While tech has transformed entire industries, a business’ success still hinges on its sales teams, because no matter how good your product might be, engineers have yet to build software capable of actively selling itself. To learn what drives New York City sales reps to dig deep and hit their goals, we caught up with team leaders at three Manhattan-based tech companies to learn how they motivate the troops.
VTS helps landlords attract and retain tenants by centralizing critical data and workflows in one easy-to-use platform. The software has tools to eliminate manual processes, leverage real-time deals and portfolio analytics and nurture relationships with tenants, making it a crucial piece of any real estate professional’s tech toolbox.
Director of Inside Sales Mark Hoffman just returned from the company’s annual President’s Club trip — in the Bahamas.
We all know that sales can sometimes feel like a grind. Do you have any special traditions that help your team stay motivated and focused?
Sales is never not a grind. “Easy” deals don’t really exist, so making sure my team is focused and motivated is really important to me. Our tradition at VTS is to have our sales reps ring a big bell every time they close a deal. Whether the deal is big or small, we crush that bell — no excuses. In my experience, there are no silver bullets in motivation. If you hire people that are driven and align with your company values, you put yourself in a great position to have an army of folks that pick each other up and drive each other to their next win.
Sales is a team sport at VTS.”
For larger milestones — think, quarterly or yearly targets — how do you make sure success is recognized and incentivized?
Sales is a team sport at VTS. It starts with the sales development rep who creates the opportunity, and then it’s then passed to a sales rep who drives the process and strategy. More often than not, it’s then also supported by our solutions engineers, client advisors, sales managers and executives. So when we win, we win big and we celebrate even bigger. Each year we take all of the quota carrying reps that hit or exceeded their goals on a President’s Club trip to recognize and reward them for their hard work and contributions. We just got back from our trip in the Bahamas, and while the majority of the time was spent enjoying the great food, weather and company, it also gave our top performers an opportunity to give execs feedback on what we can be doing to drive better strategy for the business.
NewsCred’s content marketing software unleashes the full potential of marketing teams, helping organizations plan, collaborate and create exceptional campaigns and content at scale. The company works with some of the world's leading brands, including Cisco, GE, Panasonic and Twitter.
Global Head of Sales Russ Bley highlighted NewsCred’s emphasis on collaboration both within and across teams.
We all know that sales can sometimes feel like a grind. Do you have any special traditions that help your team stay motivated and focused?
A big component of our team is that we’re constantly learning and developing from each other. It is a requirement for every new team member to be able to bring a new expertise, perspective or experience. We join each other for internal strategy discussions and external sales calls — always providing very transparent feedback to each other. This perpetual state of development and improvement provides a strong team culture and motivation, with everyone wanting to personally improve and nail their numbers — while also supporting the greater good of the team.
Everyone — not just sales — is motivated on a quarterly and annual basis by overall company success.”
For larger milestones — think, quarterly or yearly targets — how do you make sure success is recognized and incentivized?
For recognition across the company, we provide “salespeople of the quarter awards” that are presented at each quarterly business review. We also provide quarterly awards to MVPs throughout the company who were integral to the previous quarter’s sales success, like over-performers in solutions consulting and marketing, for example. Then, at the end of the year, we reward top performers with President’s Club. And similar to the quarterly awards, President’s Club recognizes and includes top performers from the rest of the company. This means that everyone — not just sales — is motivated on a quarterly and annual basis by overall company success.
A new computer is exciting, but always tinged with the melancholy of knowing it will never run quite as sharp as on that first day. Neverware fights that phenomenon with its CloudReady operating system, which transforms older computers to make them secure, easy to manage and persistently speedy for grade school students.
Head of Education Sales Ben Aghion said the whole company gets rewarded when the sales team hits its targets, incentivizing everyone to pitch in wherever they can.
We all know that sales can sometimes feel like a grind. Do you have any special traditions that help your team stay motivated and focused?
One of our core company values is transparency, so we have a full company meeting every Monday where each department presents on metrics, activities and initiatives. For the sales team, that includes showcasing our progress toward our monthly and quarterly goals in each region and highlighting key accounts and wins. The company has a “kudos” program where team members recognize each other for help, and those are also read at the weekly meeting. When a team member closes a big deal, we ring a money button so everyone in the office knows and can applaud the shared success. We also just started a new tradition—a quarterly day of golf and barbecue, so we can relax and have fun as a team.
Everyone hangs on the sales team’s performance — and wants to help in any way they can — to get that extra money!”
For larger milestones — think, quarterly or yearly targets — how do you make sure success is recognized and incentivized?
We make a special effort to recognize when people beat their quotas, with callouts at our weekly and monthly team meetings. Our CEO Andrew sends an email every Monday morning that usually includes any big deals that closed and any accompanying kudos. Last quarter, one of our team members closed our biggest education site license ever, so we celebrated by having lunch brought in for the whole company and letting him choose any restaurant and food he wanted. We also have company-wide monetary incentivizes in place around sales targets, so everyone hangs on the sales team’s performance — and wants to help in any way they can — to get that extra money!
