An ideal work environment should be physically and psychologically comfortable for sales professionals. In addition, managers must design an appropriate work setting. These work settings allow employees to interact with others effectively and to strive toward their career goals.

Ideal Work Environment for the Sales Staff

The physical comfort of the sales staff matters. They may be sitting all day at an office desk or at a remote location. What has changed recently for these employees is the way they connect with their prospects and clients. Since the recent pandemic, most contact happens virtually.

To ensure a healthy and productive work environment, provide ergonomically correct furniture for the sales staff. Randstad analysts also encourage office designers to take lighting, color and temperature levels into account. Building the flexible use of space should be another key consideration as staffing levels change.

Healthy Work Environment for Sales Professionals

Physical comfort is just one aspect of creating a positive workspace for the sales staff. These professionals face the ongoing challenge of rejection on a regular basis. That experience makes it mandatory to provide a supportive and safe internal environment.

Some employees will need to vent to their managers about challenging prospects who don’t return calls. These employees may also lean on managers for advice on the next step in the sales process. To help these team members, managers should review the results of their psychometric assessments and offer personalized support.

Shutting Down Toxic Work Environments

Few aspects of work life deflate employee motivation faster than a toxic environment. Our recent survey of sales professionals reveals that 61% have worked with toxic team members or for a toxic manager.

How does this toxicity manifest itself? When sales professionals endure comments about their gender, age or physical appearance, the environment has turned toxic. Likewise, they have the right to a workplace that is free of co-workers attempting to make them look incompetent in front of the boss.

Unfortunately, some employees also encounter toxic behavior from their managers. They may be consistently overlooked for promotions because the manage is playing favorites. Or the boss may fail to keep their temper under control during meetings.

The blowback from toxicity in the workplace is usually the same. Employees pull back. And they start to look for employment elsewhere, an expensive outcome for an organization.

Employee turnover is expensive. Businesses must pay the direct costs of recruiting and training new employees. They also deal with the hidden costs of maintaining morale in departments with high turnover.

Managers owe it to their sales teams, and everyone else in the organization, to quickly shut down toxic behavior.

Monitor Your Sales Culture

Sales organizations thrive when managers work at improving the sales culture along with the work environment. Your team members want to feel appreciated. And they expect to be rewarded.

Public acknowledgement of their successes can build engagement and team loyalty. Managers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to announce deals that have closed. They should also review psychometric assessments to learn the type of acknowledgement most appreciated by team members.

Our research shows that sales professionals appreciate the following loyalty generators:

Flexible work schedule 28%
Ability to earn more PTO 28%
Better/Fair sales compensation 27%

If you haven’t looked into offering these opportunities to your sales staff, now is the time to start.

The selling profession comes with unique challenges. It is changing from the hard-charging cold-calling job people fear. But it is still not easy to recruit people who can succeed at becoming sales stars.

You can increase your chances of attracting and retaining the best sales professionals by offering the ideal work environment. This environment addresses both the physical and psychological needs of individuals in the sales department.

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