How do you genuinely motivate a sales team?
Jeffrey Bean, a Director of sales assessment company Sales Team Focus Ltd looks at this perennial issue.
We all do it – reach our targets then relax. Be they sales targets or personal achievements, once achieved, targets cease to have any incentive value. However, it’s true that many top performers achieve well beyond their sales target, driven by some inner force we wish our entire sales team could tap into.
To stimulate the desire to achieve or exceed target, Sales Directors and Managers spend many hours devising sales incentive schemes to act as a spur to higher performance. Most are purely monetary based in the form of a commission on sales revenue or profit. On top of this reward are cash prizes, holidays, cars and all manner of attractive inducements for higher performance. In addition, many companies send their sales teams to presentations by 'motivational speakers'. Some use the services of such individuals at their Sales Conferences. I’m sure most readers know of several speakers of this type. All credit to them, they often have the audience hanging on their every word and simply chomping at the bit to go out there and 'sock it to 'em' - at least until they get caught in the traffic jam leaving the venue!
Returning to monetary-based commission, such schemes vary widely. Those offered by commission-only employers often represent a high percentage of the sale value, 40% or more is not uncommon. Without making sales, the commission-only salesperson receives no income whatsoever which, one would think, would be an excellent incentive to perform. Like the motivational presentation, there is little evidence to support the positive incentive effect of a no sale-no reward scheme.
At the other end of the spectrum, does offering a new family car, a holiday in Florida or Rolex watch truly motivate salespeople to higher performance? If you are unsure, ask yourself these questions:
- Do the benefits your product offers convince your prospects to buy?"
- Does a discount for a quick commitment make them decide today?
- If you offer the prospect 50 off for the price of 45 will they buy the higher quantity?
Then go on to ask yourself the following questions:
- Are the benefits relevant to the prospects needs?
- Is saving money is important to the prospect
- Does the prospect actually need 50 off?
If the answers to the last three questions are all affirmative, then the answer to the first three questions is almost certainly “yes”, too. If the none of these conditions in the last three questions hold true, then the answer to each of the first three questions is almost certainly “No”.
No matter how good your product/service, if it offers no benefit to the prospect, he/she will not purchase. If quality is more important than price and the prospect only needs 45 off, then neither a lower price nor an additional quantity free of charge have no perceived value whatsoever. You probably couldn't even give your product/service to him/her!
In just the same way that benefits must be relevant to a prospect or customer, if they are to work, incentives must have some value to the salespeople at whom they are targeted. So, how do you motivate a sales team? Incentives in the form of commission schemes, prizes and awards are valuable methods but only to those individuals to whom such rewards are important. For those who have no desire for a better car, a holiday in a hot, sticky climate or a heavy and ostentatious time-piece, how do you motivate them to a higher level of performance?
Well, let’s return to that 'inner force' referred to earlier? What part does that play? Probably the most important part and your top performers probably have it in abundance. In whatever they do, some people are inherently motivated to achieve. To be top of the pile, enjoy the admiration of their colleagues, the approval of their boss and as it happens, the financial rewards and prizes that tend to go with such accolades. These are the people you would give your eye teeth to have populate your entire sales team.
This personal characteristic is called 'Recognition Motivation'. Individuals with a low need for recognition are unswayed by the approval of others and often work to their own personal agenda. It is true they can make successful salespeople, but attempting to motivate them with your usual armoury of incentives is likely to be a waste of time and money. The secret is to recognise these individuals, ascertain what's on their agenda and what truly makes them tick. Then offer an incentive that lights their fire. To help in this task, many sales managers use the Comprehensive Personality Profile (CPP) from Sales Team Focus Ltd. CPP accurately measures Recognition Motivation and six other critically important aspects of personality proven to be critical to success in sales. CPP identifies which members of a sales team are inherently highly motivated and those who will need of constant attention and support. Management time can then be focused accordingly and rewards and incentives designed for maximum individual effect.
© Sales Team Focus Ltd August 1997
|