One of the most asked questions on our Sales Managers' Masterclass programme is:
“How do I motivate sales people?”
If you want to motivate your sales people, then it’s simple. Catch your people doing something right and praise the procedures you want repeated. Recognition is a massive motivator. It costs nothing to say thank you but the rewards from recognition are priceless.
I can remember doing a motivational survey for one of our customers to see if we could find the biggest motivators and the best manager. We got about 48 delegates in a room seated at round tables with 6 people per table.
Each delegate had to complete a number of sentences such as:
- 'The biggest Motivator is...'
- 'The biggest de-motivator is...'
- 'If you want to motivate us you should...'
- 'If I was in charge of motivation I would...'
We had about 20 questions altogether and at the end of the exercise each team had to compare notes and reach agreement prior to giving feedback to the entire group. While the delegates worked on their task the mangers listed what they believed to be the biggest motivating factors.
The managers list looked something like this:
- Money
- Car
- Office
- Bupa
These factors are important to attract salespeople to the business but they soon become an entitlement. “I’m entitled to a BMW, it’s part of the package.”
So what was the biggest Motivator and who was the best Manager?
The biggest Motivator was recognition and the best Manager 'Mark Johnson'. Why was he the best manager? He's interested in me. He's the only one that takes the time to talk to me and more importantly listens to me when he does not want anything.
When you see, the other managers coming you think here comes extra work or I must be in trouble. Mark always has something good to say about my work. He always finds time to thank me for the small things that make a big difference.
How do you measure motivation?
You can measure the level of motivation by what your people do after they do what you paid them to do.
They go the extra mile for managers who say 'thank you'.
So,
Catch your people doing something right and praise the procedures you want repeated.
By Mike Le Put, Director, MLP Training.
For more information about MLP Training and the courses on offer, visit our website.
http://www.mlptraining.co.uk/
As author, publisher, trainer and motivational speaker, I have trained over 10,000 people and inspired professionals across the UK, USA and the Far East. Working as a Training Consultant to many of…
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