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How Great Sales Managers Motivate

The ability to motivate people is the Holy Grail of sales management. If you can capture your reps’ minds, stir their imagination and trigger something that compels them to exceed their own expectations, well then, you’ve got the whole leadership thing sussed.

One of the biggest challenges for any manager is to ensure that workers invest more of themselves in their work than they absolutely must, states Joseph T. Straub in his elegantly simple (and now out-of-print) book The Agile Manager’s Guide to Motivating People.

Almost every sales manager inherits self-starters who push themselves. It’s the middle performers who present the most potential for increased sales. But how to motivate the unmotivated is a question that’s been dissected and examined from every angle by some of history’s greatest minds – business, political and otherwise.

Motivation is mostly about setting an example and challenging high achievers to follow suit. It’s delegating without dictating, or, as Gen. George Patton once said, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

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Say What You Mean
Always say exactly what you want your staff to do. Too many managers assume that, because they are the boss, their suggestions will be understood as directions.  They won’t, says Cam Marston, a consultant who specializes in differences in workplace expectations between different generations. “Boomers and Matures often are reluctant to give clear, direct, specific instruction about what they want an employee to do. There are orders and there are suggestions. Make sure you distinguish between the two.”

Stick Your Neck Out For Your Workers
Today’s younger employees work out of loyalty to people, not to a company, but only when their supervisors are superb communicators and motivators who know their employees well, says Marston. “They are searching for the boss who will lead them, not dictate to them.”

Think About the Future - Your Employees Are!
Be prepared to see formerly contented employees fall out of love with their jobs, says Joseph Straub. What compounds your challenge to motivate others is the tendency for people to undergo a shift in personal preferences, interests, goals and priorities every several years.

Walk Your Talk When It Comes To Knowing Your People
There is a difference between saying “I’m here to listen” and going out and getting to know your people. A manager who says, “Come to me if you have a problem,” is not being proactive. Motivation is very much about telling people what you need from them, but they won’t listen to you unless you have listened to them first, Marston cautions. You must show them you care and that you’re paying attention.

Envision Your Company’s Great Cause
Great companies have great causes. Your sales team’s loyalty may be to you as a person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get them enthused about your company’s cause. And the simpler the mission the better, says Chip Conley, founder of San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality, California’s largest independent boutique hotelier. Conley confesses that many years ago he wrote a nine-sentence vision statement that fell flat on its face with his employees. A team of managers and employees boiled the company mission down to “creating opportunities to celebrate the joy of life,” which itself has been reduced to “create joy.” It has become a rallying cry for everything we do, Conley says.

Have a Heart and Nix the Negativity
Penalties and threats may produce a quick fix for performance problems, but they provide no enduring solution. Managers who resort to negative motivation ultimately generate more problems for themselves and their organizations than they’re trying to solve.

Reward Religiously!
Paychecks provide compensation. They don’t provide lasting motivation. Express your gratitude to employees for their accomplishments personally and frequently, and make sure that others in your organization know about the good work your team has done.

Be A Fair Scorekeeper
People have a keen sense of fairness. Expect employees at every level to make “equity checks” to assess how well they’re being treated in comparison with their peers, as well as counterparts in other organizations. Pay is a major player, of course, but workers also place a value on factors such as education, skill development and assignments. Straub warns, “If employees perceive that they’re being treated unfairly or discriminated against, they’ll look for some way to change the quality or quantity of their inputs (what they bring to the job) or outputs (what they receive from it) that will restore a balance between what they’re giving and what they think they should be getting.”

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