• motivated by power?
• prestige?
• praise?
• contact with other people?
• projects?
• prizes?

Lavoie explodes some common myths about motivation and demonstrates that rewards, punishment and competition are not the effective motivational tools most people tout. Lavoie explores each motivational style in depth, and presents proven techniques, strategies and scripts that can be used either in the classroom or at home to break through a child’s apathy and inspire him to achieve. Although they are not children (even though they may act that way at times), motivating your sales force is no different. Watching this DVD reinforced a very important concept in that in order to motivate them effectively a sales manager needs to know what actually motivates them. And this information is easy to get. So easy, that all you have to do is ask for it. For example, if you try to motivate one of your sales reps with prizes…but they’re actually motivated by prestige…then you’re barking up the wrong motivational tree (so to speak). We train sales managers to ask “the Ten Questions” to get this information. Its simple. Just ask the questions, then use the answers to motivate…what could be more simple? To get “the ten questions” as well as a bunch of other great sales training and motivational techniques, get your own copy of our free ebook. What do you think? How are motivating kids and sales reps the same or different? We’d love to know! Post a comment below.

Not exactly a good time, as I’m sure you’d agree…

Has the thought ever occurred to you that your sales reps might feel like this almost every time you call a sales meeting?

“Positively absurd” you say!

Well, if you are one of the few who does have the need to inject a little vigor in your next sales meeting, then read on…

Try this to spice things up: next time you call a sales meeting, try a little “lead by being led” reverse psyschology on your sales reps to get them involved in the process of choosing topics.

All you do is simply ask your sales reps a week or two before the sales meeting what they most want to hear about is the best way to get them engaged and helps to “spruce things up”.

After all, if you ask them what they want to hear about in the meeting you can always tell them that “this was your idea” if they are tuning out…a little sneaky but it does work.

It always amazed me how much a little friendly competition gets a sales meeting spruced up as well. I was never a big fan of the “rah rah” games at sales meetings…but it does work incredibly well.

For example at the last company I worked for we had to write down on a flip chart any and all “breakthrough” ideas that we had come up with during the grueling 12-hour sales meeting session that would increase business.

Unbeknown to us, we were building a list that would be used for a day-end competition…

When the day was finally over, we were all told to present the best idea from our individual group to the rest of the larger group in the “most creative way” we could – no hold barred – with the winners each getting a $50 Starbucks gift certificate.

My group of brain surgeons decided that our idea would revolve around “adoption” of one of our sales service sites. To that end, we convinced one of our guys named Jerry to dress up as an “adopted baby” – complete with a table cloth diaper from one of the meeting tables – while me and another guy carried him into the presentation room to deliver him to the “hopeful parents” who were looking to “adopt”.

We nearly dropped poor Jerry as we ran in dressed in our “surgical gowns” – bedsheets we somehow swindled from housekeeping.

Totally ridiculous…I know.

We won in a landslide…and I got a months worth of lattes on them.

Getting people to act completely foolish for competition and prizes – with a good business focus in mind – never fails to “spice things up” at a sales meeting. Give it a try.

If you’re looking for great ideas to really spice up your sales meetings or your sales managers sales meetings, check out Meeting to Win and sign up for their newsletter.

And if you do, I promise you won’t have to dress up in a diaper…

To learn even more about sales training, get our free ebook.

A top sales manager does this job by providing specific behavioral feedback. It is by no means an easy task. Each sales rep has his or her own set of behaviors he or she brings on the job. The top sales manager should be able to analyze these behaviors based on reports and turn them into feedback in a way that would inspire growth and positive change from the sales rep.

One way to pull this off is to develop a shared vision—between the sales manager and sales rep—of the expectations and style of coaching the sales rep needs to improve his or her game. For example, during pre-call planning, a top sales manager could use this opportunity to take notes of information as well as his own observations to be used as feedback later on.

Sales management is a tough job, sure, but who ever said otherwise? If anything, it’s one of the most emotionally gratifying jobs in the world, knowing you did what you could to help someone get better in his or her career.

Speaking of helping people, a top sales manager recognizes the power behind giving positive behavioral feedback. Confident sales persons produce better results, period. Top sales managers know this, and adjust their strategies accordingly. Underperformers might even change and start making consistent sales, while average sales reps, under the right encouragement, could grow to become sales superstars someday!

Who knows? Anything is possible with the right guidance of a top sales manager who knows what he’s doing.

Visit the blog post How To Deliver Words Of Encouragement To Your Sales People That Eventually Make A Difference for more in-depth tips on providing positive feedback to your sales reps.

Share your ideas on encouragement and positive feedback by leaving a comment below.

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.

Sales

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the importance of adding value to your business and how to do it like a seasoned pro.

A valuable perspective

As a sales person, I’m sure you’re aware that unless you create value for your customers, you won’t get anywhere in this business. There’s a lot of competition on the market. Add to it that customers aren’t really interested in new products; customers want solutions to their problems. This is where the concept of adding value comes in. 

A good sales rep presents his or her product in a way that it is the solution the customer is looking for. That’s what I mean by adding value. There are a lot of similar products out there with a bunch of exclusive features. But if you add value to your product, you’re separating it from the rest of the competition. The customer begins to see your product under a different light.

The good news is that adding value isn’t some rare talent that comes around once every other generation. It’s simply a set of skills—three sets of skills, in fact—that anyone can learn by the time we’re done with this lesson.

They are…

1. Asking questions

Asking a question helps maintain the flow of conversation. Asking a good question shows you’ve been listening intently to the other person. It helps build trust, and is one of the most important tools of a sales rep. The ability to ask a good question is to a sales rep as vocabulary is to a writer.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Plan ahead. You must be extremely talented if you could very good questions without preparing them beforehand. I suggest you narrow down the focus of the sales call to two or three areas, and then prepare some questions and write them down in your notepad before the actual event.

Explore the client’s issues. I mentioned earlier that customers are only looking for solutions to their problems. As a sales rep, if you understand the customer to the point that you could identify their problems before they even begin to talk about it, then you are in the unique position to be able to ask effective questions, the kind that tells them you’re aware of their needs and knows the solution to their problems.

The general rule is, know your customer so you can prepare questions that would create an impact and push your business relationship forward.

2. Listening

Listening goes hand-in-hand with asking questions. You can’t formulate good questions if you don’t listen to your client’s problems and needs. Once again the ability to listen isn’t a talent. It’s a skill, and you can learn it. It’s called good listening skill for a reason.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Listen, really listen. If you want to learn to play the guitar, practice the guitar. If you want to be able to listen well, practice listening. It’s that simple. Sherlock Holmes once said, “There’s a big difference between seeing and noticing.” Same goes for listening. Hearing something the other person said doesn’t mean anything. It’s when you listen to him or her and take in the message to heart, that’s when you start to become a true salesman.

Focus on the message. Some people tend to zone in and out of conversation when the other person is speaking. Sales reps are people, too. Some of them have this tendency. But if you want to become successful in this line of work, you need to get rid of this habit and replace it with something else—the habit of taking down notes while the customer is talking about his or her problems.

By doing this, you make room for yourself to analyze the problem and present a solution later on, which is no more and no less the act of adding value to your product. This is exactly the kind of sales approach I’m trying to advocate.

3. Establishing trust

The last part is establishing trust and credibility in the relationship. It takes time to put these things to work, and you need to master the two skills I mentioned earlier—listening and asking good questions—before you even get a shot at this one. But once achieved, great success should follow. Soon.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Back up what you say. When you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you can’t do it, or won’t do it, then don’t promise it. Period. There’s no way you’re going to be able to gain a customer’s trust if you can’t back up your sweet words.

Be on time. Imagine your client as a first date. When you tell her that you’re going to pick her up at seven o’ clock, make sure you show up on her doorstep at seven o’ clock. Same goes for setting to meet up with a client. Set the time and date when you plan a call, and stick to it. Nothing turns off a client more than a sales rep who doesn’t show respect for another person’s time.

If you don’t want to end up becoming a commodity, stop selling products like they’re single-serving commodities. Use it one time, then dispose. Add value to your products to make them unique and distinct from the rest of the competition. That’s the way to go about your job as a sales representative, that’s the only way to go about this business.

When you add value to your product, you add value to your business.

Post a comment and tell me what values do you instill in your sales business.

So you really want to learn how to motivate your sales reps?
Here’s the “secret sauce” that 99% of average sales managers NEVER use and if they do, they screw it up
So here the right way to so it – use the “Masterful Praising”. Here’s how you do it. Right after they do something “praise-worthy” take this three step approach: 

1. Look them in the eye or if on the phone stop and emphasize your words clearly and distinctly, telling them exactly what they did correctly in specific terms.
2. Pause for effect. Praise intermittently, not always on every little thing. Keep it a bit of a mystery as to when you will praise.In doing this the salesperson will never know exactly when the praise will come, so they always will be wondering when the next praise will come. This is then the motivator. Salespeople will work twice as hard once they get a few praisings under their belt.
3. Be specific. Be specific in your praise – don’t just say “nice job” or “good work”. In fact if you do it that way, then don’t even bother!Instead, say “Hey Tim that was great work being so persistent to finally secure the appointment for us to propose to the Simpson account. I know it took a lot of effort on your part. I appreciate it”.People will continuously repeat activities that they reinforced by.Reinforce the ones you want repeated, they will be clamoring for you to deliver them praise.It’s the human nature. Use the laws of human nature to get your salespeople to be doing more of the things you want them to do.

There is an important corollary to this which is especially effective for use in getting new or struggling salespeople to do the right things, even if they don’t get them exactly right.

If a salesperson shows progress on a task but cannot fully complete it due to lack of knowledge or skill, the average sales manager withholds praise and approval until they get it exactly correct.

The truly great sales manager praises every correct step along the way and praises even more when it is done to completion. If you truly want to get your salespeople to perform without you, then here is the key!

The most important idea here is that especially when someone is just starting; catch them in the act of doing something correct. At first approximately correct, and gradually move them to exactly correct.