By Doug O'Grady,

It's such a comfort to have that sales person on your team who is always motivated and engaged, but it's all too easy to spend your time and effort on the sales people who are not performing as well. After all, your best sales person will probably continue to do well anyway.

There's danger in neglecting your best sales person, however. Without a challenge, motivated people may become restless and search for a firm that will offer them a challenge to conquer. Also, even though your best sales person is doing well relative to the rest of the team, a successful career is marked by consistent improvement and the acquisition of new skills and experiences.

Try the following ideas to challenge your best sales person. With appropriate, motivating challenges, your best sales person will continue to thrive and motivate the rest of your team.

Teach Your Best Sales Person New Strategies

Often, sales people rise to the top because they perfect one sales approach and stick with it. This is great, but after a while they may begin missing out on opportunities because they have limited their methods. 

Challenge your best sales person to move out of his or her comfort zone by trying some new sales techniques. This new challenge will give your star sales reps new skills that can add to their tool boxes. An added benefit is that the rest of your team can see how a new sales strategy in action can help all of them as well.

Share Training Responsibilities With Your Best Sales Person

There's no rule that says you have to do all the training yourself, and there can be significant benefits to sharing this responsibility with your best sales person.

First of all, delegating some training responsibilities will free up your own time and let you focus on things that only you can do. Second, your best sales person will be learning management skills, which will offer new challenges and add to his or her skills. Finally, training is often more effective coming from someone who is doing the very same job. Your sales reps are in the trenches more than you are, which makes them very effective trainers.

Task Your Best Sales Person with Recovering Lost Clients

It's always disheartening to lose clients to your competition, but you don't have to give up without fighting. Your best sales person is the right person for winning back clients who have left you. Attempting to win clients back takes confidence, skills, and experience, and if you best sales person can manage to accomplish the task, his or her confidence will soar. 

Winning back lost clients is a huge win for the entire sales team, but it's not easy. To motivate your best sales person to take on this difficult task, you may want to offer additional compensation. It will probably be worth it, both from an income standpoint as well as the increase in company morale.

As you challenge your best sales person, try not to heap too many new requests or responsibilities on at once. The last thing you want to do is burn out your best sales rep. But do offer timely and rewarding challenges to his or her responsibilities, and enjoy the lasting mutually beneficial relationship that develops as you offer career-enhancing opportunities to your best sales person.