying amounts or formats. These random rewards can be more effective than fixed rewards for fixed milestones because we get a greater dopamine rush from the "anticipation" and "chase" than we do from the reward itself.
Dropping a surprise reward on an unsuspecting team member, for doing well in an aspect of performance that they were not expecting to be measured or rewarded for, is sure to keep everyone on their toes, and encourage the team to be on their A-game for every aspect of their role - not just the "important" ones.
Variable rewards are based on Nir Eyal's "Hook Model", itself based on experiments by the Psychologist B.F Skinner in the 1950s.
Celebrate Good Times
Everyone loves a pat on the back. The surprise factor of a creative 'well done' only adds to a positive working environment, and helps to break up what can often become a repetitive routine of the daily grind. Through gamification and regular celebration, you can maintain motivation and build the high-energy, high performance sales / recruitment team you need for your agency to thrive.
When it comes to getting your office energised, the sky is the limit. Or rather, your imagination is.
If you'd like some help or ideas, our friendly team is here to help. Learn more about our platform, or book a demo now.
OneUp Sales - building high performance sales teams by increasing productivity, retaining talent, and empowering management across your organisation.
Photos by Pablo Heimplatz and Scott Warman on Unsplash
