Three keys to Successfully Drive Sales Network Performance

It’s a daily challenge to keep up with the myriad transformations in sales professions with things like process digitization, information overload, revamped customer journeys, new internal tools, changes to sales methods and more. For the sales network, the question becomes: how can these changes be implemented while getting all teams on board and maintaining performance?

Here are the three keys to successfully drive engagement and performance in your sales networks using digital change management.

What We Learned About Motivating Sales Networks in 2020?

As every employee can attest, there was a lot going on in 2020.
COVID-19 accelerated a move to digital platforms that had already been underway in every sector.
This “new normal” is transforming the way everyone works, from staff at headquarters to employees in the field.
But how can these challenges be addressed from a human, financial and managerial standpoint?

In normal times, as well as times of crisis, sales networks are complex and multidimensional. Each network progresses at different speeds and every employee in the network has different needs. It’s no longer possible to standardize management. It has to be focused on customized motivation.

To successfully drive performance within sales networks (especially in the current context), you need to consider three tangible criteria:

• Performance: how can the sales network achieve the desired results?
• Engagement: does the network have all the things it needs to successfully complete the company’s transformation?
• Hiring: how can a company stay attractive to bring the best talent to its network?

The goal for sales networks is to successfully manage all of these criteria simultaneously and continually. There are three ways to get there.

Three Keys to Successfully Motivate Your Sales Network

• Key No. 1: Simplicity

To reach sales network performance goals and engage every employee, the first key is to focus on simplicity.

At InsideBoard, we’ve created a single entry point where all projects can be managed in one place on our digital change management platform. This single point of entry between the network and the company improves scalability and the employee experience.

It thereby creates a new digital relationship based on simplicity. Unique, seamless experiences can be initiated for each department, brand (if it’s a multi-brand network), sales outlet or user.

In 2020, Gartner named InsideBoard a Cool Vendor in the Digital Adoption Solutions category and our solution integrates with every tool on the market. This makes gathering data and motivating people to take action easier and simpler!

• Key No. 2: Customization

To maintain employee engagement while remote or in person, the solution adapts to the “new normal” and the specifics of each network using gamification, personalized push content, targeted sharing of best practices and creation of individual and group challenges.

For example, when a sales network is managed by quartiles, it’s essential for the first quartile to bring the other three onboard. The idea is to create a “rocket” with different stages.

To do this, you’ll want to use strategies that vary by quartile, transformation stage, and the various employees that make up this rocket.
This means you’ll need a customized approach with business-focused KPIs within your sales networks.

With the InsideBoard digital platform, you can identify the profile and engagement level of each member in the sales network. Using targeted KPIs, the solution can in turn suggest custom levers to motivate the sales network.

Using Artificial Intelligence, you can also identify ambassadors and compare networks. All of this will allow you to visualize how much distance the whole rocket needs to cover.

There are many benefits that come from customized experiences created by digital change management: your company will reduce training costs (which should no longer be the ultimate lever of performance and engagement), increase productivity, improve management and strengthen the relationship with your network.

• Key No. 3: Independence

The third key to successfully motivate sales networks is independence.

Your strategies to motivate the sales network must allow you to more quickly tackle current and future challenges. They should also enable you to increase productivity at a sales outlet while mobilizing a collaborative community. All this will help teams save time so they can focus on business priorities.

This is accomplished thanks to InsideBoard’s all-in-one functionality: it manages digital change management, functions as a media platform for employees, and facilitates custom data analysis. By using the same platform to drive the success of your transformation projects within your sales network and manage information overload, your company will gain operational, managerial and financial independence.

By extension, each employee in the network will also become more independent. And Artificial Intelligence will deliver the appropriate targeted content to encourage their engagement.

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The sales network is each company’s vanguard. It’s essential to motivate the network in order to effectively reach the end customer and create a connection with each client. More than a shared entity, the network must be viewed as the sum of various individual successes serving the whole.

Digital change management is the answer to all of these challenges.

Want to learn more about the InsideBoard platform that combines simplicity, customization and independence so your customer experience transformation projects will be successful and your network’s operational efficiency will improve? Then contact us today.