If you could motivate your sales team to take massive, persistent action over time, why wouldn’t you?

I’ve run sales floors with hundreds of people on them. Honestly, my favorite sales floor is one that offers a high-dollar product and has a maximum of 20 people selling. Fewer employees means less stress. It’s easier to maintain the culture, hold individuals accountable (including your sales manager) and have the technology capabilities necessary. Also, no one gets lost in the shuffle. That said, you must be completely transparent and have a much more family-like environment.

You can build such a team. It’ll take some time and effort, but it can be done. Here’s what’s worked for us:

Hold a Daily Routine Meeting

Culture is imperative to the success of any team in any industry. It’s the reason your team wakes up energized and ready to go at the start of every day. With the right culture and leader, your sales staff will take you to levels you never thought possible.

To get started, pick up a copy of “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure” by Grant Cardone. I love this book so much I bought it for my entire company and we listened to a chapter a day until we completed it. I now make sure that anyone coming to my company listens to the audiobook.

Every day I also hold what I call a daily routine: a recap that takes roughly 30 minutes every morning. We discuss the team’s KPIs (key performance indicators) on a daily and week-to-date basis using a simple chart. For example, say you’re selling financial services. KPIs would include quotes and contracts. Your chart would identify how many quotes each salesperson had the day before, how many they had that week, along with how many contracts each salesperson got out the day before and how many they got out that week. You would then track the goals for the day and for the week next to each column.

Daily meetings achieve a few things. First, they show who the rock stars on the team are. It also helps you identify who is struggling and needs help. If someone has 20 percent more quotes than anyone else on the team, that’s a training opportunity. Ask them what they are doing to make that happen.

Secondly, it lets the group know where they stand as a team. People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. This accountability (one of our core values) drives salespeople to perform for each other.

Incentivize Your Team 

In my office, we have what we call the “Ventury Store.” It’s really nothing more than a place where our team can turn in chips for goods. We had a custom poker chip company place our logo on one side of each coin and a $1 currency on the other. I then asked my entire staff what kinds of things they would want other than money. I received all sorts of ideas, like bigger computer monitors, concert tickets, NFL tickets to comedy shows and books. I even got requests for sales training. So I gave each of these things a chip value.

We now give out chips for great calls, closes, going above and beyond, and anything we think a salesperson does that is cool. At any given time, you can walk around our sales floor and see the chip case on each salesperson’s desk.

Coming up with a rewards system keeps the environment fun, it keeps employees engaged, and more importantly, it keeps morale high. When I’m out of the office, my sales manager can give out chips. The boss shouldn’t have to be there for the team to be rewarded or more importantly, recognized.

Celebrate Each Win

Ventury Capital is in the business of helping business owners access small business loans, so we celebrate every time we fund a small business. Our goal is to help 100,000 business double in size in the next five years by giving them the ability to access capital. Every time we fund a loan, we’re one step closer to our goal.

We celebrate that by having whoever was responsible for selling the loan take and mallet and ring a 36-inch ancient-style gong. The whole team claps and congratulates the loan officer for helping one more person get that much closer to reaching their goals of doubling their business. It’s only for a few seconds, but the moment where everyone is off the phones and celebrating helps break up the day for a period of joy and celebration.

Recognize Positive Behavior and Check In

We hold a 2 p.m. daily recap. It’s a five-minute interruption in the day where we pull up some of our KPIs. If someone is behind, we ask them what they’re going to do to catch up. If someone is ahead, it’s about taking them to the next level of success for that day. If they need help on a deal, we address it at that time.

Recaps like these are a teaching moment to discover why we lost a deal or are facing a funding problem. Instead of sitting in a conference room and teaching our sales team about every little problem that could happen, we address it on the job, teach everyone at the same time, and ensure everyone is on the same page.

This is also a great way to motivate people. If someone doesn’t have any current documents requested and we need five more to hit our daily goal as a group, this person won’t leave without at least putting one up on the board. It’s all about accountability.

Keep It Upbeat 

We play music from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in my office. Each closer has their own song that encapsulates them. Every time they fund a loan and the gong goes off, we play that person’s song throughout the office. It’s a fun, light way for recognition.

While it’s important to hold your team accountable for their numbers, it’s also about fun and success. Who would want to work for someone who focuses only on numbers, rather than how they are achieved? The culture of your office is paramount to your success, and I believe you cannot motivate your sales team without celebrating the wins.