Everyone at Better Earth knows how much emphasis I put on the importance of daily sales drills.

It’s a major reason why we’re constantly breaking sales and solar lead records almost every single month.

As of this article we’re averaging more than 1,200 monthly deals.

But that’s not where it ends.

If you really want to transform your reps into diehard team leaders who pull in 10 to 20 deals a month or more, then you gotta look at how you manage your sales team from a holistic perspective.

Below I’ve listed six major techniques I use everyday to keep my top reps performing at their peak.

I’m talking 40 or 50 deals a month while using record low amounts of exclusive solar leads.

It’s also how I build up newer reps into strong leaders hungry not just to improve their own numbers, but their team’s numbers, too. It

1- Don’t just hire leaders from the outside

It can be tempting to get all your leaders from outside the company.

They already have the skillset you need, you don’t need to train them, and they can start working in their role immediately.

It’s okay to do this in small doses. But ideally, you should be looking for leaders among the people who are already on your team.

The main reason for this is, when you hire externally you just don’t really know what kind of person you’re bringing in.

People from the outside might look and sound good, but you never know for sure until you actually start working with them.

You don’t know how well they really work with other people. Or how efficiently they work with solar lead providers.

Sometimes they’re ego driven. Sometimes they don’t have the right mindset.

Sometimes people on your team might be better suited for that position and they just need more grooming or training.

What you want to do is make your team aware you’re actively looking for leaders you can help build up.

This drives the go-getters to really put in the extra effort and work to be the kind of person you WANT to make a leader.

But if you don’t let them know you’re looking for leaders, then one day there’s gonna be a void in your company where it doesn’t produce as well.

Sales will drop, exclusive solar leads will dry up, and you’ll be at a loss about what to do.

Show your team you’re looking to enable their transformation anyway you can.

Offer to pay for them to go to self development conferences.

Get them books. Give them 1-on-1 time to personally mentor them. Make sure your team knows they have opportunities to move up the ladder.

Otherwise they’ll have this feeling of being stuck at a dead-end job with no hope for advancement. And that’s pure poison to your team if you let it go on long enough.

2- Communicate the company’s vision

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a six or even seven figure income is enough to motivate your team to do their best.

If you want to bring out the leadership in your best reps, you gotta make them feel like they’re coming in every day for a purpose.

Your team needs to feel driven by a mission they can get immersed in.

Something that gets them excited to wake up every morning and talk to a bunch of solar leads who may not want to hear from them.

Always make sure the vision is constantly preached throughout the company.

Make it clear where the company is going, what it’s doing to get there, and how things will change once it does. This helps your team feel like a part of something bigger than them.

It inspires them to always do better and drives performance.

If you’re not preaching and spreading the company vision on a daily basis, then don’t expect your team to stay motivated. Nor should you expect to find leader-quality reps within your company.

You can count on your best reps eventually being poached by another company with a solid long-term vision.

People – especially leaders – want to feel like a part of something bigger than themselves.

They want to feel like they’re coming into the office for eight or ten or twelve hours a day not just for a paycheck but to make a difference in the world.

And believe me, that feeling comes through their voice when they’re talking to a solar lead.

This is low-hanging fruit with solar, so there’s no excuse not to be doing it.

Plus, you can identify potential leaders by how strongly they promote the company’s vision.

People are emotional creatures.

If they believe in what they’re doing, they’re gonna want to do it well.

3- Show them what their future looks like

Every single employee needs a roadmap for success so they can see what their future looks like at the company.

Or else they’ll be unmotivated and not see any reason to work hard.

It doesn’t matter if they’re a sales rep or in charge of the social media marketing for your solar business. Everyone wants to know where they’re headed.

Develop a roadmap that includes your employees and shows them growing.

They should know for a fact that as long as they hit their goals, operate with integrity, and hit their numbers they’re expected to… then they can expect to grow.

It’s up to you to create that infrastructure for them.

Make sure they always know where they’re going long-term. Make it clear that there is NO end level. That they can always make more money, earn more equity in the company, get a better title, and so on.

Otherwise, your reps will start to feel unfulfilled.

They’ll start thinking about changing companies or starting their own in order to see the kind of success they want.

Lastly, never, ever say “no” to a rep’s ambitions.

Not even if they want to become CEO. Instead show them what they would need to do in order to get there. Motivate them to do better, to up their close rate and use less exclusive solar leads.

Even if they don’t make it all the way to CEO material, they’re still likely to become a much more valuable asset to the company.

Plus if you’re serious about scaling to eight figures and beyond, you’ll eventually need someone to fill your shoes anyway.

4- Emphasize the importance of teamwork

Always remember that if you don’t act like a leader, then nobody on your team will, either.

A lot of CEOs make this mistake.

They get caught up in their own egos, end up power-tripping, then wonder why their team doesn’t care about improving sales or finding better quality solar leads.

It’s crucial you resist the urge to dictate.

Yes, you’re the owner.

But if you want people to want to take on more responsibilities, you need to make them feel like they have some sort of say in what goes on in the business.

Figure out people’s individual strengths.

Teams of people who play to each other’s strengths are far stronger than a single person calling all the shots.

Discuss your findings with each person – both 1-on-1 and as a group so they know how they can play to each other’s strengths.

If you notice someone has excellent rapport with customers, consider putting them in charge of your solar business’ social media marketing as a trial run.

The point of this strategy is to help everyone develop their respective talents even more.

It’s your job as the owner to provide opportunities for people to use their gifts.

Encourage everyone to spend 25 percent of their time growing in the places they’re weak, too.

Pay special attention to people who go out of their way to support their teammates. With the right comp plan and gamification strategy, this is automatically incentivized.

5- Show your team they can trust you without exception

As a leader, maintaining your team’s trust is everything.

Reason for this is if your team doesn’t trust you, they won’t want to take more responsibility from you.

Sales will drop. You’ll need more leads from solar lead providers just to maintain sales. And your reps will be shopping around for another company to work with. Count on it.

That’s why you should ALWAYS follow through on your commitments.

Think: how many times do you say you’ll meet with someone, or write them a check, and then not follow through? Being busy is not an excuse.

If your team sees your word means nothing, they’ll stop putting any value in what you say.

If you absolutely can’t follow through on a promise, let them know as much in advance as you can.

Make it clear this is a rare occurrence.

Do something to make it up to them to show they can still take you seriously, like giving them a special opportunity to earn a bonus.

Or giving them a personal mentoring session to help them convert more solar leads into sits.

Your goal here is to help your team see their relationship with the company being long term. That won’t happen if they don’t feel like they can trust you.

But if they do, then they’ll feel like they’d have to be crazy to work for someone else.

6- Don’t promote them too soon

This is a common mistake I see CEOs make.

Usually because they’re impatient about getting someone to fill a leadership role. A good leader may still need work or development.

And promoting them too early on inevitably leads to problems.

You wouldn’t put someone in charge of your solar lead providers if they’ve never worked with them before, would you? Being promoted above their ceiling makes it likely someone will fail because they didn’t have time to develop the necessary skills.

This doesn’t just harm their performance but their team’s as well.

It runs the risk of people quitting, or causing you to think they need to be fired when all they needed was a little more time.

Then you’re out sales reps and a leader, and the career of that person is likely destroyed.

In sales and operations especially, you want to make sure they have a good track record working with you.

Take time to show them how to do things the right way.

Then give them a trial run in the role while you shadow them. When you feel they’ve gotten the hang of things, you can take off the training wheels and let them work independently.

Another way to ease someone into a leadership position is to have them take over the relevant responsibilities once or twice a week.

If someone in the role they’re filling is on vacation or a sick day, let them substitute in to get a feel for things.

Give them as much “practice” time in the role as you can before actually promoting them.

The beauty of this strategy is that it encourages the top performers of your team to step up and improve themselves.

When you expand and promote your team like this, you’ll see things start to run much more smoothly.

Everything from operations to sales to exclusive solar leads will be used more efficiently, making it easier to scale your solar business.
Zain Jan