Resolve Conflict on the Sales Floor

A little friendly competition on the sales floor can be great for motivating sales, boosting numbers, and helping the day pass quickly – but sometimes things can get out of hand, and knowing how to resolve conflict is essential in these circumstances. Sales is a tricky game – having grit is essential to the profession. You’re getting constant rejection, and closing deals rarely comes easy. Having healthy outlets for frustration is a hallmark of a healthy workplace.

At Acquirent, we use a variety of methods to keep our sales team happy and eager to make sales. Below, find a few examples of how we do just that.

What Causes Conflict?

Conflict emerges for a variety of reasons, but there is typically a pattern that defines it. In the office, it is typically driven by differences of opinion, work related stress, or lack of team cohesion. While mediation may be necessary when conflict emerges, it is best to head off conflict as soon as the symptoms appear. We have found that the best means of avoiding conflict is to build a healthy work environment. By creating structures designed to address the needs of employees, they will be happy to work with you.

Resolve Conflict Through Mentorship

Good communication is essential to any healthy relationship. Whether you’re fresh to the world of sales or a seasoned professional, having a network for communication means answering questions, quelling frustrations, and resolving issues before they build up and explode. We utilize a mentorship program in which each member of our sales team is assigned a senior sales team member. They go out to breakfast at least once a month. This helps encourage professional development, and is very helpful for our onboarding process.

Companies without mentorship programs open themselves up to certain hazards. If certain issues are not addressed through communication, employees might look for new job opportunities rather than solve the issues happening at your company. Mentorship encourages growth, opportunity, and a healthy outlet. The best way to resolve a conflict is by ensuring it doesn’t happen. Giving employees a space to discuss their work helps stave off negative feelings.

Hosting Call Reviews and One-on-Ones

Acquirent uses a variety of methods to touch base on the calls we are making. This holds a variety of benefits. Our one-on-ones are biweekly touches between our managers and our employees. While this acts as quality control, it also exists as a space of open communication. It ensures that all the needs of our employees are taken care of, while also helping develop those employees. Along with our mentorship, it allows open channels of communication through different levels of the company.

Our call reviews are particularly useful for team building. By playing over calls that we have made, our teams are able to collaborate and rethink our strategy. It builds a sense of comradery and continuous improvement. How would you respond to this situation? Aside from these call reviews, we also host presentations that are given to the rest of the team. Lectures coming from other team members, rather than management, allows meaningful discussion.

Whether it is the world of outsourced sales, customer service, or any other field, communication matters. Allowing your employees to express their frustrations means problems won’t arise later. By having team events both within the office and outside of it, it also allows friendly channels of communication to open between coworkers.

Encourage Friendly Competition to Resolve Conflict

In outsourced sales, starting up an account and working out the bugs can be a tricky process. It is frustrating, requiring insight and thoughtfulness. Instead of building frustration, gamifying these calls will allow for your team to stay motivated. It allows employees to focus on the calls that they are making and develop comradery through healthy competition.

This is to be contrasted through unhealthy competition. Consider the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, in which employees fight tooth and nail for their jobs. While this might produce results in the short term, it also creates a massive amount of office tension. Instead, use healthy rewards systems. In our office, we often use incentives like small cash prizes, early dismissals, summer hours, and a yearly company trip to incentivize best employee behavior.

Conclusion

When conflict emerges in your company, it will most likely be referred to human resources. As a member of a company, however, you hold the power to help prevent conflict. Making a workplace happy is as simple as the decision to allow open lines of communication between employees.