When you think about team building activities, what comes to mind? Do you imagine awkward interactions preceded by groans, protests, and eye rolls because no one wants to participate? If so, it makes sense.
Most people don't want to do team building exercises. They prefer to focus on their work instead and hang out with people they already know. But if you want to build a thriving sales team, you need to improve the relationships amongst your teammates.
No one wants to work with people they don't know, enjoy, or feel connected to, which is why team building activities for your sales reps are imperative. With team building, you can increase productivity, collaboration, communication, and more.
"Despite its reputation for being, well, lame, team building is the most important investment you can make for your people. It builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration. Effective team building means more engaged employees, which is good for company culture and boosting the bottom line."
- Brian Scudamore, Why Team Building Is The Most Important Investment You'll Make
Want to know where all those benefits lead? Simple—accomplished goals and the ability to exceed expectations. That's the dream scenario for any sales team, and all it takes for it to come to fruition are exercises that foster and deepen bonds. If you're wondering what those exercises should look like, don't worry. Here's a list of the top sales team building activities you can use.
Sometimes, there's nothing better than kicking back to enjoy a good brewski. After a long day at work, why not treat your sales team to a virtual beer tasting? This idea is great if you want to put a unique spin on virtual happy hours or give your team a fun way to hang out without leaving the comfort of their homes.
Planning a virtual beer tasting is also pretty simple. You can check out your local breweries to see if any offer this service. If your team is spread across multiple locations, you can also check out the breweries near each teammate to expand your options.
Ultimately, you want to find one that offers virtual beer tastings and has a good deal for its price. Some things you may want to be included in the cost are the following:
Keep in mind that finding a brewery that offers all of this may not be possible, especially at a reasonable rate. But you can pick and choose your must-haves and determine the brewery to move forward with based on your requirements.
Maybe you're doing a casual hangout with your sales team but want to spice things up. Well, there's no better way to achieve that than with a fun game. Team Shenanigans is a great activity to play while hanging with your team. It looks like a slide deck and comes with different customizable poll questions to help your team get to know one another. It also has entertaining trivia questions to see who knows the most fun facts.
Since this is an in-person and online team building game, you can play it in the office or virtually. Just make sure your screen is visible so your sales team can see the questions, and tell everyone to submit their answers using their mobile devices.
Jeopardy can be fun if you go about it correctly. Usually, this game fails when the questions are irrelevant or too complicated for anyone to answer. But if you align the prompts with company information your sales reps should know, this game will be a hit.
To play, start by thinking of different categories. It can be anything from "company values" to "services we offer" to "mission statement." Once you've nailed that down, think of questions for each category that range in difficulty.
For example, with the "services we offer" category, you could ask, "what is the price of this service?" and make it one of your easier questions. Depending on the difficulty of each prompt, you'll want to change the number of points each one is worth, so make sure to consider that element.
Afterward, you can launch your jeopardy game online or in person. Just divide your sales team into smaller teams of three or four. Then, let each group take turns picking a category and point value. The team with the most points wins!
Usually, when you think of eggs and team building exercises, you imagine that game where someone is holding a spoon with an egg on it and trying to get across the room without dropping it. While a classic, this is not that game.
This activity is a bit more fun and unique. For it, you'll need to split everyone into small groups of two or three people. Then, give each group an egg and ask them to build a cage or shield that will ensure its survival after being dropped from a predetermined height. Afterward, tell each team to give a pitch explaining why their design is the best. Then, let the teams drop their eggs to see which ones remain uncracked.
Another sales team building activity you have to check out is Catch Up With Your Crew. This game is simple, quick, and a perfect way to start a meeting after the weekend. It has less than five questions and asks people to share stuff about them, like what they did on Saturday and their official mood for the week. It's a laid-back game to ease everyone into the work week and start on a relational note.
It's also super easy to play. All you have to do is open the game on your computer. Then, share your screen or make your monitor visible so everyone can see it. For people to submit answers, tell your sales team to use their mobile devices.
Creating better relationships on your sales team is a worthy endeavor. It's one of the best investments you can make as a manager. A unified, close-knit team is a one-way ticket to increased success, so don't waste any time kickstarting your team building activities. If you want your company to grow, the relationships on your sales team need to grow first.
