Bad atmosphere in the sales department is devastating as negativity means fewer customer visits and less money in. What does it look like in your team? Here, Christer B Jansson lists 10 things you as a sales manager can use to check the team’s temper.
Negativity in the workplace eats up energy. For a sales department, it becomes extremely clear when salespeople’s activity to prospect and conduct business meetings drops. Since 1999, I have been working with sales barriers and with various tests that measure sales barriers and what we call false barriers. It could be a lack of energy and commitment, the feeling of not having clear goals or performance anxiety, which according to statistics up to 10 percent of all salespeople struggle with. With the right coaching, these salespeople can go from low to high performers.
So what is it that can create negativity in the sales team? Here I have listed the 10 most common reasons based on my experience. If you work as a sales manager, all you have to do is tick off the points that work and the ones you might need to fix. And the sooner the better! In a selling organization, negativity means fewer completed customer visits and thus less money in.
1. Habits or habits
We all have preferred ways of working and interacting with others. We call these team roles and they are our way of relating, contributing and collaborating with others to accomplish our tasks and achieve important goals. But sometimes we can get stuck in our habits.
So habits need to be defined. When we get stuck in old ruts, we miss the opportunity to learn and grow. We miss our latent strengths that require us to go a little outside our comfort zone. Here, as a sales manager, you may need to step in with coaching and advice on how your team employees could develop their strengths.
2. Changed roles
It happens that employees are forced to use behaviors that are not natural to them. Maybe their job has changed over the years so that it no longer matches their personality. Review the team’s natural strengths to avoid draining employee engagement and morale.
3. Someone in the team who always saves the day
Sometimes it happens that teams over time have learned to rely on one person in the team always picking up and carrying out what others “miss”. This creates an imbalance and also means a great risk of burning out the one who saves all situations. Make sure to have clear work roles and individual reports.
4. Faults in the work environment
What constitutes an optimal environment varies, of course, from person to person. For that reason, people need different types of conditions to feel good and develop. According to the different sales behaviors that we work with at Belbin, those with Plant or Specialist behavior need space and calm to come up with new ideas. The salespeople who are Teamworkers and Coordinators need to integrate with other people regularly to perform at their best and Resource Investigators need to venture outside the team.
5. Mix of personalities in the team
Do you have many salespeople with similar personalities on your team? Then it happens that they “fight” over the same work areas. If you have several Specialists in your team, it is important to have clear boundaries so that each person has their own area. When recruiting, it is important not to bring on board too many Shapers, who are not afraid to be pushed a little and Plants, who will consolidate their own ideas should to maintain a good atmosphere.
6. The wrong people work together
When it comes to collaborations within the team, it is important to combine the right people based on their personalities and behaviors. If they sometimes work as a couple, it’s even more important, as any problems are likely to be exacerbated by personal chemistry, or lack thereof. Aim to pair people with different strengths so that one can complement others, but look for a common team role as well – a similarity in approach can mutual understanding.
7. For large teams
Having teams that are too big is more common than you might think. Even numbers on the size of the team means that decisions must be made by majority rule, rather than one person having a casting vote. For example, we have developed a guide on how big a team should be depending on its task.
8. The right structure
A successful team is based on function, not on team roles. Consider changing things if it’s not right. It is not always possible within the structure of a company to build a team from scratch, but try to build the team so that it is balanced, bearing in mind that you do not need all nine sales behaviors at each stage.
9. Time efficiency
When it comes to forming project groups, it can be a difficult balancing act. If you bring in too many people too soon, progress will be frustratingly slow. At the same time, it can mean unnecessary stress if a key person for the team is involved too late. As a rule of thumb, let people with the Coordinator and Shaper behaviors identify goals and manage people and processes at all times. The sales personalities Plants and Resource Investigators are best used to generate ideas and place them in the market, while Monitor Evaluators and Specialists are experts in analyzing plans and advice. You also need Implementers and Teamworkers to do the work and a Complete Finisher to check things off at the end. In other words, use people with the right strengths for the various tasks they have to perform and everyone gets to shine and show their positive side!
10. Psychological security
It is easier to suggest that someone needs to deal with their unallowed weaknesses in a team role than to claim that the person is aggressive. Working with the different sales behaviors means that you, as a sales manager, help your team members maximize their strengths and manage their weaknesses, enabling them to work more effectively together. It helps to create what is called psychological security in the team.
This article was originally published at the Sales Effect portal.
