How to Motivate Sales Agents During the Slow Season

If you’re an owner operator, you’ve probably worked the sales end of your business and know how stressful being on the phones can be. Even more so, you know all too well how hard it is to break through the lethargy that overwhelms coming out of the busy season. Calls die down, relaxation sets in, and you become unmotivated.

If it happens to you, it’s inevitable that your sales agents are going through the same thing. That being said, you can’t afford for your business to take a hit due to impassive behavior and you must find creative ways to build your team up and keep driving sales.

Team contests and incentives can be fun and don’t always mean you have to spend a ton of extra money to keep your agents motivated. Here’s a few ideas we thought would be cool to try out:

The Flash Contest

Try spontaneously announcing that meeting a certain quota would be rewarded with a chance to leave early on Friday. You’ll be surprised how fast this can bring your entire team together to help each other win more deals. The key to the success of this contest is the spontaneity and time limit. By surprising the team with a desirable reward that must be achieved within a narrow time frame, you’re creating urgency and an excellent motivator.

Snooze Buttons

The goal of this is to urge best behavior on high-volume days so team members can cash in on a “snooze” button for a late start on low-volume days. This is also a solid incentive that doesn’t cost the company any money up front, outside of the opportunity for employees to receive a little extra time off. You will need to set small guidelines in order to use this strategically with what works best for your business so your team can snooze on those low volume days instead of when you need them there the most.

Example: If you need to book 100 more jobs the last week of the month to hit your goal and your team meets it, allow them to choose a day the next week to come in at 10:00am instead of 8:00am.

Random Daily Prize

Build a store of prizes of different value, then every day’s sales leader gets to choose a prize. These can be anything from dinner gift cards, new head sets, small cash incentives, etc. The randomness will drive high engagement and while most agents will receive smaller prizes, the thrill of the undiscovered will drive daily sales goals. Because each day has a prize, you can reset the counter each day and keep most of them small or free. Advertise that the larger prize is still out there to keep things exciting.

Creative Pitching

This tactic can be used for sales pitches, email templates, new client reach outs, etc. Have team members share their favorite pitches anonymously, then have the team vote on the best one. Advertise that the winner will receive a cash bonus or a paid day (or half day) off, whatever works best for your business. The goal is to get team members to communicate and share ideas that not only grow the business, but builds good communication habits and creative thinking among the team.

To find out what really motivates your agents, ask for their input. What kind of prizes and incentives drive them? It also helps to show recognition for deals they do win or various other success stories. Create an awards forum to show every time a job is booked or an agent is mentioned by a customer in a good review, etc.

What do you do to motivate your sales team during the slow moving season? We’d love to hear your ideas!