Front line sales representatives and sales managers are the driving force behind any successful business. No matter what industry we talk about, they play a crucial role in taking the organization leaps and bounds.
They don’t work from their desks, and it is their undaunted effort that builds your brand’s reputation and funds the most critical aspect of the business.
But are you doing enough to give them the job satisfaction they deserve? Are you engaging them enough to keep them motivated to do their job?
It is an unfortunate truth that front lines sales representatives are the most disengaged group in an organization and are often not on the receiving end of effective employee engagement.
As a result, the turnover rate for sales teams is much higher than in any other department.
Sounds familiar? Then here is a cold fact: Replacing an employee costs you up to 33% of an existing employee’s salary. So, what is the solution? It sounds simple but is often tricky. It would help if you worked proactively and regularly engage the sales managers and their teams.
How Does It Work?
If a study by Harvard Business Review is to be believed, then your front line sales team has the chance of achieving more success if they were more empowered and had the authority to make essential decisions on the spot.
And when they are empowered, they will serve the customers better and level up their experience with your brand.
In the following lines, we will take a look at ways to empower your sales team and take the organization towards the apex of delivering excellent customer experience. Let’s begin.
Have a Clear Vision for the Future:
Your sales team often feels disconnected from other teams, so you need to have a clear vision of your company. Your organization’s purpose should be clear for all, and the company values should be imbibed in everyone through proper engagement.
Engage them regularly to instill your vision and mission. Once they feel valued, they will adapt to your objectives and connect with the broader idea.
Empower Them Decision-Making Abilities:
Since most front line sales representatives are in the field building relationships with customers every day, they are dependent on sales managers for a lot of approvals.
Engage the frontline workforce and mentor them on how to make informed decisions when interacting with the customers. This also takes some load off the managers’ shoulders while the frontline staff gets a unique perspective about satisfying the customers.
Also, when they are involved in the decision-making process, they feel less interchangeable and take responsibility for business operations.
Inform Them About the Impact They Make:
Training and engagement are well and good, but if you do not inform the sales team about the impact they make, they are likely to lose interest in what they do.
Get back to them with progress reports and inform them about the progress they made in their work-related goals. In addition to that, inform them about the upcoming trajectories that they need to attain to improve performance.
Reward and Recognition:
How would you feel if nobody recognized all your hard work? Sounds terrible, right? It also holds for the frontline staff, and they are likely to leave your organization within a year if they don’t feel recognized for their work.
While sales managers do their bit to bring the spotlight on their team, this exercise often turns futile without the support of management. Never cease the recognition efforts as it improves morale and increases job satisfaction substantially.
To make things easier, use employee engagement software that can also measure their performance and highlight any milestones achieved automatically to the entire company.
Promote a Healthy Team Culture:
When you foster teamwork, employees collaborate in some fantastic ways. Go the extra mile, promote a healthy team culture at work, and become witness to new wonders every day.
Organize monthly team-building activities to break the ice among employees and let them know each other better outside the workplace.
Let Them Speak Their Mind:
Value your sales team’s opinion, they are regularly in touch with the customers, and their feedback can help you level up customer satisfaction immensely.
Never go silent after taking their feedback. In case their suggestions are not feasible, then inform them with valid reasons to avoid any conflict later.
Use Robust Technology Solutions:
Working with better technology always makes things better. Make sure that any digital transformation in the company finds its way to the frontline teams as well.
Going digital is one of the easiest ways to start empowering your employees. With a robust engagement solution, you can gamify everything and convert their targets into digital challenges to make work more fun.
If needed, go mobile but make sure that you give the frontline sales representatives the tools and information to always stay connected with the organization.
Integrate your communication and feedback applications to your engagement solution to make the empowering task more manageable and efficient.
To Wrap Up
Empowering employees and providing them with ample growth opportunities is the key to retain and reduce the turnover rate in your frontline teams.
While you follow the points mentioned above, make sure you implement manager-in-training, and other upskill training programs for the frontline staff. It also keeps the sales managers on their toes and prevents all parties from becoming complacent.
Start Engaging Your Teams Today
To know more about engaging your team effectively, get in touch with us today. NextBee offers robust solutions that can streamline the engagement process within your organization.
Enroll yourself for a free consultation right away and start your journey towards leveling up the customer experience.
