As a leader you are under constant pressure to produce increased revenues. You may wonder, “what can I do differently that will get the results I have promised senior management?”  If you are asking your sales team to make more calls and set more appointments, you are only looking at part of the solution.

The answer to this question requires you to move to the new behavioral economy.  You must engage your employees as unique individuals to bring out their highest level of commitment and enjoyment on the job.  And, you have to do something most of us don’t like to do….take a deeper look at yourself.

Before you think this is too “touchy, feely”, let me give you some hard facts. Gallup Research shows businesses that emotionally engage employees will grow earnings 2.5 times faster than those who do not.

Then there are further research studies done at major financial services companies and retailers proved a straightforward dynamic in which employee behavior affected customer engagement, which in turn affected company financial performance.

In the case of a large retailer research proved a mere 5% increase in employee engagement lead to a 1.3% increase in customer engagement leading to 0.5% more revenues. This translated to a huge increase in bottom line earnings for that company. In some industries the bottom line impact will be higher.

The results are even better for those companies that take steps to directly increase customer engagement with the potential to increase revenue by 23% or more per year. Increasing employee engagement should be your starting point to increase revenues and productivity.

Think about the $ impact to your business of increasing employee engagement.

How do you get started on the engagement process?  The first step is to get to know each of your team members at the inner level.  While you may be very intuitive and know your people through experiences, you must have an objective approach.  There are many discovery tools available to determine strengths, challenges, and motivators.  Use these tools for an in-depth dialogue with your employees to find out how best to communicate, what motivates them, top skills and how they apply them on their job.

Then help each team member apply their strengths to their job.  If you have a salesperson that is a “relationship builder” and their sales are down, you will de-motivate them by telling them to make more appointments.  The way to increase sales with this person is to have them cross-sell with current clients and ask for referrals.  Save the more appointments approach for your “goal setter”.

Finally, remember, focusing on employee engagement is not a “one time” meeting.  It is a daily, continual process.  Have the information in your CRM or employee management systems so that before every meeting with your employee, you review their strengths and struggles.  Help them meet their goals based on who they are, not a prescribed 10-step “one size fits all” sales system.

An engaged, committed sales team will be your ticket to sales success!

To learn more about the processes you can use to increase employee engagement, please visit www.businessdnaresources.com or email inquiries@dnabehavior.com.