MOTIVATING YOUR SALESPEOPLE The universal question all sales managers ask at some time or other is: "How can I motivate my people?" There are many books and theories on the subject, but the fact is that you cannot motivate other people. What you can do is hire the best people, establish the right atmosphere and ask for excellent performance. Then sales managers should ask themselves: "How can I encourage my people to perform with excellence because they want to?" You can motivate people only on their own terms. People respond for their own reasons, not yours. You may want someone to increase productivity to meet department quotas or to enhance efficiency to reduce overtime. But salespeople actually carry out your program because they want to go home on time, hope to be paid well for satisfactory performance or have some other personal motive. Sometimes the reason is that they want to please you. But motivation is most enduring when salespeople have their own inner goals and when you recognize the nature of those goals. The reason most motivational techniques fail is that they don't focus on the individual. The most universally successful way to motivate is based on discovering what the other person needs. And smart questions give you the tool for discovery. The right questions can help you discover the needs of individual sales team members as they develop and as jobs grow and change. Golden Rules Of Motivation: The Essential Eight Through hundreds of research reports, one message rings out loud and clear: To increase motivation, create an atmosphere in which people motivate themselves. When people feel personally involved in a plan, they work to make it happen. There are eight questions you can ask yourself to create a self-motivating atmosphere. Each one involves communications with your staff. 1. Do your people know your plans? The best way to motivate people is to let them know your plans so they can participate in them. Make it a point to share information vital to your department, business or organization -- annual reports, quarterly updates, monthly operating results, comparative performance among divisions or units -- with everyone on your team, including those at the entry level. Tell them your goals and the goals of your company. Let them see the big picture, and stress the importance of their contributions to it. When people are highly motivated, it's easy to accomplish the impossible. When they're not, it's impossible to accomplish the easy. 2. Do you give feedback? People need feedback the way they need air. Even well-motivated people die without it. They want to be encouraged if they're doing well, and if they're not doing well, they want to know why. Give feedback immediately. When you see good or bad performance, tell the performer about it right then. Don't wait a year to correct a problem or to give recognition for a job well done. Let the person know -- now. When you give feedback, you help keep communication channels open. If your people know you're willing to discuss performance with them, they'll be more likely to bring you their problems and questions and to keep you better informed. Create an atmosphere in which people aren't afraid to tell you when something is wrong, and you will have fewer surprises. 3. Do you build on strengths? When I begin a sales training class, I often ask participants to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Invariably, they say, "I don't know what my strengths are, but my weaknesses are . . . ." We've been so programmed to focus on weaknesses, as though any imperfection would negate or detract from any strength. But this isn't so. All success comes from strength. People who are physically handicapped but bright and persistent succeed because of their brightness and persistence, despite any handicaps. If they had dwelled on their handicaps, they might never have succeeded at all. Once you get people operating from a position of strength, it is easier to motivate them. They will enjoy what they're doing, and they will do better. Look at positive, not negative, behavior first. For example, after a meeting, ask yourself, "What went right? How can I apply that in other situations?" Know the strengths of your people so you can help build on them. Know your own strengths so you also can continue to grow. 4. Do you give constructive praise? Perhaps the most golden rule of management is: "Never be too tough on a person when he's down." When people are upset over failure, harping on the negative can hurt them and quench any incentive to improve. Even when giving criticism, you can create a positive framework: "I don't think this is up to your usual standard; how can we improve the situation?" For times when criticism is necessary, engrave this message on your mind: Give praise publicly; keep criticism private. I will always remember one successful company president who made this offhand comment: "If you want to give a person credit, put it in writing and circulate it around the company. If you want to give him hell, do it on the phone." 5. Do you give rewards? If your people meet their agreed-upon objectives, they should be rewarded with more than kind words. Money, bonuses and incentives are key motivators for people. But another reward you can give a high achiever is your time. Most sales managers spend the bulk of their time with the poor performers while the best ones fend for themselves. When someone does a good job for you, recognize their efforts and set aside time to develop ways to motivate them to do even more. 6. Do you listen and learn? It's reported that after finding himself at a dead end, out of money and out of prospects, Thomas Edison once asked his janitor this question: "I'd like to ask your advice, Pop. What do you think I should do in this situation?" The janitor was stunned. "Nobody ever asked for my advice before," he replied. "Well," said Edison, "then you should have a lot of good ideas stored up." No matter what techniques you employ in the quest to motivate your people, you have to be prepared to ask questions and to listen at least as much as you talk. No one's ideas should be missed. You needn't seize on every suggestion, but if you don't at least get back to people and say, "That was a terrific idea," and thank them, they'll never give you another one. Always give proper recognition for every valid suggestion. 7. Do you set an example? The best manager is a good role model -- not once in a while, but every day. Your people pay 90% more attention to what you do than to what you say. Actions do speak louder than words. A good manager knows how to say no, to be tough but fair. In other words, if you don't handle the responsibilities of your own leadership position, you can't expect your people to live up to their job responsibilities, either. 8. Do you get people to do their best and live up to their potential? This is the most important question of all. If you have hired high achievers (which you have hopefully done), they will strive to do more. In fact, they will be bored and stressed out if they aren't being challenged and living up to their potential. It is up to you to create an environment in which your people are constantly reaching and striving. "The hard thing for me when I moved up to management," said a salesperson promoted to branch management, "was to admit that someone on my staff could sell as well as I used to and, in some cases, even better. Even harder, though, was to learn to be patient with someone who wasn't as good as I was." Successful sales managers are motivating all the time, not just when performance is down. They are always striving for maximum people potential -- to get the best from each individual in their organizations. And the objective is always to let others determine the means to growth, to let them take the responsibility for their own development. Derby Management 399 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 Tel: 617-292-7420