Knowing this, you need to set the bar high for the sales people, and moreover when you are talking performance. Take advantage of your model position, as well. Show these through example.

Right here are some ideas on boosting performance:
Certainly no company desires to fire a competent employee. Show all of them you got what it really takes simply by reaching your quota, and meeting it promptly.
But do not simply hit your quota either – you can do much better.

Hitting quota and accomplishing some more is actually certain to get the interest of the superiors. Now keep up that good performance.

But it must be noted that quota is equal to minimum expectation. Every person in your group is targeting for that exact same thing. So aim higher.

Maintain the mindset that you should surpass the quota every time. This is what is “setting the bar higher” is all about. Exceeding once or twice is forgettable, especially if you are a part of a huge group.

Go beyond quota, that’s the definition of excellence – and make that very clear to your sales team from the very beginning.

As being a big brother to your sales people, or perhaps a big sister, you’re in the special position to empower the sales team as well as affect their performance in the field. And so hold training seminars as well as team-building activities. It can help tighten your family-like connection and also relationship with the team.

But don’t get too caught up in it, either. As much as you’re a big brother to your sales reps, you’re also an employee of the company and should answer to your own superior. Concentrate on the intent of your team-building activities-that is, to improve your sales reps’ performance and also set the bar much higher.

Focus about what you would like your own sales team to achieve. If carried out right, they’ll follow your example. That is what being a model employee is about.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get more great information on sales management.

OK, OK I give up! Here you go…think of it as a little “St. Paddy’s Day Gift” from us to you.

This is one of the introductory videos we have as a part of The Roadmap, our first “pre-course” which sets up the whole online program. As always, you can test drive The Sales Management Mastery Academy by clicking here

Enjoy!

Why is that? Because very few speakers have the ability to fully connect with a group of listeners. When you fail to make a connection you just end up with a bored audience.

But a presentation, when done right, can have a significant emotional impact on the listener and elicit immediate action. Isn’t it what sales managers want?

It’s a sad fact that only a few sales managers realize the true potential of a powerful speech or presentation to boost sales. What separates a mediocre speaker from an excellent one is what most experts call the ability to establish a “full sensory connection” with the listener. In our case here, we’ll discuss how you can do this with your sales reps.

Some very good speakers connect visually with the audience. Others connect orally, telling powerful life stories and connecting it to the topic at hand. Some speakers do both, they establish a complete sensory connection to immerse their audience and reach out to them on a deep, even personal, level.

This type of speaker makes very effective use of the space given to them to perform their speech. In addition, they are aware of their own physical presence, and use that—their movements, posture, gestures, etc.—to reinforce their verbal message.

But establishing a full sensory connection doesn’t end there. This breed of speakers is also keen to detect the audience’s desire to respond physically. Talented speakers read these signs during the speech, and react accordingly.

Now you have an idea what establishing a “full sensory connection” means, and its subsequent benefits.

Here are some tips:

1. Sound is very important in delivering a dynamic speech and making that much-needed connection with the audience. Alter your pitch, volume, speaking rate, inflection, stress and word coloring. The less monotone, the better.
2. Strengthen your point by supporting it with facts, statistics, real-life examples, testimonials, etc. It’s easier to establish a full sensory connection when the audience trusts what they’re hearing. They also connect more with your message if its relayed in a story.
3. Grab their attention. Use humor, quotations and rhetorical questions to get them thinking about your speech.
4. Move around. As mentioned earlier, a top speaker uses the maximum space given to him to deliver his speech. Use your hands and gestures to engage the audience visually. Someone who does this effectively has charisma.
5. The speech itself should also be visual – not just you moving around the stage. Think Robert Goizueta
6. Give a sense of finality by ending the speech with a clincher – a real call to action.

As a top sales manager, you need to be constantly improving your ability to create a “full sensory connection” when you talk with your sales reps. This comes in handy during sales meetings and sales calls, where your ability to impress your ideas on others and push them to initiate positive action can draw the line between failure and success.

But the skill also comes in handy for one-on-one conversations – when you need to inspire an average sales rep to start producing better results – either when facilitating a one-on-one performance review, or when dining out with an important client. Simply put, your ability to deliver speeches and presentations effectively has a direct impact on your long-term career as an aspiring top sales manager.

Aspire and work hard in becoming an effective speaker that completely immerses the sensory perception of your audience. Sales management isn’t all about putting words into action. Sometimes it’s putting action into words. 

To learn even more about motivating your salespeople, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

Tell me what you think about the relationship between effective speakers and top sales managers by leaving a comment below.

Ask someone from your team what’s his definition of “excellence” and how it applies to his work as a sales person. Then ask yourself: what does excellence mean to me and my way of doing things?

Do you have the same standards of excellence?

Fact is that “excellence” means different things to different people. As a sales manager, you must acknowledge that everyone has varying range of potentials and talents (some better, some worse). In other words, your standards of excellence may be very different, almost unrecognizable, from the standards of your boss or co-worker.

The trick is to be flexible and inflexible at the same time. How is that possible? It’s simple, really. Be inflexible on what you want from your sales reps, but at the same time be inflexible on how you’ll guide each sales rep into achieving those goals.

Sometimes it can’t be helped that quota is the only true measuring stick to your sales reps’ performance. Look at it this way.

1. If the sales person has never achieved quota, then hitting quota is excellence, period.The standards change once the sales person learns to achieve quota on a consistent basis.
2. Excellence is any amount of work that exceeds quota, though it should always remain as realistic as possible.

It’s your duty as their sales manager to keep tabs on your sales people’s performance. Don’t strain their workload too much. How far each sales person should exceed quota to maintain excellence, they should be the one to tell you and not the other way around.

Let your sales people set their own goals. Let them write their own definition of excellence. Your job is to play editor-in-chief and guide them to not stray too far from the path they’ve decided for themselves.

To learn more about sales motivation, get our free video on the sidebar of this post or by clicking here.

Share your tips on how you nudge your sales people into working hard to achieve excellence in their careers. Leave a comment below.