Boosting motivation within a sales team is essential for driving performance, fostering a positive work environment, and achieving business goals. It’s important to learn how to be the type of leader that young people are looking for but you can also explore effective strategies for enhancing motivation through rewards, recognition, and fun incentive competitions. To provide valuable insights, we interviewed our head of sales here at Virgin Incentives, Jessica Hankers, who knows a thing or two about how to boost motivation. Read on to discover how you can invigorate your sales team and keep them motivated to achieve their best.
1. What is your name and role?
I am Jessica Hankers and I am the Head of Sales at Virgin Incentives, responsible for the B2B sales for both the UK and the US. I have been in sales for 20 years and been leading the sales function at Virgin Experience Days for the last 10 years.
2. What are some of the key indicators you look for to determine if your sales team is motivated or not?
Are they committed to their role? Are they empowered and engaged? Of course, their sales performance metrics will often show if a person is motivated or not, but it’s also their energy levels at work. How your team comes across during meetings, client interactions and their general energy in the office can be a great indicator of how motivated somebody is in their role. It’s important to make sure that communication is open and available to each person, so you can support them to do their roles to the best of their ability.
3. What strategies have you found most effective when learning how to boost motivation among your sales team?
Having a clear strategy for our department and expectations / roles that individually we know how each of us can do our part for a common goal. Letting people be empowered to do their roles and have input to own it. Also having a good team bond and working together is important so you can continually learn and improve. One of my personal favourite strategies is our team planning/bonding days out. This is when we’ll go out as a team to discuss our objectives and plan our ideas together which helps motivate everyone towards a common goal and then we’ll enjoy one of our fab experiences together which are always so much fun. Some of our recent days out have included a pizza making class at Bunga Bunga, a speed boat trip along the River Thames with the Thames Rockets and also a mini golf session at Swingers in London.
4. Can you share any specific initiatives or programs that have been particularly successful?
We recently ran a sales incentive campaign to cross sell within the companies we work with. Finding new contacts or schemes we can support them with existing products or another one of our products. During this campaign we saw additional revenue of £212,000. I think this was successful as the goal was clear, it was easy to track and winning was achievable (including friendly competition) – there were multiple prizes to win (throughout the campaign and at the end). There were regular updates on performance as well as on the spot rewards to keep the incentive front of mind.
5. How important are rewards and recognition in keeping your sales team motivated?
Very. In all roles throughout businesses it is important to feel recognised in the work you do and rewarded – a simple thank you / shout out can go such a long way. Having rewards included as part of this, will help create a culture and a workforce that feel valued / will go that extra mile. It needs to be genuine though as we all know when something feels like a tick box exercise and therefore loses its value. In a sales capacity, it can be hard to keep motivated when the sales climate is tough, people are not responding and you are having a tough month getting to target. This is where having a R&R program can really help and keep spirits up / individuals motivated during tough times (to keep going as that next sale can be that next call).
6. What types of rewards and recognition do you use to show appreciation to your team?
Selling the products we do – they need to be fun and exciting. Virgin Experience Days always make a great reward – encouraging them to go do something exciting and perhaps something they have not done, or would not choose to do normally, giving last memories! We also reward with our Virgin Incentives Gift Card making it easy to do quick on the spot rewards with flexible budgets by giving our team members the chance to grab a coffee and a cake or book a weekend away. We also do team nights / days out together to boost team bonding. Finally we also get a £150 Virgin Experience Days Gift Card every year (not performance related but to go and enjoy) as well as vouchers on our birthdays.
7. Sales can be a high-pressure environment. How do you balance the pressure to perform with the need to support and motivate your team?
Balancing pressure and support involves clear communication and setting realistic, achievable goals. I would hope that I have created an environment where people feel like they make a difference and want to perform well for themselves and the team. I encourage open feedback, weekly catch ups individually and make sure issues get dealt with as quickly as possible – to make sure I am approachable and they know support is there when it is needed. Regular check-ins and one-on-one meetings help me to understand their needs and provide the necessary support. I also like to actively encourage a healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout.
8. If you could give one piece of advice to other sales managers or leaders looking to boost their team’s motivation, what would it be?
Listen to your team. Every person is different and will work to the best of their abilities if they feel empowered, heard, supported and recognised. My advice would be to invest time listening and being with your team. Show genuine interest in their career growth and personal lives. When team members feel valued and supported, they’re more likely to stay motivated and committed to their work.
If you are learning how to boost motivation in your sales team, remember it involves a combination of personalized recognition, strategic rewards, and fostering a supportive work environment. Our interview with Jessica highlighted the importance of understanding your team members, balancing pressure with support, and implementing successful sales incentive campaigns. Listen to your team, and maintain a positive energy and you’ll know how to boost motivation in no time. Embrace these strategies to ensure your team remains enthusiastic, resilient, and driven towards success. Want to find out more about some of the fantastic rewards we offer to help with motivation? Click the button below:
