Employee satisfaction is directly related to productivity and performance. According to a 2020 Gallup study, teams with engaged employees achieve higher overall results, have stronger client connections, and reduce attrition. Employee engagement, however, does not happen by accident. Work for sales teams, mainly the SDR function, is typically repetitious — which isn't to imply such tasks aren't vital or beneficial. It does, however, make it easy for people to burn out, fall into autopilot mode, or lose track of the broader objective. All of these factors might lead to disgruntled employees. But, unfortunately, that is all too often the case. According to the same Gallup study, 13% of employees are actively disengaged (the lowest degree of engagement), and 52% are "not engaged." In other words, the vast majority of employees are disengaged at work. The good news is that sales representatives and sales executives can increase and strengthen work engagement - it's not some nebulous, uncontrollable factor. Here's a basic overview of employee engagement: what it appears like, how to quantify it, and employee engagement best practices you can put into action on your team. What exactly is employee engagement? Like your sales culture, employee engagement is not a program or campaign. Instead, it is something that sales managers must continually tend to and cultivate. There is no clear and fast characterization of employee engagement, although various circumstances influence it. However, you may use this as a starting point to assess your employees' involvement when measuring your total employee engagement. Why do salespeople have difficulty with employee engagement? As previously said, it is too easy for sales professionals to operate on autopilot. As a result, daily and weekly chores may feel tedious and even pointless if there is a lack of understanding about how that effort is critical to fulfilling quotas and the Big Number. It is also important to note that the transition from in-office to remote work can substantially impact employee engagement. Transitioning from a high-energy sales floor to working in your spare bedroom may be challenging. Whether open communication suffers or your employees feel alienated or detached, it is critical to focus on employee engagement best practices. 5 Best Practices for Employee Engagement Here are five strategies sales managers may use to impact and boost employee engagement on their team. Make it significant: Make connections for your staff. How can picking up the phone 50 times a day to cold contact prospects contribute to not just their success but also the business's overall success? Of course, financial success isn't the only factor. Consider what your organization stands for: what are its purpose and vision? How are you improving people's lives and working conditions? You are not required to deliver a daily address to your staff, but find methods to tap into your reps' passion for what they're doing or highlight how they're influencing the world around them. Encourage accountability: Set your representatives' fair, attainable, and specific targets to encourage responsibility. Then return to your reps. In this context, weekly data-driven sales weekly meetings are essential. In addition, a structured sales mentoring program does wonders for fostering an engaged culture: you'll be able to assist and encourage your reps before they veer off course, and they'll be motivated to stay focused and make achievements toward their goals. It also allows for open communication, allowing them to share challenges and hurdles that you can all work through together. Maintain their motivation: Sales gamification is one of our favorite strategies to foster an engaged culture at the workplace because it addresses all of the aspects that might contribute to (or impede) employee engagement — plus, at the end of the day, sales competitions get representatives pumped up to sell. To keep things interesting, conduct team and individual challenges, a combination of short-run and long-tail challenges, and ensure they're all related to the metrics that matter most. Prioritize culture: This might be difficult; however, you can find innovative strategies to keep your salespeople linked to one another. This includes taking advantage of possibilities for peer cooperation and coaching and simply having fun together. For example, you can establish a recurring monthly "Philanthropy Spotlight," in which different members of our team may showcase the community work in which they're actively participating. It makes everyone happy and allows colleagues from various departments to connect. Recognize and reward: Another employee engagement best practice that should be in your arsenal is public appreciation. The finest acknowledgment occurs in real-time and necessitates team-wide insight into objective progress. Whether your team is in-person or remote, use technologies like email integrations to ensure that everyone knows when a rep schedules a meeting or closes a transaction. Simply getting the team excited and supporting one another is essential, but it's also worth re-evaluating the awards and incentives you're providing.
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