HIGH FIVE

"Design flexible payment plans to suit the needs of a large sales team"

Marzin Shroff, CEO, direct sales, Eureka Forbes, on five ways to motivate a direct sales team

Pay people more, more and more attention: Constant engagement is the need of the hour. Without that, the frontline sales person may feel disconnected and ultimately lose focus, leading to underperformance. Also, it helps to constantly create employee engagement activities to achieve a more vibrant workplace.

The 3Ts: Train, train and train: Training is one the most essential requirements for any direct sales company. Since customer interactions are very high, we pay equal importance to behavioural, technical and leadership development training. We also have periodic online quizzes to keep the momentum going and keep the team up to date.

Write your own pay cheque (flexible earnings): Companies should design flexible payment plans to suit the needs of their sales teams. We have a structure that allows the Eurochamp (frontline salesman) to decide his own earnings. This brings in flexibility and promotes healthy internal competition.

Coaching: The sales team needs ‘on-the-job’ coaching to realise its full potential. If there is no human handholding then it could lead to self-doubt and start a vicious cycle of fear. We have a mentoring program that takes care of this important aspect of direct sales.

Work hard, party harder: If there is no fun in what we do, then what are we working for? We have special incentive trips for our high achievers to reward them for all the hard work they put in. Last year, we booked an entire cruise liner to give our sales force a never-before experience.