A key to using meetings – team and one-on-one – to motivate, is focusing on both strengths and development areas. These meetings should neither be wholly about what is going “wrong”, nor entirely about praising success. Take the time to recognize the team or individual’s strengths first, reinforcing how valuable they are. Also take time to point out areas where the team or individual can grow and improve, and use part of the meeting time for creating next steps, or a development plan. Never call out an individual team member’s development needs in front of the whole team – save that feedback for your individual meeting. Use team meetings to focus on strengths and development needs for the team as a whole, and focus on individual strengths and development needs in the one-on-one meetings. Also use the team meetings to reinforce shared goals and the mutually interdependent nature of the team.

A major feature of motivational environments is that the communication is two-way. You will provide a great deal of feedback in the regular meetings with your sales team. Be sure to ask them for feedback as well, in both the team meetings and individual meetings. It may be necessary to offer training in how to give useful feedback, if your sales team is not used to being asked to provide feedback to management. Model good feedback behaviors as well, by not personalizing feedback and by focusing on shared values and goals. Encourage your team members to give you regular feedback in between meetings, as well. Reinforce that their feedback is how you will know what they need; how they are doing, and how you can support them. Asking for feedback shows team members that you and the organization value them, which can motivate them and lead to increased investment in their work.

One of the best investments you can make in your team is training! We often think of training as something that happens at onboarding, or something that only needs to take place when procedures or technology changes; however, continuously offering training to your sales team helps keep them motivated, invested in their work, and in a mindset of continuous improvement. Find ways to offer training and growth opportunities to your sales team, and you will find them fired up and ready to take on new challenges.

Organizations that foster a continuous improvement mindset by focusing on training and developing their people tend to have higher employee morale and higher employee retention. Happier employees that invest in the organization for the long term lead to healthier bottom lines. Create an environment in which your people are challenged to continuously learn, build new skills and grow in new directions. Work with your team to find the areas in which they would like more training, and focus on providing these growth experiences. Make regular training and development an integral part of what your sales team does. Also, encourage team members to seek out opportunities for training and development, and support them in these efforts. When possible, the organization should subsidize outside training. Also make sure that your sales team is given time to focus on their training and development.

Not all training needs to be formal, as in workshops or classes. Encourage peer training among your sales team. Have senior members train junior members. Also have team members that are strong in a given area provide training for those who can develop in that same area. Create opportunities for peers to train each other one-on-one, and in group settings. Learning from peers can also be done on the job, as when sales team members visit clients in pairs or otherwise work together. Your sales team is a rich source of talent, and peer training is one way to leverage this. Use your assessments of team members’ strengths and development areas to create peer training experiences. Peer training does not just benefit those receiving the training – facilitating peer training can help the trainers develop presentation and teaching skills, as well as providing the opportunity to share their expertise and strengths.

Mentoring is a powerful source of training and development. Pair new sales team members with mentors, and encourage mentoring relationships across the career. Mentors provide a model for success, as well as being sources of one-on-one attention and training. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of mentoring. Being paired with a mentor demonstrates organizational investment in each individual employee. Mentors also serve as models for what is possible within the organization, and within an industry or field. Mentors also benefit from the mentoring process, as they are able to share their knowledge and expertise, and feel invested in the future of the organization. This sense of organizational investment helps to motivate sales team members to achieve their goals.

When fostering an environment of continuous training and development, it is key to keep the focus positive. Reinforce that training is done to offer chances to grow and build skills, rather than being a punishment for not being “good enough.” Training is an opportunity for your sales team members to be their best selves and to make their greatest contributions. When introducing training into an environment that has not been training focused, you may experience pushback if team members perceive the training as punitive. Keep the focus on the positive outcomes that will accrue within the organization, the team, and for individual team members by embracing training. Encourage team members to find useful takeaways from each training session they go through, whether it is a formal workshop or informal peer trainings.