How to Keep Sales Staff Motivated During Holiday Season

Here’s how to make the most of an end-of-year push to meet sales targets.

Steps

1
Make things interesting with a contest, incentive program, or by boosting office morale.
2
Keep your finger on the pulse -- stay in close communication with sales staff and key personnel.
3
Get their buy-in -- from sales personnel and key staff. Ensure that everyone understand the targets and knows that while they might seem like a stretch, they are realistic goals.
4
Approach your best customers with a proposal for additional goods or services, or to increase their contracts for the following year.

Thought leaders are those who can easily influence others in their surroundings, and you’ll certainly want the thought leaders on your sales team to be fully on board with your end of year targets.
You can also liven up office life with harmless practical jokes, lively music, fun or silly activities, sales rallies, pep talks, clean jokes and much more.
Sales staff tend to perform best during a sales contest, or when some other incentive is up for grabs.
Whenever possible, poll your top producers and thought leaders for creative ideas, suggestions, etc., to get front-line input on what needs to happen in order to hit those final month goals.

Choose the right motivator for your sales staff – choosing the wrong incentive won’t make much difference in terms of performance
Be careful not to suffocate your staff -- employees and sales staff who feel micro-managed typically do not perform as well as those who feel a sense of autonomy and independence.