3 Creative Ways Call Center Managers Can Motivate Phone Sales Reps
As a call center manager, you have a lot of pressure on you. You don't have just one quota to meet, you have everyone's quotas to worry about. If you want to build a great sales team and earn recognition as an effective manager, you can't do it alone. You need phone sales reps that are highly motivated to make sales for you.
Motivation is a tricky thing, and your phone agents' commissions alone may not be enough. Employees need to feel valued, and sales reps in particular may thrive on competition. Take a look at some creative ideas that you can use in your call center to motivate your sales reps.
Reward Rejections as Well as Sales
If you already give a weekly or monthly reward for the rep that gives the most sales, you should consider adding a prize for the rep who gets the highest number of rejections. For example, if you give out $100 a week to the person with the most sales, give $50 to the person who got turned down the most times.
That may sound counterintuitive, or even a little crazy, but there's a method to the madness. Your sales reps hear "no" hundreds of times a day; all that rejection is one of the hardest parts of any phone rep's job. But phone sales is a numbers game—the more calls you make, the more often you'll hear "no," but each one also gets you closer to the next "yes."
Rewarding your sales reps for all of those rejections will give them the motivation to keep making calls, and you may even find that your call center's call volume increases, which means more sales overall. Your reps will still be motivated to give their best pitches because of the larger reward that goes to the person with the most sales. But they'll also have an incentive that will help them cope with the rejection that comes with the job.
Form Teams to Compete
There is a reason why team sports are a popular pastime. The practice of teaming up to win a game appeals to the competitive spirit and to the human urge for camaraderie at the same time. Allow your sales floor to form teams. Each sales rep can earn points for their team by closing sales, upselling, bringing in new leads, and making any other positive contributions.
Keep score in a visible place: a big whiteboard on the sales floor or an online leaderboard that your phone reps can check in their free time are both good options. The team with the most points at the end of a specified time period wins. Prizes can be as little as a pizza party in the breakroom or as large as a cash prize to split among the team. Either way, your sales reps will enjoy playing.
Make Winning Personal
Maybe you don't have the budget for cash rewards, or your sales team isn't big enough for the logistics of a team sales competition. That's okay. You can motivate your employees without spending a dime and without complicated games. You may even find that low-cost and low-key rewards are more effective. One research study shows that the 70% of respondents reported that the best recognition for a job well done is recognition that has no dollar value.
The key is to make sure that you give your high performers public recognition. Survey respondents reported that recognition mattered more than gifts or cash, and that praise from peers and managers was high on the list of things that motivate employees to do their best. A fun workplace was also a high priority.
Get creative. Make each week's top seller king or queen for a day, complete with a paper crown. Have everyone on the floor address the day's king or queen as "your highness". It sounds silly, but you might be surprised at how hard your phone reps will work for a chance to be royalty for a day. It's a fun way of publicly acknowledging your top seller's skills and dedication, and a way to ensure they're receiving praise from both peers and management.
A call center manager who can motivate their staff is a valuable manager. It's worth trying something new and different to inspire your sales team to shoot for more. For more tips, contact resources like OneTouch Direct.