I met with a client this week who are looking for ways in which to improve sales effectiveness. One of the areas which came up in discussion was ‘how to motivate the sales team’. I always wonder about this one – it’s not the first time I’ve been asked about it and I’m sure it won’t be the last. The thing is I’m not an organisational psychologist so it’s not really my bag. There are other professionals who specialise in this area that are eminently more qualified to help.
However, I do have a view on this and it is based on one thing that I do know about – and that’s salespeople. To my mind great salespeople don’t need to be given motivation. In my experience they are very highly self-motivated and have much higher standards for themselves than you could ever hope of them.
If you’ve got high performers in your sales team then don’t worry about motivating them – instead look for ways to enable them to perform to the best of their abilities by making their paths as smooth as possible.
So, what of the client that is looking for an answer on how to motivate the sales team? Well, I think that they need to look beyond the aspect of motivation – and ask themselves if they have the right people in the team and do the processes, structure and leadership enable them to perform.
I’d be interested to hear what others view is on this subject.