Motivation of field representatives is one of the most important components of field team management. Employees, who feel satisfied and engaged with their work, are more productive and efficient. When it comes to job satisfaction, wage may be lower on the list than most field team managers think. For every person feeling part of a team and being appreciated is at least as important as financial rewards.
Motivating field representatives, who are constantly on the go, can be quite a challenge. Field reps spend most of their workday outside the office, visiting only to get the tasks and report back. It’s no wonder that they often don’t have sense of how they fit into the company’s framework and their motivation is down. Getting no feedback from the management field reps, look elsewhere for a place where they’ll feel valued and appreciated. Field reps turnover is a common thing in retail, but still it impacts customer relationships and company’s bottom line. So here are some tips for keeping your field reps motivated, looking forward to move mountains and happy with their jobs.
- Develop corporate communication channels. Today with the development of mobile technologies it’s much easier to communicate effectively. Think messengers, email, social media as great tools to create a corporate framework in which managers and field reps work together, sharing creative ideas and getting engaged. Engaging your field reps in planning and decision making, asking for their input, and using their ideas are the best ways to maintain a sense of ownership for each employee. Encouraging employees to use corporate communication channels strengthens the team spirit of employees, which increases their loyalty and leads to more efficient teamwork.
- Give field reps the right tools for their work. Field reps, empowered with a present-day solution for retail execution, are able to perform their duties more efficiently, having better results and becoming more satisfied with the job done. Having all necessary tools on a single device, which they are used to and familiar with, your field reps become more engaged and productive performing various tasks with ease. Field sales automation solutions allow your field reps to be more targeted with their time, spending more hours negotiating with customers and driving larger order size. Making field reps job less manual enhances employees’ productivity and allows you to use your field force for more rewarding work.
- Give immediate and continuous feedback. A feedback from the manager is another great motivator, providing field reps with a sense of how they are performing. Feedback frequency and content are the most important things to be thought over. A good manager provides feedback as often as he’s able to. Today you don’t even have to organize a meeting to tell employees how they are performing. Use corporate messengers or emails to thank field reps for the job done, instantly encourage more of good performance, or make timely remarks to give employees the opportunity to quickly correct the situation. Publicly acknowledge your field team contributions using corporate communication channels or social media.
Keeping your field reps motivated allow to minimize costly employee turnover and maximize their productivity. Staying continuously in search of new methods and techniques of field reps motivation, a field team manager gets a worthy investment that benefit the company and long term goals – an employee who enjoys coming to work and being a part of the business.
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