Archive for November, 2009

Let’s talk about motivations. As I mentioned in an earlier post, everyone has different motivations. Some are motivated by money, some are motivated by success, some are motivated by personal satisfaction, etc. You can’t trust Mary to have the same motivations you did when you were in her shoes, as a salesperson.

But if there’s one thing in common among all salespersons, it’s being motivated by more than one thing, and one motivator that tops most lists is the incentive compensation plan.

As a sales manager, how well do you know your incentive compensation plan? Do you have total mastery of it? I hope you do. Otherwise you’re missing out on one of the most effective motivators of salespeople to help them reach peak performance.

I’ll give an example. A salesperson needs to do two things right in order to be successful.

1. Perform daily selling activities
2. Master every aspect of his or her product and use that knowledge to their advantage

Same is true for the sales manager. You are here to manage your salespeople, and to do that you must also be in control of what motivates them: the incentive compensation plan. You need to be a master of these two aspects to bring out the full potential of your salespeople, just as a salesperson has to master both points if he or she wants to be able to make a good sale on a consistent basis.

The incentive compensation plan can mean different things. For Mary, it signifies the freedom to do what she wants. For John, it means being able to pay the bills and make ends meet. For Tom, it allows him to support his family. So it only makes sense that the incentive compensation plan is a huge motivator of salespeople. As a top-performing sales manager, are you going to let this go?

Let me clarify this much: you are not a top-performing sales manager until you have total mastery of your incentive compensation plan and are using it to motivate your team to sales success.

Do YOU have total mastery of your incentive compensation plan? How do you use it to your advantage? Let me know by leaving a comment after this post.

I’m amazed at how some sales managers could go on with their jobs without knowing what motivates their sales reps.

Your sales reps are the lifeblood of the sales team, and the sales team is what keeps your career afloat. If you don’t know what motivates them, how do you expect to put them in the right direction? How can you be a good sales manager to them?

I once asked a colleague friend who was having problems with one of her sales reps.

“What motivates him?” I asked her. She paused for a minute. Then she said, “Uhmm, money, I think.“

The words “I think” cinched it with me. You don’t guess what motivates your sales reps. It’s either you know it or you don’t. It came as no surprise that my colleague friend was having problems.

To find out what’s happening in your sales reps’ lives, to know what motivates them, you need get out of your own little world that is your cubicle, walk up to their desk, and simply ask him or her. The trick is to establish a personal connection.

Then find out what motivates them.

It should be noted that a sales manager without this kind of immensely valuable information about his or her sales reps is an inefficient one – a seagull type of sales manager, something we had discussed previous posts. Simply put, finding out exactly what motivates them provide precious insights about your sales reps’ motivations, their likes and dislikes. Refer to it whenever you need to motivate them, even if it’s just praise for a job well done.

When your sales reps do a good job, it means YOU are doing a great job. That’s how motivating your sales reps and putting them in the right path means helping yourself achieve your own goals.

What else do you ask your sales reps to find out what motivates them? Share them by leaving a comment below.