Identify and Prevent Burnout: 4 Strategies to Improve Efficiencies in Your Sales Team
Publié le 7 November 2022
Burnout is affecting an unprecedented number of working professionals. Learn how to identify and prevent burnout with 4 strategies to improve efficiencies in your sales team.
Burnout and stress can be an issue for employees of all seniority levels. It can negatively affect employee performance during both stable and high-pressure business periods. The effects of stress and burnout are also extremely hard on physical, emotional and mental well-being, effectively making it impossible to maintain a healthy balance.
Psychological and physical exhaustion, lowered concentration and output, and a sense of disconnect from the long-term goals of the business, can all arise as common results of poorly-managed processes and procedures that lead to employee burnout.
If you’re worried about burnout affecting your sales team, here’s some of the common signs of burnout to watch out for, and some of the best ways to prevent it while improving the efficiency of your sales team.
Common Signs of Burnout
If you’re not sure how much burnout is affecting your sales staff, here are some common signs to look for when you’re worried about your sales team’s productivity.
Disengagement
If an employee has previously shown great engagement at work, but now appears bored or withdrawn in meetings, doesn’t volunteer for projects that would typically interest them, or is slow to respond to communications, then this could be a sure-fire sign that they’re burnt out. This can also manifest in behaviour that’s not strictly work-related, such as not talking about their hobbies and interests as much as usual.
Increased Absenteeism
It’s no secret that people who are dissatisfied at work are more likely to take sick days and make excuses for being absent. If employees are suddenly taking more days off, especially when they’re unscheduled, this could be another big sign of burnout.
Isolation
When a known extrovert suddenly turns into an introvert, in many cases they’re simply having a bad day or dealing with some trouble in their personal life. If this sudden isolation persists though, it could be a sign that they’re feeling burnt out by workplace stressors.
A Downward Trend in Productivity
Burnout often makes it harder for workers to concentrate on the task at hand, due to a variety of other factors which are themselves symptomatic of burnout. If a star employee’s output and quality of work has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, then this could also be a clear sign of burnout.
Four Ways to Prevent Burnout
Now that you’re able to recognise burnout when it starts affecting your team, here’s 4 strategies to prevent burnout and keep your sales team more engaged and efficient.
1. Make Sure your Whole Team Feels Recognised After Big Wins
Anyone with a little sales experience knows that not every month is bound to be one for the books, and with individual commission structures and leaderboards, the structure of some sales teams can hinder a sense of camaraderie and belonging.
Going the extra mile to recognise your team’s contribution to big wins can make a huge difference to how appreciated employees feel, and improve all-around engagement in the workplace. One case study by RewardGateway showed that when Heineken employees began receiving peer-to-peer recognition, 30% more employees gave a positive answer to the prompt “I receive recognition when I do a good job.”
Sales is extremely fast-paced, but remembering to take the time to recognise individuals’ contributions to the team’s larger goals, and reminding them of their value to the company, can be one of the best ways to mitigate stress and boost engagement.
2. Foster Social Connections
Humans are social animals, and regular social interaction can be an important predictor of things like stress, physical health, and job satisfaction.
As an employer or sales manager, you’ll have a unique opportunity to foster closer social connections within your team, thereby decreasing stress and improving engagement at work. Scheduling regular team lunches or happy-hours, holding walking meetings, and incorporating team-building activities or social video calls into the team calendar, can all help to provide your sales team with the social support they need to avoid burnout.
If you’re already taking steps like these to identify and prevent burnout, but you’re still noticing the effects of burnout in your team, it may be worth trying to democratize social activities to align them with what your employees actually want. By using surveys, polls, and other sources of feedback, you’ll increase your chances of hitting the nail on the head with work social initiatives, and allow your team to de-stress the way they want to.
3. Pay More Attention to Employee Wellbeing in Peak Periods
While we’d all like to provide our staff with the emotional support they need all year around, the everyday pressures of sales can often make this impractical or impossible. This is why it is important to provide them with the resources they need to maintain their health and well-being. This includes a health benefits package which includes mental health care, paid time off in order to rest and recharge and the knowledge that workplace leaders are open to feedback that leads to actionable change.
If your resources are limited when it comes to creating a culture of wellbeing, the next best approach is to focus on the periods where stress runs especially high in your business.
To start, carry out some generalized research on when workers feel the most stressed. This ‘summer slump’ report by Sopro showed a sharp downturn in sales among their clients in July and August – a bad time of the year for the survey respondents, but probably not a period of increased stress. On the other hand, this study by Firstbeat showed that surveyed employees reported more stress and less recovery time in October, November, and December.
After researching these general trends, then drilling down to the seasonality of your business and the sources of stress unique to your sales team, you can create a detailed plan for ensuring that your workers have access to the right support and resources for dealing with stress when they need it most.
4. Designate Time Slots to Check Up On Your Team
When you’re in a performance-oriented role like sales, it can be hard to admit that you’re struggling with stress and seek out help when you need it. Sometimes, simply having someone to talk to will give a rep access to the guidance and perspective they need to effectively combat burnout. In many cases though, this needs to be instigated by their manager.
Conversations about mental wellbeing at work can be a little awkward, but they’re exceedingly important, and your workers will be looking to you to start them. Having regular one-to-ones with members of your sales team, and making a conscious effort to ask them about their sources of stress, can be hugely valuable to combating burnout. Just remember to include specific, actionable advice in these sessions, and avoid relying on cliche proverbs and inspirational quotes!
By normalizing these kinds of conversations, and promising your staff a space where they can get things off their stress, you’ll be able to keep a closer eye on employee burnout and teach your team good habits for caring for their mental health.
Final Thoughts…
Burnout can be a huge detriment to your sales team’s productivity, but knowing how to recognise it, and taking active steps to avoid it, can make all the difference. Leaders shown recognize that by learning to identify and prevent burnout and using 4 strategies to improve efficiency in your sales team it is possible to achieve business goals and maintain a healthy workforce. As you navigate the challenges of nurturing good mental health in the workplace, we hope this guide will help you understand the key stressors in your sales team, and move towards a healthier, happier workplace.
