As a manager, it is important to best support employees and to motivate them in their skills development. Here are some tips for motivating your sales force.
The company is no longer a simple workplace where training courses are offered to employees in droves. Today, it is necessary for a company to position itself as What “learning” organization and to support sales forces to motivate the development of skills, on a regular basis.
Define skills development needs
To motivate the increase in skills of the sales forces, it is obviously necessary to know the needs of the members who compose them. Today, too many companies choose (or even impose) training courses without consulting field teams.
The manager will have to discuss with employees and assess their skills to design a personalized learning path in order to motivate them. Several methods are possible:
- Questioning the employee about his desires and needs;
- Analyze the current situation: objectives achieved and difficulties encountered;
- Based on the last annual interview;
- Identify the needs of the company and the wishes of the employee to evolve.
Follow up to motivate skills development
After talking with employees, it is important to combine the information into a skills development tool such as an HRIS. This type of solution makes it possible to monitor the evolution of employees and to provide information necessary for the development of skills such as:
- The type of skills and knowledge to be developed;
- The training followed;
- Feedback on learning;
- The progress and advances observed.
This makes it easier to find levers to motivate your sales forces and Encourage them to continue learning.
Offer training in line with expectations
Once the needs of employees have been determined, it is necessary to determine the appropriate type of training to motivate them: face-to-face, remotely, in groups, individually, etc. The choice is very broad and it is necessary, above all, to take into account the characteristics of each individual based on:
- Personality;
- learning preferences;
- The nature of the work;
- Les objectives ;
- Interest in training;
- The time available to train.
In addition, sales forces are a difficult population to train due to the numerous constraints of their job, such as mobility. That is why a platform of Mobile learning is adequate for this population, and would meet their expectations.
Creating a favourable environment
Motivating the development of employees requires the creation of a favorable environment. This is played out on several levels:
- Implement a skills development strategy;
- Transmit knowledge;
- Recognize and valorize the results.
To be able to create a climate favorable to the development of skills and to motivate them, it is necessary to show the importance of learning in the organization by defining a skills development plan that will serve as a reference base for all learning actions.
Support employees to motivate their skills development
Even taking into account the needs of the employee, the latter will only be able to fully follow his training if his manager listens, shows empathy and benevolence. Indeed, the manager must be able to implement all the tips listed above to motivate the development of the skills of the various employees. He must therefore adopt a coaching posture!
The subject of learning and the acquisition of knowledge, and in particular soft skills, does not only concern HR services. It is also up to the manager to monitor his employees and to motivate them to continue training.
