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5 Sales Motivation Ideas to Help Older

Salespeople
by John Williams | Feb 23, 2018 | Sales Team Management, Tips | 0 comments

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5 Sales Motivation Ideas to Help Older

Salespeople
Motivating your sales team is a challenge any time, but when you have di"erent types of
salespeople, with di"erent personalities, ages and preferences, it can feel near impossible
to provide the right amount or kind of motivation. Now, we’re not going to put your people
in a box, because people will always break stereotypes, but for the majority of sales teams,
the younger or newer you are, the more passion you have, which helps with self-motivation.
But when you’ve been in any kind of business for a long time, and you’re comfortable with
the stage you’re at, motivation isn’t at the top of your list of priorities. And if you’re
managing someone in that boat, especially if you’re younger than they are, you’re stuck
between a rock and a hard place – you don’t want to disrespect your older employees by
assuming that they’re lacking in motivation, but you don’t want to allow them to stay
stagnant if they’re not performing at the right standard.

Age Equals Experience AND Egotism

Most of the time, an older salesperson considers themselves more experienced than
anyone younger than they are, but that doesn’t mean they have the best work ethic or that
they’re using their experience in the most productive way. While there’s a lot of !re in a
younger salesperson, that !re can easily turn into or stem from arrogance, ignorance or
pride. For an older salesperson, their lack of !re can mean the same thing – they feel like
they know best, they’ve been doing their job for “longer than these younger reps have been
alive,” etc. Thankfully, some of your senior salespeople are using their talents to train the
new generation of salespeople, but if they’re not, it’s time to !nd ways to change their
approach to the job.

Appeal to Your People

Your senior reps can set the tone for an entire sales team, so using motivational tactics that
appeal to them is needed. Here are 5 tips you can try to help motivate your senior
salespeople:

Make them Mentor

If you have individuals on your sales team who have more than 10 years of sales
experience, then they need to be sharing their experiences and “war stories” with the
younger generation. Experience is our greatest teacher, and if you’re not utilizing the
teachers you have right in front of you, then you’re doing your team a major disservice.
Some people may think they can’t be a mentor – they believe their personality doesn’t lend
itself to training, or they don’t feel like they have the time to put in the right amount of
e"ort, or even that they don’t believe their experience can be useful to others. It’s time for
some encouragement! Depending on the size of your team, you can institute a mentorship
program between younger and older salespeople, giving them the opportunity to learn
from each other. You can provide some training resources or leadership ideas, or you can
see what grows organically between the pairs or groups. You may be pleasantly surprised at
the outcome!

Are you looking to keep your team focused and on message? Call Logic
cloud dialing software can triple call rates, keep your team focused, and
even features a whisper coach feature to train new team members on sales
calls. Give Call Logic a try today!

Read Books
Now, we’re not saying that younger people aren’t interested in reading, but the younger
generations de!nitely rely on the internet, personal experience or even advice from those
higher up far more than they ever would rely on a book. However, the more mature
salesperson has probably read a book or two to help them advance in their position, mainly
because, depending on their age, this was the best external way of learning when they were
starting out in their career. It may be time to start using a book to reach your team – there
are plenty of great resources out there, or you can ask your senior salespeople for their
recommendations. You can give your team homework to go with the reading – they may
complain about it at !rst, but once they see how much they can learn from the books
they’re reading, they will be thankful.

Engage in Experiences AND Recognition

Back in the day (pre-2008), the majority of salespeople (54%) were motivated by money,
according to data compiled by Objective Management Group – the majority were
extrinsically-motivated. But today, no more than 27% would make the same statement. The
majority of salespeople today are intrinsically-motivated, or motivated by satisfaction,
ful!llment, and acknowledgment. It’s obvious that the standards for satisfaction in your
employees have changed, but that might not be the case for your older salespeople.
Because you’re looking at two di"erent types of people, regardless of age, you want to
provide incentives that can cover all of your bases. When giving incentives, !nd ways to
engage your people in both experiences – free lunches, seminars away from the o#ce,
letting them leave early, etc. – and with monetary rewards, like a cash bonus for your top
performer each week, or a quarterly bonus for the most improved team.

Prevent the Plateau

For your older salespeople, the possibility of a plateau is looming. While all ages are
susceptible, the plateau phenomenon occurs most commonly in two groups: 45-50 year
olds and 25-30 year olds. Some telltale signs that one of your people has actually reached a
plateau (and aren’t having a slump of some kind) are:

Routine paper work is lacking – missed or ignored deadlines, incomplete forms,

redundant or mechanical reports.
Work hours are waning – long lunches, frequent absences, late starting and early quitting
times.
Lack of interest – little or no participation at sales meetings, inability to solve sales
problems, no enthusiasm for introducing new products or helping others.
Performance – marked drop or $at sales (a steady level with little or no change), little or
no prospecting activity, increased customer complaints.

As a manager, it’s your responsibility to ask these sales reps why things are the way they are
– the worst way to handle this type of situation is by being passive-aggressive or by ignoring
the issue. Sometimes, some straightforward and caring communication will do the trick.
Between the company, you as the manager and the rep themselves, you can come up with
a game plan to improve the situation. The rep will see that they’re not forgotten or
irrelevant, and you will have an improved sales team.

Be Slow and Steady with Change

New technology and sales tactics will go over well with your millennials, but it’s not as easy
for some senior salespeople. If you want to institute a change, you need to be intentional
and accommodating, making sure your people fully understand what you’re changing, why
you’re changing it and how it will help them. There are plenty of new options to help your
salespeople, things like smartphone apps, new calling methods (like a predictive dialer), and
updated conversational techniques, all of which can seriously improve your bottom line and
make your salespeople even better at what they do, but you need to start slow and provide
inclusive training when any of your reps have questions or concerns.

Once you have implemented these sales motivation ideas, if you’re looking to improve your
sales numbers, help your employees stay on track and bring some more consistency to the
sales calls going out of your o#ce, give us a call at Call Logic. We can provide you with a
power dialer technology that is TCPA compliant and can increase the amount and the
quality of every call that comes from your business. Schedule a live demo today!

Need some incentive to experience the e!ectiveness of Call Logic?

Sign up for our free trial now.

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