Motivating Your Team Through The Dog Days Of Summer

The summer months pose a number of challenges for sales teams. With vacations, increased activities outside of the workplace, and general longing for the beautiful outdoors, it can be difficult to keep your team on track. So how do you keep your team motivated through these last few weeks of summer? Below are five tips to make sure your sales reps keep making their numbers.

1. Recognize success with rewards: if someone on your team has consistently exceeded their quota, reward them. Whether this is something small, such as a gift card, or a bigger reward like a monetary bonus, everyone enjoys being recognized for a job well done. Plus, when other team members see what they could be achieving, they will be motivated to work even harder.
2. Maintain mandatory meetings: with many people taking long weekends and vacations during the summer months, it can be difficult to get everyone in the same room. But it’s important to hold meetings at least once a week so that goals are recognized, responsibilities are delegated and most importantly, that everyone is on the same page.
3. Coordinate competitions: It’s no secret that salespeople are competitive. While high levels of competition may be an innate part of your team’s DNA, this can still lag during the summer. Split your team in two, and watch the rivalry begin. This friendly competition may be just what your team needs to make it through the summer months.
4. Track the time: Consciously tracking how long your team spends actually selling will shed a light on how much time is wasted on distractions. Using a time-tracking app, like these 10 recommended by Fast Company, will motivate your team to focus on work-related tasks, and may lead to them getting work done in less time.
5. Foster a fun environment: Time tracking and weekly meetings, while effective, may not be regarded as “fun” summer activities. Make your workplace somewhere your team wants to be by bringing in some good, clean fun. Games, catered lunches, and end-of-the-week outings are a few ways to boost happiness in the workplace.

Whether we like it or not, the summer months are fading and fall is right around the corner. As your team tries to make the best of these last few weeks of warm weather, you can do the same for your team’s goals. Using one or a combination of the above tips can help to motivate your employees through August, and ideally all the way through Q4!