How to keep a sales team motivated past the first week of the month

A team rarely stops trying all at once. It happens a rep at a time, and usually for one of five reasons:

• A target handed down from the top, with no link to what the rep did last month, reads as a guess, and people stop chasing a guess.
• Forty calls and two meetings in a week look like nothing on a revenue report, and nobody tells the rep otherwise.
• The same two names get praised every month, so everyone else learns that effort in the middle doesn't count.
• A rep who can't work out what a deal is worth to them can't use the money as a reason to make the next call.
• A slow month found out on the 30th turns into a telling-off, where the same month found out on the 10th would have been a conversation.

A manager's weekly routine fixes most of these. A speech or a bigger prize fixes none of them.

Ask your reps, one at a time, what would make next week feel worth it. The answers usually fall into a few groups, and each one has a fix you can run without a budget.

Money matters, and nobody stays in a job that doesn't pay. But a commission plan the rep can't work out motivates less than a smaller one they can. If yours is complicated, walk each rep through what their last three deals paid and why.

A target a rep believes is one they can trace back to their own numbers. Here's one way to set it, with made-up figures:

1. Take the rep's last 8 weeks. Say they averaged 6 meetings held a week.
2. Take the team's need. The month needs 25 meetings a week from 5 reps, so 5 each on average.
3. Set this rep's number between what they've done and a stretch: 7 meetings a week.
4. Agree it in their one-on-one, and write it down where both of you can see it.

A rep who has been doing 6 can believe 7. A rep handed 12 because the team needs it will stop trying by week two. If the team's need and the reps' numbers don't meet, the gap is a hiring or pipeline problem, and more pressure won't close it.

The quota calculator splits a team target across reps, and a pledge, a weekly number the rep commits to, is the same idea written down.

• Monday: each rep says their number for the week in the team meeting. Two reps share a win from last week, and one of them is not a top closer.
• Wednesday: look at the week so far. A rep at 60% of their activity number is on track. Anyone well under gets a short, private check-in the same day, about what's in the way rather than about the number.
• Friday: name the effort in the team chat: the most calls, the best comeback from a slow start, the rep who beat their own number.
• Every week: one one-on-one per rep, with one skill to practise and one thing you'll do to help.

The sales meeting agenda guide has the 30-minute Monday meeting, and the one-on-one template has the weekly one-on-one.

Recognition doesn't need a budget, but it does need to be specific and quick. These work because they're about the rep, not the prize:

• An afternoon off for beating their own number three weeks running
• First pick of the new leads for a week
• A handwritten note from the manager's manager, naming what they did
• Choosing the team lunch spot, or the music on the Friday call
• A public thank-you in the team chat, with the detail of what went well
• A skills session with the best closer on the team, on the thing they want to get better at
• Their name on the board for most improved, not only for most closed

Keep them small and frequent. A prize at the end of the quarter motivates for the last two weeks of it.

• Twelve-hour days in the last week of every month are followed by a first week where nobody books anything.
• Contests the same people win stop getting entries after the third one. The sales gamification guide has contest formats that include the middle.
• A leaderboard read out with the bottom three named teaches people to hide from it.
• A number raised mid-month because someone is ahead tells the whole team that hitting it doesn't count.
• Reps who are messaged about numbers at night and on weekends burn out even in good months.

Watch for the signs: a rep who was steady going quiet on the board, calls logged late at night in a batch, one-on-ones cancelled twice in a row. Those are the weeks to talk, before the resignation letter.

Your top reps will mostly motivate themselves, and your struggling ones need coaching more than motivation. The middle of the team is where a manager's effort pays off most, and it's the group most leaderboards ignore.

Give the middle something to win that doesn't depend on beating the top two: their own weekly number, most improved, a streak of weeks on target. The sales gamification guide covers this in detail.

• A kick-off speech lasts until Wednesday. A weekly routine lasts all year, so spend the effort on the routine.
• Rewarding only revenue leaves the calls and meetings behind next month's revenue unnoticed.
• One prize for the whole team goes to the same rep every time.
• Targets get talked about in the team meeting, and people only in exit interviews.
• Assuming everyone wants the same thing. Ask each rep what would make next week worth it.

This guide is free. ActivityTracker, the app we make, is paid. Here's how it helps a manager keep a team going.

• The leaderboard ranks the team on the week's calls, meetings and deals, starts again every Monday, and shows each rep's own target beside their score
• The coaching team view flags anyone who hasn't logged in days, so the steady reps get a one-on-one too
• Weekly reflections let each rep write up their week, with their numbers filled in from their log, and teammates can send kudos on a good one
• Biscuit, the app's corgi, reacts only to what a rep logs, and a no earns the same coins as a yes, because the coins count the work
• Calls and meetings are one tap each to log, so the effort shows the same day