Can a simple ‘nudge’ coax better performance from the sales team?

Human psychology is a bit tricky. On one hand, we all want to achieve great things, and on the other, we love lazing around the house, sipping on an ambrosial cocktail, and streaming our favourite shows on Netflix (or maybe Prime). We never want the weekend to end. But a “nudge” from a spouse or a parent on a Sunday night reminds us of our responsibilities and duties that we ought to fulfil as the week wears on. On the first day of the week, we pull up our socks and get moving with specific goals in mind. Majorly, we are able to achieve them before the weekend rolls out again.

Isn’t that how exactly a sales team works too? At the beginning of the month, the sales teams are bombarded with extensive excel sheets and numbers that they are expected to deliver over the next 30 or 60, or 90 days. Each member of the team begins the month with utmost enthusiasm, reaching out to their potential customers with a promising deal or a product. However, as the month progresses, the level of excitement and the zeal starts wearing off.

Perhaps a simple, yet a powerful “push to achieve” from a mentor or a senior official drive the team to push themselves beyond boundaries and surpass everyone’s expectation.

But in today’s era, our devices have become our greatest mentors, and real-life mentors are looking for automated solutions to streamline such components of their day-to-day activities.

Since most people are hooked on digital life most part of the day, getting an automated “nudge” on the phone or the computer would be the most efficient way to remind them of their pending targets.

How do you think such a reminder on a Monday Morning or Wednesday Afternoon would prod the person in question?

This is what Senior Sales Officials of Multinational Companies are saying about Behavioral “Nudges”.

Consistent “push to achieve” reminders help the sales team stay on track in terms of the goals and achievements. The middle and top management officials no longer have to spend their crucial work hours micromanaging and monitoring weekly reports to send out motivational messages to the team. Such small, yet effective changes do really have a significant impact on the company’s overall growth.

In today’s time, leaders are in no position to command their workers to improve performance or simply hand them a Sales playbook. Therefore, subtle cues, also known as 'nudges,' without mandating and instructing offer enormous benefits and wide application.

The Benefits of Using Nudge

Performance Satisfaction at all Levels

We all love seeing our salespeople performing well, and adding value to the growth of the organization. But oftentimes, such achievements come with lots of trepidations at different levels, perturbing the overall performance satisfaction rate. After all, we all are humans, and humans don’t like taking instructions and commands from other human beings, not even from our bosses. It is an old approach and doesn’t work with Millennials and GenZ(s) of today.

Digital Nudges follows an intrinsic approach to encourage salespeople to achieve their targets, without feeling pressured by their managers. The sales performance management systems send notifications and reminders based on up-to-the-moment performance without any human intervention, which is easily accepted by the person in question. This invokes a desire in employees to keep performing better and consistently achieve better results, thereby, fostering performance satisfaction, for both managers and their subordinates.

Builds Employee Authority

When deployed appropriately, digital nudges can steer people to feel accountable for their goals and take timely action. It’s not about penalizing the users for not meeting targets, but about giving them the freedom to make a choice whether or not they want to take the appropriate action. Employees feel valued and experience a sense of authority when prompted to remember to use their own innate abilities, especially when crafting persuasive sales pitches that resonate with clients.

Increases Employee Retention Rate

The math is simple — when employees perform better, they are appreciated with rewards, recognition, and incentives. And when employees feel that they’re valued and a crucial part of the company’s success, they choose to stay and out in more efforts to move the trajectory of their performance in the upward direction.

Sometimes, what cannot be achieved by strategically planned incentive programs can be achieved by simple nudges.Sometimes, what cannot be achieved by strategically planned incentive programs can be achieved by simple nudges, in line with their sales team responsibilities.

Boosts organizational efficiency and productivity

When employees understand the sales expectations — monthly, quarterly, and annually, it helps them deliver better performance. Customized for each cadre, individualized nudges are framed in ways that genuinely excite, inspire, and motivate salespeople to take actions that offer the greatest impact for their organizations. Nudges tap into the psychology of employees, affect their behaviour in a powerful way.

In short, organizations will see far greater returns by adopting an intrinsic motivation technique and working with natural human thinking.

Wrapping up!

GPS is an example of a nudge. However, its rise and acceptance in the organizational structure is more central to achieving transparency and effectiveness at all levels of management. In most cases, nudging techniques can have a larger impact than most coercive tools.

When deployed appropriately, effective nudges have the potential to influence the actions of each employee, enabling them to work even better.

Want to know how to improve sales by influencing employee behaviour using nudges?

Talk to us now.

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