How to Keep Your Sales Team Focused During the Holidays

Just because the holidays are right around the corner doesn’t mean that the focus of your sales team needs to be on taking time off, eating holiday meals and shopping. One of your jobs as a sales leader, is to keep your sales team motivated and focused. Here’s how to keep your sales team motivated during the holidays:

Find out what keeps your individual salespeople motivated.

If you are like most, there is diversity within your sales team. Your sales team is likely made up of individuals with different behavior styles, different strengths and they are motivated differently. The time around the holidays is the perfect time to assess how your individual salespeople are motivated so that you can support them in a way that meets their internal needs. As you approach the holidays, take the time to meet individually with the members of your sales team, have conversations and listen to their stories about what they are and aren’t looking forward to around the holidays. Make notes about what you hear and circle back around with words of encouragement and even give small gifts to express your appreciation for all they’ve done throughout the year.

Find out what motivates your sales team as a whole.

It’s important for you to motivate your team as a whole. During the holiday season, you must shift your focus from revenue KPIs to keeping your team’s morale high. Lower your expectations for prospect to client conversion around the holiday season. Too high of expectations for prospecting results around the holidays will ultimately lower your team’s morale. Direct your team to reconnect and check in with current customers. Get your team off-site during the holiday season. Focus on team building, training and goal setting for next year. Get out of the office and you’ll refresh your team’s mindset and keep its energy level high.

Create healthy competition for your sales team.

Take advantage of your sales team’s natural tendencies to thrive on competition. Create activities around prospecting and reconnecting with clients. Another idea is to give everyone $50, then give them a week to spend it on brightening a stranger’s day. Then, over a team lunch have them tell their story and give $50 to the person with the best story. Most salespeople get excited about having a specific goal and deadline. It creates healthy competition.

Brainstorm about new initiatives.

The holiday season is not the best time to launch new initiatives for your company. However, it’s a great time to get them talking about new ideas and new ways to grow the business after the first of the year. During the holiday season you’ll want to do your best to keep them focused. When you pull the team together and allow them to dream big and brainstorm, you’ll renew their energy and sense of urgency. Conversations like this will get them excited about looking forward to next year’s opportunites. Save the launch of any new initiatives for after the first of year. When your sales team is back, refreshed, and fully recovered from the holidays, launch your new initiatives. This will get them excited for a new year.

Set goals for next year.

For many, the holidays are a time to reset. For those that had a great year, they must begin focusing on how they will make next year even better. Those who struggled this year need to leave it in the past and focus on the future. Get your team together outside the office. Take them to a place where you can have some fun as a team. Take your sales team someplace where they can spread out and have some quiet time to think and plan, and group time to share their thoughts and visions. Encourage your sales team to write down their S.M.A.R.T. goals for next year and share them with each other.

Leverage the holiday season. Taking time off, eating holiday meals and shopping doesn’t motivate sales people. That’s your job. Keep your sales team motivated and focused during the holidays and you’ll begin next year with energy and momentum.

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