3 Ways Sales Operations Managers Can Motivate Reps to Succeed

Sales operations managers are often viewed as a sales team’s MVP. Why? Because the best sales ops superheroes regularly find ways to remove reps’ stumbling blocks and improve their productivity. But sales operations managers also have the power to motivate reps to peak performance.

Here are three awesome ways that sales ops experts are motivating their sales reps to maximize revenue.

Motivate Reps with a Killer Compensation Plan

Sales compensation will probably always be unequivocally linked to sales performance. It’s through sales compensation plans that you can provide reps with the recognition they deserve. But building the perfect comp plan—the one that drives reps to perform at their best—can require some tweaking.

When comp plans are too complicated they often focus on driving the wrong sales activities. As an example, if a comp plan features an SLA to send a lot of sales emails in a day, reps might spew out mindless spam emails in order to hit their quota instead of spending the time to write thoughtful, personalized sales emails. It’s quite possible for a rep that sends 12 of the right emails each day to drive a hell of a lot more pipeline than one who sends 100 generic emails. The best comp plans are often focused on outcomes rather than just sales activities.

It’s often best to keep compensation plans simple. As an example, here is a simple comp plan for SDRs.

Keep in mind that one of the most important aspects of building a comp plan is to never limit the amount that reps can make. Once your rep meets their goals to attain their bonus, the sky should be the limit on how much they can make if they do a fantastic job.

Leverage the Inspiring Power of Competition

In sales, one of the most powerful motivating forces is competition. Salespeople tend to be competitive by nature. It’s no secret that a lot of salespeople have a background as an athlete. Everyone likes to take home a nice paycheck. But many reps care more about “winning” than getting paid. Smart sales operations managers are leveraging the power of a leaderboard to inspire competition. When reps not only see how they’re doing, but how they compare to their colleagues, it really motivates reps to perform at their best.

A leaderboard can motivate reps at all tier levels. A-players will duke it out for that top space. Middle-tier reps will do everything to remain in that top half. And underperforming reps will be far more likely to seek additional guidance and coaching in order to get out of those bottom slots.

Set Clear Goals by Deal Stage

A strong sales process is key to sales success. One way to help reps stay on the right course is to ensure they are always aware of what their next milestone is. Degreed’s Director of Sales Operations Jeff Lamb motivates his team by sending emails upon reaching milestones that keep them aware of next steps, while also providing the resources that they need to hit the next milestone. According to Jeff Lamb, “I set up workflows in Salesforce to email the reps specific content depending on where they are with an opportunity. I have an email that is sent out when a deal enters a certain stage to let them know what resources are available and what milestones need to be completed.”

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