There’s no getting around it: Ultimately, your ability to close the year on a revenue high note depends on execution. Even after you zero in on high-potential opportunities, clear distractions, and fortify your sales enablement, if everyone on your team isn’t ready to perform, you’re bound to fall short. The home stretch of the year is a time for leaders to hold their teams to higher standards, whether you’re under-resourced or have all the tools you need.
And you’re not going to get there by whip-cracking. Simply ordering your team to do better is more likely to lead to a mutiny than a revenue win. Asking more of your team is less a matter of authority and more a matter of culture. If your team feels motivated and inspired to execute, and you’ve built a culture of individual and team accountability, you won’t have to crack the whip – your team will be much more receptive to an increase in performance expectations. In fact, it may even inspire them more.
Here’s how to get your team motivated to hit the afterburners and take their revenue execution to new heights as the year comes to a close.
This article is part of our new guide on how teams can make up lost ground and hit their goal before the end of the year. Get the complete guide here.
Make Up Lost Ground at the End of the Year
Make your team confident – and show them that you are, too
The end-of-year revenue crunch is a stressful and daunting moment, particularly if your team is currently tracking to fall short of your goal. If you expect them to perform at their best, they have to be confident that success is within reach.
Highlight their past successes to remind them that they’re capable of big wins. Make sure they’re aware of the sales enablement resources available to them so they know they’re equipped for success. If possible, up their commission or offer an added bonus if they hit their goal to get them extra motivated to execute at a higher level.
Along the way, remember that one of the best ways to make your team confident in their abilities is to show that you’re confident in them as well. When the pressure is on, leaders of fighter pilot squadrons know that panicking will only make things worse for everyone. Business leaders can learn from this example. Project calm and avoid getting agitated. Acknowledge the scale of the challenge ahead while showing your team that you believe they can overcome it.
Create clarity around your strategy
To feel truly motivated, your team needs more than just an awareness of their own abilities and of your confidence in them. They need to understand, in concrete terms, that hitting goal is feasible.
Show them what the path to success looks like. Give them a front-to-back view of what tasks need to be completed between now and the end of the year, who is in charge of completing them, and by when. Making your Mission Objective clear, detailed, and tangible will not only make it easier for your team to feel motivated to execute – it will also create a culture of accountability that you need to make sure projects move forward without delay and tasks don’t fall through the cracks.
At Afterburner’s workshops and other events, teams of all types build the confidence and clarity they need to boost motivation and execute during the end-of-year revenue crunch. Get in touch to learn more.
