Commercial Animation Programs – 6 Keys to Success

Putting in place a commercial animation program that succeeds in mobilizing all sellers is a common problem for the Sales Departments. Here we are going to answers this question: “How to develop the collective performance of its salespersons?”

Indeed, between the best sellers who prefer to keep good practices for themselves and those who know beforehand that they will not win the traditional annual challenge, it is difficult to combine in a single program the incentives that will address the whole of this population. So how to develop commercial animation programs that will target all of your salespeople and not just top performers or latecomers?

Keys to Success in Commercial Animation Programs

Here are the 6 keys to a commercial animation that will improve the performance of all of your sales people:

1. Select relevant indicators

The choice of indicators is always a sensitive issue. However, the most effective solution is probably to use both performance indicators and means indicators.

The result indicators are for example the turnover, the amount of the deal, or the margin (which you can then decline by product or product line). As an indicator of activity, depending on your business, it can be the number of appointments, recommendations, calls or results to micro-training quizzes, or the progress curves. Thanks to activity indicators, the most deserving (who are not always the winners of the challenge) can see their efforts rewarded and measured.

Together, these indicators will provide you with a reliable and balanced base to establish your rankings. In particular, you will be able to measure the potential of your salespeople by means indicators and to target their areas of progress.

2. Grouping salespeople by the same level of potential

Thanks to these indicators you will have the possibility to have a ranking of your salesmen according to several criteria. Use it to build teams with equivalent potential.

This factor ensures that the competition has a certain level of equality of departure: this is not offered by the traditional challenges where the winner is very often the same.

Through this dynamic of teams with the same potential, you give all the opportunity to win, which increases the motivation of those who could not win a traditional challenge: that is to say the whole of the peloton and the latecomers. And that does not impact the motivation of the best, since they always have the opportunity to win.

3. Do not forget the daily animation of the challenge

Indeed, the animation allows setting up levers of motivation that will talk to all of your teams – the good and the bad. It is above all an opportunity to create team spirit, to foster the spirit of competition and to strengthen communication.

Use a platform that allows and facilitates the sharing of best practices within teams, and then between teams. The platform plays an important role in this sharing of best practices, since the best performers naturally tend not to share the reasons for their success in order to stay first.

A fun and engaging platform, coupled with accounting for sharing best practices in performance indicators, encourages salespeople to share their success stories. Also use the gasification to give vitality to the challenge and especially on the micro-training part.

4. The pace of commercial animation

It is important that the rhythm of the animation be sustained: to animate is to give life, to give substance to something (literally: a soul animates a body). The best way to ensure salespeople adhere to an animation program is to make it as active and interactive as possible.

Plan a rigorous animation plan with possible levels to maintain the motivation of the teams over the long term. Thanks to these levels of success, in a challenge, for example, it is possible to measure the progress of the teams and reward them accordingly.

5. Commitment of sales representatives in the commercial animation program

We cited it in the previous point: a good animation program is an active and interactive program. This implies leaving some room for maneuver, without which they will not be able to commit themselves to the program.

Choosing a tool dedicated to commercial animation makes it possible to give sales people a tool that will belong to them. The more salespeople get their hands on this tool, the more they will be able to make it live.

6. Management Coaching

Be careful, the choice of a tool does not condition either the success or the animation of the program. This remains the responsibility of the management: it is he who must give the first impetus and pave the way so that the salesmen can fully commit themselves.

All the above points call for a more horizontal management, at least on the point of animation. This type of management requires a shift from the model of the coach to a traditional hierarchy. And being a sports coach requires special attention to each player as well as a permanent follow-up. Now you know everything. So if you want to know more about commercial coaching, download our white paper.