From the category archives:

Motivation

Rethinking rewards for your sales team

by Paul Sparks on January 5, 2010

What motivates salespeople?

What incentives really drive the outcomes individuals and organisations are looking for?

 Do big commissions work?

Dan Pink has popularised research in psychology, and is well known for his work “A Whole New Mind”.

Over the last few years he has researched the impact of rewards in the workplace.  Put simply, he argues the case that what we do in terms of reward structures don’t reflect what science has discovered about human behaviour.  Rather than helping get better results, large commissions can create an environment where our salespeople simply won’t get the best results for their efforts.  Big incentives narrow focus – and for modern sales environments (particularly complex ones), this is exactly what we don’t need.

Have a look at his recent presentation to a TED audience, and then consider how your reward structures may be based on outdated views of what people really want from their work, and what really helps drive outcomes.  

The evidence coming in about executive pay and incentives is still the realm of great debate, but two things seem to be emerging:

  • The size of executive pay packets doesn’t correlate with organisational performance.  Paying big bucks doesn’t in any way guarantee better returns for shareholders, customers or other stakeholders.
  • Short term incentives will often result in – not surprisingly – long term destruction of organisational assets.  Since people are the main asset of many leading companies, it is critical that decisions at the top of organisations are made to ensure the long term sustainability of the organisation.  The last 12 months have seen a number of companies come to regret the layoffs made at the start of the GFC – particularly the experienced salespeople cut from organisations.

These lessons need to be applied to our sales teams to ensure that they are rewarded for building the relationships necessary to ensure long term mutual success – not simply a focus on numbers for the next quarter.

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Find out more about Dan Pink and his work here:

http://www.danpink.com/

Thanks for reading this post – Paul Sparks, Sales Effectiveness Australasia.

“Taking you beyond sales training and keeping you informed about the latest ideas, trends, innovation, research & best practice in professional selling and sales management”

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Finding hidden talent in your sales team

by Paul Sparks on November 19, 2009

Selling is a role that puts people on the line day after day.

Developing relationships is an important part of the role, and certainly sales come more easily when there is an existing relationship in place.  The challenge, though, is getting that relationship started and asking for the first appointment, and, eventually, the first order.

Personal rejection is part and parcel of the selling process, and, depending on how they view it, salespeople may feel uncertain and vulnerable when putting themselves in the path of rejection.  They may feel that they aren’t as in control as they look, or that they don’t know as much as others think.  They may feel like fakes and frauds, afraid that they will expose themselves as not good enough in some way.  These feelings can get in the way of confidently assessing customer needs, and matching them with the products and services the salesperson offers.

Suzanne-Mercier

I’ve been speaking with Suzanne Mercier from Imposterhood™ who is now out talking and writing about the “disease” that led her to sabotage her career and business development efforts over the past 30 years.  She wants others to understand and overcome these feelings of doubt they can get – so they don’t do the same.

Suzanne had a stellar career in fast moving consumer goods marketing, and in advertising.  In fact, she was the first woman on the Board of George Patterson Advertising.  She knows first-hand how we can look good while our feet are paddling furiously under the water.  I’ve asked her to share how the Imposter Syndrome – yes, there’s a name for it – can impact the performance of sales people and sales managers, and some of the things you can do to overcome this potential derailer.

Thanks Suzanne.

Suzanne, can you please give us some background on the Imposter Syndrome?

In 1978, two psychologists,  Drs. Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes, identified the Syndrome when high performing academic women studying for their PhD’s and Masters degrees were stressed and fearful about failing upcoming exams and theses.  These women felt like fakes and frauds.  They believed that others saw them as far more intelligent than they felt and put their prior successes down to good luck or some personal characteristic such as charm or attractiveness.  They focussed on their failures and weaknesses rather than their successes and strengths.  These women were successful – they just couldn’t, or wouldn’t acknowledge it.  And if they grudgingly admitted their success most were concerned about how they could maintain this success, and pull the rabbit out of a hat again.

This inability to accept and embrace our success as being the fruit of our efforts, talents and qualities, means that we can’t build on what we’ve achieved.  We constantly have to prove ourselves over and over again.

It affects men and women equally, and differently.  For men who generally have been raised to be the breadwinners and to keep the financial roof over the head of the family, success is expected.  Men are often taught to “fake it ‘til they make it”.  Their fear is of failure – of not living up to the expectations others and society has of them.

Women, on the other hand, are still the ones who have to have the children, generally raise them and juggle multiple roles now that they want it all.  They recognise that having it all comes with a price and that they may not have everything balanced and quite the way they want it if they are successful in their careers.  While they also fear failure, their greatest fear is that they will be successful and will have to pay a price beyond an acceptable level.

Broadly, the impact of the Imposter Syndrome on men is that they will put on a front, covering up their fear of failure.  Commonly, they won’t let anyone else know what’s going on inside.  They’ll go for it, produce the results and live with the stress of their “secret” – that they’re really not good enough.  Women are more likely to talk about it when they finally recognise what’s going on.  They are more likely to sabotage their efforts to avoid the success that may come with too high a price tag.

Now the shocking news. Continue Reading…

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Success in professional selling is a journey – not a destination

by Paul Sparks on June 23, 2009

We all want to be successful, don’t we?

And professional selling is a vocation where success can be measured quite easily – or can it?

I recently came across this short video by a man named Richard St John, where he makes a point that we often forget – that success is a journey, not a destination.  It’s something we have to keep working at.

Here are the eight things which Richard says contribute to success:

  • Passion
  • Work
  • Focus
  • Push
  • Ideas
  • Improve
  • Serve
  • Persist

 And this is especially so for people like us who sell things.

Have a look at Richard’s short presentation – and think how well you’re applying these eight aspects of success to your sales role.  You may have had a successful week, quarter – even some successful years – at least in terms of reaching quota.  Ask yourself this simple question as you watch the video:

What are you doing to maintain your success – in your sales role, your career, and your life more broadly?

Fortunately success is what we as individuals define it to be.  It will look differently to you than it does for me.  And – just like the goals that push you – it will probably change over time.  Which is good.

 But you’ve got to work at it.  And that’s up to you – no one else is going to do it for you.

 

 Like to hear more from Richard?  Go to his site at:

www.richardstjohn.com

Thanks for reading this post – Paul Sparks, Sales Effectiveness Australasia.

“Taking you beyond sales training and keeping you informed about the latest ideas, trends, innovation, research & best practice in professional selling and sales management”

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A happiness primer for sales professionals

by Paul Sparks 20 June 2009

According to Wiki, happiness is a “state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure or joy”.  Don’t you love it when things that are hard to define are defined by other things which are equally hard to explain? But, however it’s defined, happiness is something that most people want to feel as much [...]

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Beyond Maslow – a new view on motivating salespeople

by Paul Sparks 4 June 2009

What motivates me as a salesperson? How do I motivate my sales team? These are perennial questions which continue to challenge salespeople and managers alike.  Whilst our understanding of human behaviour has developed significantly over recent years, we still struggle with the question of “what keeps me doing what I do”. It is often suggested [...]

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