You have two problems -people leaving the organization -sales not climbing as per your targets.

I HAVE FOCUSED MOSTLY ON THE SALES SIDE OF THE BUSINESS. HERE you need both short term / long term solutions. MERE motivations may not help . Perhaps it can do more damage than good. IN THE SHORT TERM, -you need a short / sharp incentives to lift sales. -the focal points on which this must be directed are *PROSPECTING -- BUILDING ORDER BOOK *CLOSING SALES FOR THE LONG TERM, -please note the points listed. ================================================= 1. PEOPLE ARE LEAVING FOR MANY REASONS , LIKE 1.DOMESTIC -moving / shifting house 2.PERSONAL -involves much travel or no travel -long working hours -dissatisfied with the boss -achievment not recognized -unsure of career progress -dissatisfied with compensation package.

3.WORK ENVIRONMENT -lack of advancement opportunity -lack of equal opportunity -lack of time flexibility -lack of professionalism -limited management contact -dissatisfied with the work conditions -not happy with colleagues

4.FINANCE -lack of market orientation in pay package -lack of / limited resources

5.JOB RELATED -lack of skill variety -lack of autonomy -lack of feedback -lack rewards risk -lack of innovations -lack of utilization of abilities -emphasis on quantity / not quality -not competency valued -expertise not valued -lack of teamwork -lack of challenge in the job

6.HR POLICIES/ PRACTICES -lack of training opportunity -irregular work hours -lack of vision/ mission -lack of counselling -lack of mentoring -lack of employee welfare schemes

7.RECRUITEMENT -highly loaded expectation at interviews -promises made / not kept

8.COMMUNICATION -no feedback from management -no facility for upward suggestions

9.MOTIVATIONS

-lack -lack -lack -lack -lack

of of of of of

measurements of work recognition performance evaluations learning opportunity career opportunity

10.LIFE STYLE / PERSONAL VALUES -lack of community involvement -lack of support for family ETC ETC ============================================== YOU SHOULD CONDUCT A ''EXIT INTERVIEW''. IN AN INFORMAL MANNER, WITH THE HELP OF A STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE. ============================================ YOUR SALES DIVISION /team MAY HAVE PROBLEMS LIKE -lack of understanding of the market . Your market is a secondary market whose demand is a derived demand, based on the growth development of the primary market. -sales policies may be rigid, requires flexibility. -lack of right sales skills for the team -prospecting new customers in your business is a highly skilled job are your sales team well equipped to manage it. ETC ETC TAKING THESE FACTORS INTO CONSIDERATION, YOU MAY HAVE TO CONDUCT A SALES AUDIT--A QUICK ONE. ================================================= = ========== The Sales Audit can be defined as: A process which examines the entire sales effort of the company, systematically and critically. Professional Sales Audits incorporate all the aspects implied in Sales Activities: Sales Review Market Review Sales Policy Review Product Performance Review

Distribution Review Customer Service Review Reseller (Trade) Review Sales Organization Review Sales Performance Review Salesforce Review Sales Management Review Sales Promotion Review Merchandising Review Sales Support Review Sales Territory Review Sales Training Review Competition Review Pricing Review The most important purpose and prominent characteristic of the Sales Audit: It is a carefully programmed appraisal of the total sales organization including: objectives, policies, organization, methods, procedures and personnel. It's aim is prognosis as well as diagnosis. It is a search for sales strengths, opportunities and means of exploiting them, as well as for weaknesses and means of their elimination. It is vitally concerned with determining and appraising what is being done and recommending what should be done. It is a regular activity, not a crisis motivated activity.[ IN YOUR CASE, IT CAN BE A CRISIS ONE] How the audit is organized depends to a large extent on your company operation, its size, its market/distribution and its product time. In each of the 18 areas, you should look at the following: A. Objectives - whether clearly stated/specific. B. Policies -whether explicit. C. Methods- whether appropriate. D. Procedures - whether written/simple.

E. Personnel - whether the roles have been defined. In each of the 18 areas, you should examine the strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of the Sales Audit is not simply the analysis of the past with a view to apportioning blame. It's main purpose is to hel*p build a better and more profitable future. ================================= THE SALES AUDIT OBJECTIVES ARE Identify the actions you can take to ensure that sales team members have high motivation levels. Identify the functions of a sales compensation plan. Identify the factors to consider when evaluating motivation levels. Identify actions you can take to increase your sales team's motivation. Sequence the steps for addressing substandard sales performance. Unit 1: Building Motivation in a Sales Team Identify the actions you can take to ensure that sales team members have high motivation levels. Apply the appropriate actions to ensure that sales team members have high motivation levels. Identify the functions of a sales compensation plan. Identify the four benefits of having an effective sales compensation plan. Simulation Overview Unit 2: Improving Sales Performance Identify the factors to consider when evaluating motivation levels. Identify actions you can take to increase your sales team's motivation. Apply the appropriate actions to increase your sales team's motivation. Simulation Overview: Unit 3: Addressing Substandard Sales Performance Identify the factors you should consider when identifying opportunities for improvement. Sequence the steps for addressing substandard sales performance. Follow the steps for addressing substandard sales performance. Identify the actions you should take when following up on substandard performance. Apply the actions for following up on substandard performance. Simulation Overview

================================================= = Just because sales may be down, doesn't mean that your reps have to be, too. Here are 10 techniques to jumpstart their motivation and their sales. Many issues are dragging down the morale of outside sales representatives. They have to sell in a tough environment, characterized by "reactionary buying," in which customers buy goods and services only when absolutely essential. In addition, while they have always dealt with price resistance, it has grown more pronounced recently because of the economic and world events. Not making enough sales to earn commissions is disheartening to many new sales employees. Making the problem worse, many managers have no experience running a company through an economic TURNABOUTS, and many salespeople have never sold during trying times. "It can be like the blind leading the blind," . "It's having considerable impact because in tough times, salespeople must create opportunities, not just respond to them." Sounds easier said than done? Here are ways you can boost your sales team's motivation and productivity: 1) Rethink your goals and incentive programs. Don't just rely on same old system', same old way'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------2) Don't rely on money to make the problem go away. Simply increasing sales reps' INCOME won't necessarily make them perform better. THEY might need other supports like sales aids / marketing support/ training/coaching/counseling/prospecting support etcetc -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------3) Pound the pavement. SALES Managers can't energize their sales team from behind a desk. They must travel with sales representatives, not only to give salespeople the feeling that everyone is in the same situation, but also to let customers know that the company is stable. In addition, sales managers should collect both quantitative and qualitative feedback when hitting the streets with reps, and focus on the qualitative to keep motivation and productivity high. While quantitative measures deal with total product numbers and gross margins, qualitative issues involve customer

responses to sales calls. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4) Train. A lot. Many companies are surviving in this economy by pursuing new markets. As a result, training sales reps is even more important because they have to be equipped with the tools and know-how to break into new markets. Through training, reps can learn to talk knowledgeably about any relevant regulations and to address customer questions and concerns. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5) Keep in touch. Sales reps are the manager's connection to end users, who have their own needs and issues. To gain an understanding of these needs and issues, sales managers should keep in contact with his sales reps regularly. Conduct weekly phone or in-person sales meetings, covering the results of the previous week, which major customers were phoned, the results of those calls, plans for the upcoming week, the status of the sales pipeline, and what measures reps are taking to build those pipelines. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6) Make sure they get a lot of customer face-time. When times are tough, don't let your sales reps just sit at their desks, waiting for calls and discussing how slow business is with colleagues. Sales slumps actually represent an opportune time to leave the office and obtain greater facetime with existing and potential customers. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------7) Encourage them to sell more to current customers. Acquiring a new customer is five times as expensive as serving a current one, so it makes sense to persuade your reps to work on expanding existing accounts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Be supportive and reassuring. When business is bad, sales teams often end up the scapegoat. AVOID SUCH ACTIONS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9) Keep them in the know. To keep motivation high , keep your reps in the loop about how the company is faring," . "While the reps read the papers and know the score, they also need constant reminders about how their own company is doing." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10) Be inspirational. To help sales reps sell in an environment where customers demand more but would like to pay less for it, try to keep them inspired. "retain the faith that you can and you will prevail in the end, regardless of how difficult the situation is. At the same time, you must face the brutal facts of the reality that you're dealing in." ================================================= = =============================== ================================================= = ================================ Before you can evaluate the performance of your sales team, you must first analyze its components. Here is a simple formula you can use to analyze the performance of your team as a whole or of individual sales representatives: Performance = Competence + Motivation + Opportunity The components are independent of each other. In other words, -a sales representative can be highly motivated but incompetent, -poorly motivated but highly competent, -poorly motivated and incompetent, -or highly motivated and highly competent. Regardless of your sales team's level of motivation and competence, if the opportunity component is weak, sales performance suffers. After you evaluate the components of performance, evaluate another key measure of performance: sales results. After you complete all of your evaluations, you can take action for each sales representative. 1. Evaluate competence Competence includes knowledge of your products, your sales processes and policies, your company, and your industry. It also extends to knowledge of your customers, their problems and opportunities, and their industry. Additionally, it includes a basic understanding of how business operates. Background knowledge Depending on your industry, sales representatives might need to have a certain amount of knowledge in technology, finance, engineering, manufacturing, or human resources. They should be able to ask informed questions of their customers and to perceive gaps in their own knowledge so that they can call in a technical expert at the appropriate time. Sales skills The second element of competence is sales skills. These skills include:

Knowing how to prospect for business Knowing how to prepare for a sales call Knowing how to build rapport and trust with customers Knowing how to qualify prospects and assess their needs Knowing how to write a proposal and deliver a sales presentation Knowing how to overcome objections and close the sale When you evaluate representatives who manage key accounts, look at their skills in building relationships at multiple levels of the customer organization, managing change, communicating back into your company, influencing, negotiating, and thinking strategically.

Skills tests There are also online selling-skills tests that measure various sales traits or aptitude. Many tests claim to measure competencies, and they might even produce a report that reads like a competency assessment. But, in fact, they measure only aptitude useful for the selection of sales representatives, but less useful for evaluating performance. Observations in the field The most effective method of evaluating your sales team's competencies is to accompany them into the field and observe them in action. Use a competency assessment as a guide, and record what you see. Your representatives will appreciate the time you spend with them, and they will be much more likely to accept your assessment. 2. Evaluate motivation Motivation is the desire to succeed. It can come from within or from incentives. Assessing your representatives' motivation is much more subjective than assessing their competencies. Observe them in the field and around the office, and note the following: Are they giving 100 percent effort? Do they have a positive attitude? Do they enjoy seeing their customers? Do they celebrate their sales successes? Do they closely track their sales results and commissions earned? Also look at past performance. A decline in performance might indicate a motivation issue rather than a competency issue.

3.Evaluate opportunity Opportunity is the availability of goals, territory, tools, products, and support. Performance evaluation starts with you. To evaluate the opportunity component of performance, ask yourself the following questions: Have you set the right sales strategy and goals? Does your team understand and accept the goals? Are territories clearly defined? Do you have the right salespeople in the right territories? Does your team understand and accept the territory assignments? Does your sales team have sales collateral, product samples, portable computers, and electronic communication devices? Does your sales team have marketable products? Are the products positioned, promoted, and priced effectively? Is adequate product training available? Do you support your representatives in the field? Do you coach your representatives, team up with them on joint calls, empower them, and provide a winning sales culture for them? Do you create effective sales incentive programs, partner with marketing to generate leads, and partner with production to coordinate delivery? A negative response to any one of these questions might affect the performance of your sales team. 4.Evaluate sales results At this point, you have evaluated the competencies and motivation of your representatives. You have also considered the role that opportunity might have played in your representatives' performance. Now it is time to look at the most important measure of performance: sales results. 5.Evaluate performance against sales goals The fairest way to evaluate sales results is to measure them against goals. Keep track of whether your representatives achieve or exceed the goals that you set for them. Be sure to set goals that support your sales strategy. If your growth strategy is to get more revenue from existing customers, it's a good idea that your sales representatives' individual goals state the source of the revenue. Your evaluation measures might include a percentage of total revenues from existing customers, and an increase in revenues from existing customers compared with last year. You would not give much weight to any decline in the total number of accounts.

6.Measure sales results rather than sales activities Be careful of the activity measures trap. If you measure sales activities (for example, number of calls or number of proposals), you get activity from your representatives, but it might be at the expense of results. Instead, measure results such as revenue, profit margins, number of new accounts opened, and increases over last year. 7.Evaluate teamwork in complex sales High-value, complex sales with lengthy sales cycles present a different challenge. Consider measuring the financial value of opportunities uncovered during the needs assessment, the cost of proposed solutions, the amount of profit protected during price negotiations, and the value of additional business created during follow-up after the sale. Remember that complex sales require team efforts. Consider and measure the contribution each team member makes to these sales.

Take action After you complete your evaluations, use the following four categories to decide which action to take with each of your salespeople. Category Performance analysis Action Top performers Competent and motivated Keep and delegate High potentials Incompetent but motivated Keep, coach, and train Underachievers Competent but unmotivated Keep and counsel, or redeploy Unacceptable performers Incompetent and unmotivated Consider redeployment or termination

Sound evaluations deliver results A fair and accurate evaluation of your sales team's performance helps you get the best from your team. By evaluating performance against goals, measuring results rather than activity, and choosing the optimal development strategy for each sales representative, you can ensure that your team is always ready to deliver maximum performance and results. ================================================= = ============= ================================================= = ============== Energizing your Sales Department

Here are some tips to help your sales team keep motivated when sales are down and morale needs a lift: Contests. Most true salespeople are competitive by nature. Contests are great ways to motivate salespeople to strive harder to achieve success, especially if they are competing against each other. Most contests need to be short-term, as the immediate gratification of a contest pay-off is critical for salespeople to stay engaged in the contest itself. The shorter contests are also easier to measure for sales managers, and keep them focused on helping their salespeople generate higher sales success. It is also critical to remember that tracking the success of each sales rep during the contest is very important, and sending out weekly updates to the sales team will keep each sales rep on track and motivated to win! Monthly / Quarterly Cash Incentives. Sometimes, a simply monthly/ quarterly cash incentive will be the boost you need for your sales reps. Base it on the number of contacts made that week, the highest dollar amount of sales in a given month , or the one who closed the most future business that month. Whichever it is, make sure all your salespeople are aware of the incentive in advance and can prepare to win the cash incentive. Also be sure to make the incentive lucrative enough to motivate the sales reps.

Trips. A longer term incentive, trips are a great way to ensure salespeople stay focused on keeping a steady pace to hit their sales numbers for the year. Trips can be exotic, like a cruise or overseas. Something exciting that will keep the salespeople motivated and focused on hitting the end goal. To ensure the sales reps dont give up, make sure you have milestone incentives throughout the course of the year, such as t-shirts, hats, keychains, etc that have logos of the trip destination on them. Recognize success. Schedule specific times throughout the year to recognize successes of the key sales individuals. Salespeople love to be recognized for their accomplishmentsso make sure you take the time to recognize them for their efforts, and they will willingly go out on the edge to make sure they hit their sales numbers. Great salespeople will do whatever it takes to be recognizedand will support you in the process. Training. Continue to teach your salespeople how to be better. The more time you spend teaching and coaching your salespeople, the better equipped they

will be to be successful. The training will also ensure your salespeople know that you care about them, their success, and that you will continue to invest in their careers. Key training on topics which are difficult for salespeople to grasp will help them overcome some of their biggest sales fears as they grow more confident in their sales careers. Overall, knowing your salespeople as people is the first key to understanding how to keep them motivated and energized. Once you know your salespeople, you will be able to develop a strong incentive plan to keep them motivated to achieve success all year.

building confidence for motivation Learning something new and completely different liberates the mind. Facing a challenge, meeting it and mastering it helps build confidence. Build a library of new sales concepts/ideas/techniques/skills and use it during the sales meetings. motivational team building When you break down barriers, misunderstandings, prejudices, insecurities, divisions, territories and hierarchies - you begin to build teams. Get a group of people in a room having fun with juggling balls or spinning plates and barriers are immediately removed. Teams unite and work together when they identify a common purpose . Competition in teams or groups creates teams and ignites team effort. USE THIS CONCEPT FOR QUARTERLY SALES CONFERENCES.

motivational coaching and training motivation SALES COACHING BY SALES MANAGERS IS A MUST, WHETHER IT IS DONE INSIDE THE CLASSROOM OR ON THE JOB FIELD COACHING. IF REQUIRED , LET THE SALES MANAGERS LEARN THE '' THE ART OF ONE-TO-ONE COACHING''. Breaking new tasks down into stages, providing clear instructions, demonstration, practice, time and space to make mistakes, doing it one stage at a time..... all the essential training and coaching techniques can be shown, whether juggling is the vehicle or some other team-building idea, and the learning is clearer and more memorable because it is taken out of the work context, where previously people 'can't see the wood for the trees'. Games and activities provide a perfect vehicle for explaining the training and development

process ('train the trainer' for example) to managers. personal motivation styles and learning motivation Everyone is different. Taking part in new games and activities outside of the work situation illustrates people's different strengths and working style preferences. Mutual respect develops when people see skills and attributes in others that they didn't know existed. Also, people work and learn in different ways, SO ARE THE SALESPEOPLE. continual development and motivation Learning and taking part in a completely new activity or game like juggling demonstrates that earning is ongoing. The lessons never finish, unless people decide to stop learning. Introducing SALESpeople to new experiences opens their minds to new avenues of personal development, and emphasises the opportunity for continuous learning that is available to all. improving empathy and communications for motivation To communicate we must understand the other person. Empathy and intuitive skills are right-side brain. Conventional classroom training or distance learning do nothing to address this vital area. Juggling and playing spontaneous or creative games definitely promote development and awareness in the right-side of the brain, which we use when we communicate and understand others. Team activities and games promote communications and better mutual understanding - essential for good organizational performance. motivation and creativity Creativity and initiative are crucial capabilities for modern SALES effectiveness. Juggling and other games activities dispel the notion that actions must be according to convention, and that response can only be to stimulus. Successful SELLING comes from staff that initiate, create, innovate, and find new ways to do things better, without being told. Using mind and body together in a completely new way encourages pro-active thought and lateral thinking, which opens people's minds, and develops creative and initiative capabilities. USE BRAINSTORMING, which integrates well with team building activities and workshops. motivation for problem-solving and decision-making Problem-solving is integral to decision-making . Learning to juggle or taking part in new challenging stimulating activities uses the intuitive brain to solve the problem, the same part that's vital for creatively solving work problems. People

who can solve problems creatively can make decisions - and organizations need their staff and employees to have these abilities. physical activity is motivational Team building activities like juggling, construction exercises, or outdoor games, get the body moving, which is good for general health and for an energetic approach to work. Physical activity also provides significant stress relief, and stress management is part of every organisation's duty of care towards its employees. People concentrate and work better when they have had some light exercise and physical stimulus. Physical activity energises people and reduces stress and tension. team building workshops are empowering and motivational Workshops are good vehicles for team building games and activities, and also great for achieving team consensus, collective problem-solving, developing new direction and strategy, and to support the delegation and team development process. saying thanks is hugely motivational Saying thanks and giving praise are the most commonly overlooked and underestimated ways of motivating people. And it's so easy. Saying thanks is best said naturally and from the heart, so if your intentions are right you will not go far wrong. When you look someone in the eye and thank them sincerely it means a lot. In front of other people even more so. The key words are the ones which say thanks and well done for doing a great job, especially where the words recognise each person's own special ability, quality, contribution, effort, whatever. People always appreciate sincere thanks, and they appreciate being valued as an individual even more. Reinforce your organization's purpose in the marketplace. With so many things to sell, the key question that a sales person consciously or subconsciously asks is "Why?". "Why do I do what I do? Sell what I sell? Does the outcome justify the effort?" Although financial compensation is important, there are lots of ways to make money and lots of company to work for. Give your staff an ongoing reason to be proud of what they do. How is your product contributing to society? Making the world a happier, healthier, saner, safer, more accessible and productive place to live? Use your weekly sales meetings to reinforce the organization's or division's purpose. Post success stories via email, voicemail, in-house newsletters. These can be

stories of how a salesperson cracked their quota for the month to 'X' CO. Better still, encourage your sales staff to solicit success stories from people who are using the product or service. Consider connecting the organization by hosting monthly lunches of multiple departments, especially if these departments don't generally see each other face to face. It's very powerful to be able to associate a face with a name and reaffirms that the sales team is not alone. Sales managers need to go to bat for their people. Take personal responsibility when earnings aren't met, rather than blaming it all on the sales force. Are forecasts realistic? Are your people getting proper and ongoing training? Are sales and marketing tools current and strong? Is the rest of the organization (marketing and PR, order fulfillment and distribution, clerical, accounting) supporting the sales staff? If not, the sales manager should become a catalyst for change and make things happen. Show your staff that you support them. Be a coach and mentor. Accountability starts at the top and works its way down. Respect your team's need for personal time. With wireless communications and the Internet, we're becoming too accessible. The line between work time and home time is dangerously blurred. Although we never stop representing the companies we work for, there must be a clear demarcation. That might mean having a policy in place that says beepers, emails and cell phone numbers are not given out unless approved by the salesperson. One that says when you punch out at 6:00, you're done for the day. Encourage your sales team to get a life! Nothing nurtures the soul, boosts morale and keeps stress to a minimum like being able to spend time with friends and loved ones or engaging in activities that have nothing to do with work. Treat your sales staff equitably. Avoid the temptation to give your star salesperson preferential treatment. If you have deadlines, they apply to everyone. The same applies for procedures and policies. Consider streamlining certain policies that prevent your sales team from being effective or closing the deal. BREAKFAST SESSIONS EVERY QUARTER Invite a key customer / supplier or board member to address the sales people. THESE ARE SOME OF THE WAYS [ THERE ARE PLENTY MORE] BY WHICH YOU ENERGIZE THE SALES TEAM MEMBERS WITH

-MOTIVATION -BUILDING CONFIDENCE -DEVELOPING SKILLS -EMPOWERING WITH KNOWLEDGE -TEAM BUILDING -SENSE OF PURPOSE ETC ETC.