Capitalize on Generational Differences
If you are a sales manager that finds yourself in charge of a millennial-dominated sales team, fear not. Though the “millennial” descriptor has many negative connotations associated with it, your team can benefit from generational differences, provided you are willing to try some new management strategies. Forbes outlines key traits of millennial employees, one of which is a desire for feedback. Author Micah Solomon writes, “Many millennials have received adult feedback throughout their earlier years … The contrast can be jarring when they arrive at their first professional position and suddenly have nobody who’s interested in telling them how they’re doing.”
In a new sales position fresh out of college, reps can easily let the hours of the day get away from them. Maybe they are making calls that lead to dead ends. Maybe as a manager, you are unsure of which actions or behaviors to track. Maybe the data you are tracking becomes quickly irrelevant. This cloudiness begs two questions:
- Which actions or behaviors drive the best outcomes (e.g. more new business)?
- How do you keep your team focused on the right behaviors?
A company that found the answers to those questions is Epos Now, the leading provider for cloud-based point of sale systems. The U.K. company’s first employee, David Duncan currently serves as the VP of U.S. Sales and Operations. Epos Now is a millennial-dominated sales team with 150+ salespeople. Implementing LevelEleven, a modern sales management solution, was a way to get Epos Now reps focused on the right behaviors and metrics, such as demos completed, pipeline built and new opportunities generated.
Motivate Reps with Structure & Transparency
Rather than letting his reps fend for themselves throughout the day, Duncan and Epos Now use LevelEleven to create a work environment that operates under structure and transparency. The first of its kind, LevelEleven motivates sales teams with real-time leaderboards, personalized scorecards, contests, TV broadcasts and sales coaching, all embedded within Salesforce.com. Sales managers on Duncan’s team are able to execute on their goals through LevelEleven’s Motivate strategy which includes real-time scorecards and live TV broadcasts.
“To the younger millennial workforce, LevelEleven gives them more structure than other tools like Hoopla. It allows them to be a lot more independent, but also ensures that they are working toward the goals set in place,” Duncan said.
Duncan used to spend hours of his Sunday night dedicated to pulling data from Salesforce. Now, he is able to focus more on the coaching element of his job. He said, “To get data from Salesforce, you have to go across multiple different reports. LevelEleven puts it all on one consolidated place in real-time, which saves sales leaders the hours they spend acquiring week-old data.”
Whether your team is comprised of millennials or seasoned sales reps, LevelEleven brings transparency and structure to the sales workplace that is useful for any salesperson. You might be wondering, “This sounds great, but what other companies are benefitting from LevelEleven?”
Tangible Results from LevelEleven Customers
- Paycor: 55% more key account meetings, 50% reduction in onboarding time
- Everbridge: 33% more customer conversations with structured coaching
- Ryerson: 60% increase in existing account win-backs per month
- Rogers: 25% more qualified sales opportunities
- Jackson: 30% activity against key target accounts
Appealing to the competitive nature of salespeople and keeping them motivated is one of the many ways LevelEleven helps sales organizations of all sizes. Duncan puts it best: “LevelEleven is going to get you that extra demo and that extra conversation in the last hour of the day. It motivates reps to go for extra opportunities they may have missed if they looked at the clock and decided to check out early.”
Key Takeaways
- Younger sales people benefit from structure and routine.
- It is important to identify the key behaviors that lead to your team’s desired outcomes.
- LevelEleven provides solutions to motivate these key behaviors.
