When I was a sales manager, I was often told to motivate the sales team.
- Executive Management wanted me to “light a fire under the reps”.
- Middle Management said, “encourage their competitive spirit”.
- Even reps would sometimes say, “I need you to motivate me.”
I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but sales managers can’t motivate anyone.
We can force a rep to make more calls, work longer hours, send more emails or follow a specific process. We do this by threatening his job, yelling, putting him on a PIP, etc.
But that’s not motivating someone.
Plus it never works for long.
It’s not a sales manager’s job to motivate someone. It’s our job to lead the team to sell more.
Instead of coming up with childish contests, misguided metrics and touting insincere values what should you do when your team seems unmotivated?
Step 1. Find the spark by learning what motivates each individual rep.
I do this by observing his behavior, asking him directly and listening carefully to him whenever we talk (1-on-1s are great for this).
- Some reps thrive on competition. They want to be on the top of the leaderboard and want to be recognized. Show them how they rank at all times. Challenge them to be #1.
- Some reps are motivated by money. Show these reps to how to maximize their earnings and then get out of the way.
- Some reps want to be promoted. On my teams, promotions were always dependent on doing well in your current role first. If a rep did this, I’d give him projects where he could learn the skills required to move into the next role.
- Some reps want a steady sales job. Don’t make the mistake of writing off these reps. The reps can be the foundation of a strong sales team. Some of my top veteran sales reps had decades of experience and rich lives outside of work. They wanted autonomy and respect.
- Some reps want flexibility. They have kid stuff or are taking night classes or want to travel. Help them work through these logistics and they’ll do anything for you.
Step 2. Feed the fire.
Look for opportunities every day where you can amplify a rep’s motivation. You will find these everywhere once you start paying attention.
Here are a few examples:
- I allowed my rep with preschoolers to work through lunch so he could arrive late each morning after dropping his kids off at school.
- In 1-on-1s, I always reviewed stack ranking with my competitive reps and gave them tips on how to move up.
- Reps who wanted to move to field sales or management were given special assignments and exposure to these roles.
Everyone has something that motivates him. Your job is to find it and feed it. It’s as simple as that.
Good luck and good selling,
Steve