Sales Motivation: The Magic Formula for Success ??

Please Pass Me the Magic Formula 

Motivation is a tricky thing. Sales motivation for leadership team members and front line staff is even more tricky. After over seventeen years of sales and service management I have yet to find the magic formula for sales success. That easy out of the box turn key solution has yet to come across my desk. 

So if there is no magic formula to drive sales performance how do you motivate sales behaviors in your front line staff? This question is the topic of hundreds of books written by well intentioned authors that will lay out diagrams and formulas that will seem as if they are the next best thing since the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) statement you use in your sales pitch. I believe a better question to ask yourself is do you have a clear understanding of what motivates your leaders and staff.

Who is Getting Booted Off The Bus ?

I recall years ago being invited to a five pm meeting on Friday to a remote conference room by my boss who was the Vice President of Sales. Naturally my first task was to look at the meeting invite to see who else was coming or more importantly who was NOT coming to the meeting. I then spent the day pulling my month to date sales numbers as well as my prior months scorecards. Going into the room I felt pretty good as my sales teams were on pace to hit goal for the month and the prior months had been equally successful.

The conference room had been designed to entertain visitors not hold "sit down" meetings. My boss was sitting in an armchair in the corner while we all tried to find seats on two couches and a couple of love seats. He then proceeded to talk about motivation. He spoke about what drove him to succeed and how he dared to dream big.

As I looked around the room I realized that no one in the room was listening. The only thought on anyone’s mind was, “Why am I here, and who is getting fired”. He then stated that, “Our sales teams not hitting goal was not an option. That we had to believe.” Now the part that was troubling was that he was saying this to a mixed group. There were sales leaders who were killing goal, some like me that were hitting goal, and then some who had no clue on how to reach their goal. It was this last group that tended to give the most elaborate updates in the weekly sales meetings (clearly they understood the “BS” magic formula).

After our boss had finished his monologue he said something to the effect of, “ if you can’t believe and be on board then this is probably not the place for you. I understand and I wish you well in your future endeavors.” To me this sounded strangely similar to something we had read in Jim Collins chapter on “Getting the Right People on the Bus” in Good to Great. End result was that the top performers left the meeting not understanding what had just happened and why it was directed at them. The leaders who had needed to hear the speech left thinking that the top performers needed to shape up.

So how do you motivate your sales force and the leaders who drive their performance? That is where you really have to dig deep into your direct reports pool and gain an understanding of what motivates each person. It has been my experience that some people are motivated by money, some by esteem, and others by growth in achievement or power. I recall at the time that money was not a motivator for me. As a new sales manager I really was motivated by esteem. I did not want to look like the rookie on the team. Others in the room were focused solely on bonus, and then others were focused on how they could end up having everyone else working for them (those would be the ones focused on power).

Practical Application:

• Do you know what motivates your key members of your leadership team? 
• Are they motivated by power, money, achievement, growth, or esteem? 
• How do you motivate your leaders who are performing at differing levels?
• Do you tend to “group slap” the whole leadership team? 
• How do you get feedback from your direct reports on your ability to motivate?
• We all have blind spots. Do you have someone on your team who will give you the feedback you need? 

I firmly believe it is my job and the job of my peers to make sure our boss successful. That our performance should reflect positively on his or her ability to lead the group. On the flip side this also means having the courage to tell the “emperor he forgot his or her clothes” Who have you empowered to let you know when you have taken a wrong turn?