Sales Competitiveness – The Good & Bad
Sales competitiveness can be something commonly found within sales teams; and although it can have its benefits; it can also be detrimental if not monitored correctly.
Naturally, sales competitiveness can find its way within your sales team – people can be ambitious and competitive, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
After all, it is a part of what makes us human.
Although it is something that you may find within your sales team, it’s important to ensure that it is healthy, and doesn’t become detrimental to you, your business, and your team.
In this article, you’ll learn what sales competitiveness is, the positive outcomes of a healthy sales competitive culture, and the negative things to look out for when dealing with sales competitiveness.
Sales Competitiveness – The Good & Bad
What Is Sales Competitiveness?
Sales competitiveness is the innate desire and feeling of need, to have to compete and reach the top of a company’s metrics, goals and KPI’s.
In a business, sales competitiveness can manifest in ways such as:
- Team members competing with others
- People competing with other business competition
- Sales Professionals competing with themselves; or their previous outcomes
How Can Sales Competitiveness Be Positive?
When monitored and nurtured correctly, sales competitiveness can be an asset to you, your team and your business.
Studies show that having a competition in your business to reach goals and targets and rewarding and recognising people who achieve those goals, can be an excellent way to increase profits and morale.
Below are a few more benefits of sales competitiveness.
It Can Foster Cooperation
One of the benefits of sales competitiveness, is that it can foster cooperation between direct team members, or within different departments via team selling.
Depending on the way you structure your sales competitions and rewarding structure, it may be worthwhile for people to work together to achieve a common goal.
This not only helps your bottom line but can enhance team relationships and morale within your business.
Social cooperation is important, and something humans innately like to partake in.
Sales competitiveness can definitely help elevate this.
It Can Create Excitement
Some work places can become mundane and dull, because it’s the same experience for the worker day in and day out.
Sales competitiveness can create a buzz of excitement, because it creates an extra layer of purpose within the workplace, which makes the environment different depending on the targets they need to reach.
As long as the sales competitiveness is kept in check among team players, it can bring a healthy level of excitement and sense of achievement.
Sales Competitiveness Can Inspire Creativity
Sales competitiveness can inspire creativity, because if everyone is wanting to achieve a certain goal or outcome, participants may need to think outside the box and be creative if they want to reach their targets.
Just like your team may be competitive – the same could be true for your actual business competition.
Thinking creatively about reaching goals and targets is an excellent sales team activity, which can get everybody on board and add to the conversation, project, and outcome.
People wish to be heard, and have their ideas come to life.
This is a great opportunity to allow sales competition and creativity meetings to foster that.
It Develops Emotional Control
Whenever there is a competition – people will win, and people will lose.
This is a natural part of life and something that should be expected and accepted; however due to people’s personal and childhood upbringing – some take losing harder than others.
Sales competitiveness and challenges can help people learn to manage losing and not reaching targets in a professional and controlled environment, and further help people develop emotional control.
This is itself can transfer to other areas in their life and business, which helps with their sales conversations and relationships with clients.
How Can Sales Competitiveness Be Negative?
As mentioned, sales competitiveness definitely has its benefits.
However, if not monitored and fostered correctly; it can definitely have some negative side effects too.
Below is a list of things to keep an eye on and look out for.
It Can Potentially Bring Out Aggression
One of the things you need to be mindful of with sales competitiveness, is depending on individuals taking part – it may bring out hostility and aggression.
We all know them – some people who make a competition out of anything and can take things a little too far.
Be mindful of this as aggression should never be tolerated, and aggressive and hostile types can sometimes lead to doing other things, such as tampering or cheating.
Manage negative players fairly yet swiftly – a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Sales Competitiveness Can Choke Performance
Although sales competitiveness has its many benefits, it is important to ensure that it is at a level playing field.
For example – imagine a team of five Sales Professionals; they have the same amount of leads to close, and same time in the day to have their sales conversations.
Out of the five; two have had sales training.
The other three wing it with their sales conversations.
Who’s going to perform?
Of course, the two with sales training.
In this case, the competition wouldn’t be worthwhile, because it wouldn’t be a level playing field.
Sales competitiveness works when it is fair, and everyone has the same knowledge or accessible information.
In this case, the two will easily reach targets, which can create a negative side effect of the other three choking under pressure and hurting performance.
People like to take part in things where there is a chance to win.
Ensure your people are all adequately trained, so not only your team – but your business reap the rewards.
It Can Hurt Ego’s
Naturally, sales competitiveness can hurt people’s ego’s when things don’t go the way they thought it would.
There’s nothing wrong with our ego’s being hurt time to time, and in fact – it’s completely natural and healthy.
However – we don’t want to leave a team of Sales professional’s with hurt emotions out to themselves, without having some self-reflection of what worked, what didn’t, and what we can all do as a team to ensure we can all reach out targets and goals next time.
Ensure there are regular debriefs, so you can check in with everyone and maintain a healthy sales competitive atmosphere.
Final Thoughts
Sales competitiveness when managed correctly can be very beneficial for Sales Professionals, Business Owners, and the overall work environment.
It can boost morale, keep things exciting, and give people a sense of purpose.
Not to mention – when done correctly, it can be very profitable.
However, for it to work, ensure you foster a healthy relationship with your team, and use sales competition as a tool, rather than allowing it to use you.
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