The strength of your sales team as a whole plays a huge role in the success of the salespeople within it.
Sales teams can support each other’s efforts, teach and learn from one another, and encourage each other to continue growing for the company and for the customer.
As a result, team building is a crucial part of the puzzle when striving to reach goals together. Thankfully, there are plenty of great team-building exercises you can employ.
Here are 10 smart team-building exercises that will make your sales team stronger:
1. Best Sales-Related _____
This idea is simple whether your team is in an office or working remotely.
Task people on your team to come up with the best sales-related __________.
- Joke
- Meme
- Podcast episode
- YouTube Video
- Motivational Quote
- Blog Post or Article
If you have a small team, everyone can participate. If you have a big team, choose a handful of participants each time. The sales manager can pick a winner, or let the team vote. Either way, the team gets to consume relevant content that's either enjoyable, educational, or both.
2. Learn Together, Grow Together
There’s a reason why sales conferences are so well attended and used to build successful teams: they work. Taking your sales team to a conference allows for learning and professional growth, but it also keeps everyone on the same page regarding strategies, initiatives and goals.
In-person events are ideal for building camaraderie, especially for remote teams who don't often meet face to face. However, online conferences or webinars are certainly an option as well.
3. Let the Games Begin
Education research has proven over and over again that people often retain knowledge better when learning is turned into a game.
Gamification can improve general sales performance as well.
So use games to promote both training and productivity.
You can make your sales games competitive, collaborative, or simply fun. Whatever path you choose, ensure that the game isn't too serious so as to detract from your goal of building unity.
4. Feed Your Team Spirit
Food is one of those rare things in life that virtually everyone is interested in and enjoys. So why not use it to help in your team-building efforts? Consider taking your team out to lunch, or cater a sales meeting as a reward every so often. Arrange a best-tasting dessert competition in the office, or make it photo-based (cupcake competition anyone?) for your remote team.
5. Now Work It Off
As much fun as it can be to build bonds over food, you also want to promote good health and fitness. Besides, athletics is a great way to promote teamwork and leadership. It also helps with focus when the exercise is done.
Office leagues, team hikes, and friendly competitions are all great options.
6. Giving Pays Off
Another way to build bonds is through charitable giving activities. You can keep it simple by encouraging people to fund-raise for an agreed-upon cause. Or just allow team members to donate privately to a cause they believe in - perhaps offering to match contributions. Even if the efforts are independent, they contribute to a positive company culture or work environment.
If your sales team lives locally, you can even go the extra mile and organize an event where team members come together to do something positive in the community.
7. Escape the Office
Why not escape the office for an afternoon of team building? An escape room challenge is a cooperative and fun activity the requires everyone to come together to solve puzzles. A scavenger hunt is another great option.
8. Award Nights Make Your Team Shine
Consider a quarterly or annual award night to recognize achievements from individuals and teams. These events can full of pomp or as relaxed as you'd like. Either way, they are a great opportunity to acknowledge and reward your team.
Awards don't just have to be for sales performance. You can recognize attendance, improvement, mindset, productivity, helpfulness, leadership, dedication, and more. Bring out the best in your team by showing them all of the different ways they can succeed.
9. Mock Presentations
Break up your sales team into groups. Then give each group the challenge of "selling" something related to your product or service to the rest of the team. Like in a debate, each team has to take a different side.
- Why feature X/Y/Z is the best feature.
- The best success story, and why.
- Why your product is better than that of competitor X/Y/Z.
- Why X/Y/Z is the best sales resource to use.
- X/Y/Z is the most effective sales outreach method.
Each team has to research and create a compelling argument for their side. In addition to helping them become better presenters, they also get to hear some valuable, well-researched selling points or sales methods that they can then use going forward.
Presentations can be made during a sales meeting, or for a remote team, conducted via video conference.
10. "Channel" Your Sales
Does your company use Slack or another collaborative messenger application? Create a channel for your sales team to ask questions, address concerns, and discuss strategy. It's a fantastic, and very simple way for team members to learn, lead, and build relationships.
Use These Sales-Team Building Exercises, Make Your Team Stronger
No matter how you do it, building up your team through group activities promotes personal connections and sales success. When sales professionals feel like they are part of team, they are more likely to support both personal and company-wide success.
Here are 10 smart sales team building activities that can work wonders:
- Give me your best sales related ________
- Attend conferences and learning events
- Employ friendly games and competitions
- "Feed" team unity
- Get some exercise
- Get everyone involved in charitable giving
- Escape the office
- Recognize employees at an awards ceremony
- Conduct mock presentations
- Have a sales support channel on a messenger app
