Did you know that only 20% of global workers are engaged at work, and only 36% in the U.S., specifically? The same report from Gallup noted that the percentage of actively disengaged employees is trending upwards in the U.S., moving from 14% in 2020 to 15% in 2021, and expected to increase again in 2022.
So, if you have an underperforming sales team, you aren’t alone.
The repercussions of an underperforming sales team lead to additional costs such as high employee turnover. Another Gallup study found that replacing an employee can cost your business as much as one-half to two times the employee's annual salary.
Here are some reasons why teams are often disengaged and how to motivate an underperforming sales team to re-engage.
Why Do Sales Teams Disengage?
Sales teams can become disengaged with their work and company for many reasons, but the three most common include:
- Growth Opportunities
- Management/Leadership
- Purpose/Meaning
Growth Opportunities
When your staff is disengaged from their work, a common factor behind it is the lack of growth opportunities they perceive to have in the company.
Essentially, what's the point of giving it their all in their position if they feel like they're not going anywhere?
Growth opportunities like career advancement, training, and promotions are strongly associated with how engaged the employee is with their work and company.
Management/Leadership
Leadership and management play a vital role in your team members' productivity, engagement, and satisfaction. For starters, if your management isn't engaged, your employees will not be either. Furthermore, 57% of employees report being actively disengaged with their work and company because of their managers, leading to quitting their jobs.
Purpose/Meaning
Staff that feels no purpose or meaning in their work are less likely to be engaged in their roles. On the other hand, recent research supports that those who are engaged:
- Are passionate and connected to the work they do
- Deliver maximum effort and produce above-satisfactory results
- Are less likely to 'mentally check out' at work
What's the Difference Between an Underperforming Sales Team and a Disengaged One?
An underperforming employee falls short of the expectations you have of them. A disengaged employee has no interest in solving problems related to their role or even making progress.
Although an underperforming employee can be a sign of disengagement, they are not one and the same. A disengaged employee can still perform the bare minimum to get by — they just have no interest or, in many cases, any incentive to do their best.
How to Re-Engage Your Sales Team
In the wise words of Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell's Soup, "To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace." The best way to do that is to re-engage your sales team. Here are our top tips for doing it successfully.
Get Clear on the Short and Long-Term Goals
A sales team led by short and long-term goals is 377% more likely to be successful than those without them. Moving away from the typical 'just wing it' approach is essential to getting your team more organized and focused by confidently pulling approaches from a sales playbook explicitly tailored for you.
Audit Your Team's Strengths and Weaknesses
You need to know what your sales team excels at and where they need improvement if you want to strengthen their potential. That's why Navaquest works closely with clients to create courses that meet your unique needs. From there, you can complete it on your own or with our expert guidance. Either way, you'll need to know your 'unique needs' to execute it successfully.
Don't Let Your team Wing It – Have them Properly Trained for Success
The best training for a sales team is one that isn't led by 'winging it.' Proper training, full of sales team training exercises, is essential to your team's success. Knowing this, Navaquest uses industry-leading specialists to teach sales teams like yours to concentrate on the fundamentals while learning tips and tricks from sales veterans who have generated millions of dollars for their companies.
Coaching Versus Managing
Re-engaging your sales team will also require knowing the difference between managing and coaching a successful team. Managing a sales team typically requires leadership to tell your staff what to do, when to do it, etc. Coaching, on the other hand, really focuses on self-discovery — a heart-to-heart that allows the employee to realize where they're lacking and how to improve — leading to more positive changes.
As Forbes once pointed out, "If your team is disengaged, your sales manager hasn't been trained in ways to keep them energized. Invest in leadership training for your sales managers, so they'll be able to be coaches and cheerleaders for their teams.”
Navaquest has the perfect solution to get them there.
Sales Training with Navaquest
With Navaquest’s sales training, your team will be better equipped to execute the P's of sales — prospecting, probing, professional relationship management, proposal development, and presenting — and more. Contact us to learn more about how our training can help your team become masters at the fundamentals.
