Like an oil dipstick, when your morale dipstick shows morale is low it’s time to fill it back up or your in trouble.

Morale is oil to a sales team.  Like that of a car, once morale gets too low the engine comes to screeching stop.

Morale is the most important element of a sales team. When morale is high, the team runs well, it performs, quota is met, innovation flows, communication is abundant, things run efficiently. When morale is high, the sales engine is humming.

When morale is low the gears start to grind. Quota is missed. Team members don’t get along, communication is negative, creativity is lost and bureaucracy creeps in. When morale is low, the sales engine sputters and dies.

When your sales engine is sputtering, hurting morale will only make it worse. When morale is low, yelling at the team, putting everyone on a PIP and threatening them with their jobs will only make things worse. Squeezing the team in the grip of micro-management and oversite won’t solve the problem. When the sales engine is sputtering, the first thing you need to do is add a quart of morale. Then you can look address the other problems. Like oil to a car, without enough morale, nothing else matters.

What is your morale dipstick telling you?