As we barrel through February, I’m sure many of you are still wondering what happened to January. Have you started the year with a solid plan for increasing sales for your small business? Don’t worry if January slipped by. It’s not too late – you can still throw a few things into your game plan.
Below are three no-cost methods you can use to motivate your team and help increase sales:
CHANGE UP STAFF MEETINGS
On demand workplaces are a great place to hold staff meetings, but do the meetings have the same itinerary week after week? Try shaking things up a bit. Bringing a fresh element to a stale routine can wake up everyone’s creativity. Maybe try alternating meeting leaders – let your sales team take the lead. Or have a “best idea” contest for the month and give away a gift certificate for the best brainstorming ideas.
UPDATE YOUR ACCOUNT LIST
Prepare a list of each sales person’s top 10 accounts in order from greatest to smallest. That will give each team member a clear idea of where most of their time is being spent (in terms of phone calls, following up, etc.) and may shed some light on new areas where they should be devoting more of their time.
CREATE A MONTHLY SALES REPORT
Your salesmen need data to:
- Plan their year
- Forecast sales
- Find new ways to increase account revenues
Why not help them out? You have an opportunity to deliver data in a creative way that can help drive your employees to sell more. Create flow charts, make some graphs, add pictures…have fun with it. Having new information delivered on a regular basis will encourage your team since they can watch their numbers climb each month. Plus, it will give them more detailed information about seasonal patterns.
Also, keep in mind that one of the most important things you can do with your team is say thank you. Show gratitude and appreciation to your employees – a valued employee is a loyal and hard working employee.
What tips do you have for free ways to boost sales? We’d love to hear your thoughts –please leave us a comment!