Sure, everybody loves a birthday cake in the break room. And it’s nice to get that award certificate recognizing a job well done. Celebrating your sales team is good fun. But it doesn’t serve any real purpose, right?
That’s probably why it’s the first thing to go from your to-do list when life gets busy.
Recognizing your team for their achievements and personal milestones is more than just cake and giggles, though. It’s actually a pretty important part of your success strategy. (Or it should be, anyway.) It affects everything from morale to profits to employee turnover.
Case in point: nearly 70% of employees say they would work harder if they got more recognition for their efforts.
Imagine what that translates to in new sales deals.
Even though it isn’t always easy to do — especially if you’re remote or hybrid — celebrating people at work is a necessary part of building a successful sales team. With a few simple hacks, you can make it an everyday part of your company culture.
Recognition matters more than you think
Your sales team might be the hardest working crew in the industry. They put their noses to the grindstone and get things done.
But they’re still human. And we humans crave recognition.
When we work hard, or go through a major life event, we want to know that the people around us see what’s happening. Recognition matters more than we like to admit. And it isn’t just about warm-fuzzy vibes. The consequences are real.
- Employee recognition programs increase sales by up to 50%. [Sodexo: Workplace Trends]
- They also increase profits by as much as 27%. [Sodexo]
- Companies with good employee recognition have 31% less voluntary turnover.
A little effort goes a long way. Taking ten minutes out of your week to give someone a shoutout for a job well done is like money in the bank for your sales team performance.
Birthday cakes and award certificates don’t get the job done
We mentioned birthday cakes and award certificates as a way to recognize your sales team. And while both of those things have their place, they aren’t really the best way to celebrate achievements these days.
Think about it: your sales reps are hard to pin down.
Maybe the entire team is in the office together five days a week. Or maybe you’re part of the growing trend of companies who plan to work remote or hybrid indefinitely.
Regardless of where you’re all physically located, you’re a busy bunch of people. It’s hard to gather everyone in the same place at the same time. And when you are all together, you have a lot of other business to talk about.
Nobody wants to waste time rattling off work anniversaries. Public recognition gets lost in the shuffle, and one-on-one recognition just doesn’t have the same impact. How can you give your sales team regular, thoughtful recognition without it falling on deaf ears?
Video recognition is easy — and it packs a punch
Celebrating your sales team with short, thoughtful videos is one of the simplest tools for giving them the public recognition they deserve.
Video is highly visible
When you send a video to the entire team (or the entire company), you’re almost guaranteed to get a lot of eyeballs on it. We’re accustomed to getting our information through video these days. And in most cases, we prefer it that way.
Social media posts with video get 48% more views than those without. Just like on social media, a video you embed in an email or send out on your Slack channel will stop the scroll.
Video is viewable on demand
You can make an announcement at the office. But how many people will actually be there to hear it? You can share an award during your next standup, but half the team will already have one foot out the door.
Sending your congrats in a video gives people the chance to watch it on their own terms — when they have the time to give it their full attention.
Video is easy and repeatable
Making a video used to be time-consuming, but not anymore. With powerful online video makers (like Biteable Teams), creating a video takes minutes, not hours.
Just plug in your words of praise, maybe add a picture of the sales rep you’re celebrating, and you’re good to go. It’s simple enough that you can make a weekly habit of it. (Which we recommend. If your sales team is awesome, there’s always something to celebrate.)
Start with these five recognition videos
There are as many ways to recognize a sales rep as there are personalities on a sales team. But as a starting point, add these five video types to your wheelhouse.
1. Work milestones
When team members hit the three, five, or even ten-year mark, it’s a big deal. That kind of loyalty is hard to come by, so it definitely deserves acknowledgment.
Instead of sending off a dry email marking the milestone, try a more personalized approach. Gather a few glowing comments from coworkers, include a picture of the team member being recognized, and you’re all set.
2. Personal milestones
A birthday, a wedding, a big move to a new house. Acknowledging personal milestones goes a long way toward showing your team members you care about them as a people, not just as numbers on a sales chart.
For unique milestones like weddings, send an individual video. But you can keep it simple by grouping birthdays together by month.
3. Individual accolades
When a sales rep wins an award or lands a major account, they’ll naturally get a few high fives and a “congrats” or two. This is important, but it’s not enough. If your people go above and beyond, it’s important they know their effort is getting noticed company-wide, not just by the handful of people they work with every day.
Gather footage or quotes from leadership and compile them into an accolades video. Your reps will get the attention they deserve, and the extra effort put into the video will show them just how much they mean to the team.
4. Team accolades (keepin’ it in the family)
You know how awesome your sales team is. But do they know that you know? Sum it up with a short video.
An accolades video, shared internally with the sales team, is a great option if your reps exceeded their benchmarks or blew their performance metrics out of the water. It can be a surprisingly effective morale boost.
5. Team accolades (braggin’ far and wide)
Sometimes, accolades are best kept within the team. (You don’t want to start spamming accounting with all of your sales metrics.)
But don’t forget to occasionally broadcast your celebration videos to the whole company. If sales wins a major deal or hits a benchmark that just can’t be ignored, share it far and wide. This goes a long way toward building up the profile of the sales team.
Best practices for making celebration videos
No matter what type of celebration video you start with, follow these best practices for success.
Build out a template library
Templates are the easiest way to streamline your video making. Select a handful of templates and brand them with your company colors and logo. That way, when a congrats video is in order, it’ll just take you a few minutes to plug in the details.
Make a schedule
It’s easy to plan ahead for many of your celebration videos — like work anniversaries, birthdays, and quarterly awards. Making a schedule will help you follow through, even when life gets busy.
Personalize each video
Even if you use a template, take a few extra minutes to personalize each video. Add a picture of the person being recognized and include a quote or a few details about their unique achievement. This small effort helps make the person feel truly valued.
Share your videos with others
Don’t just send your video to the person being recognized. A big part of what makes a celebration video special is the visibility it gives the featured person. Include a link to your video in a team-wide email or Slack channel. At a minimum, share it with the sales team. For truly special achievements, consider sharing company-wide.
Add first-person footage
Quotes and onscreen text are a good start. But to make your video truly special, add first-person footage of yourself or others on your team. A quick word of congratulations to the featured person is all it takes.
Pro tip: Biteable Teams makes it easy to quickly gather video footage — no uploads required. Use the Record Me tool to snap footage of yourself from directly within the Biteable Teams platform.
For footage of another person (even someone who isn’t on Biteable Teams) use the Capture tool to send an email request with a video recording link. Their footage will automatically be uploaded to your Biteable Teams account.
Celebrate the easy way with Biteable
You’re ready to celebrate your sales team’s achievements. Biteable is ready to help.
Build your first video in minutes with on-point video templates, branded scenes, and a library of over 1.8 million clips, stock images, and unique animations. Share your message in a single click with a trackable video link.
With Biteable, your first video will be made and sent so quickly, you’ll have time leftover to bake that birthday cake — and eat it, too.