A Formula For Sales Leadership

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A Formula For Sales Leadership

Written by John Boe

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Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivators - Motivating Your Sales Team

The old adage still holds true - people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do you know the first names of each of your team member’s spouse, partner or significant other? How about their childrens' names? Now, what about their pet’s names? These are the things that are critical to the success of any team regardless of the level or industry.

Sheryl was a good mortgage processor - good, not great. Her performance evaluations showed just this. She got the job done with minimum error rates and in a timely manner. She was good.

Team Building
In the mortgage banking industry, it is not uncommon for the end of the month to become hectic especially when the market is good. November can prove to be particularly difficult. With Thanksgiving and Sheryl’s company closing both Thursday and Friday it was a four day weekend. Unfortunately the following Monday was only the 29th of the month and there was a lot to do by the end of the month. Most of the staff arrived in by 8:30 AM and were ready for a long day. After all, the majority were not new to the industry.

About 2:30 PM in the afternoon the office manager, Patty, went to the Vice President, Elliott, and said, “What should we do about Sheryl?” He looked perplexed and said, “It’s not her birthday or company anniversary.” Patty then went on to tell him that Sheryl’s daughter was in her elementary school play that night. Elliott immediately said lets find a solution. In a matter of minutes they went out to the bull pen thanked everyone for their hard work and dedication. He then made the announcement, "We are in the midst of greatness. Among us today is a Stage Mother, Sheryl’s daughter Danielle is in her school play tonight and Mom needs to get home early so she can get ready and be front row in the audience."

Sheryl looked up and said, “I have discussed this with Danielle and she knows I have a lot of work to do today and will likely not be there tonight. It is not a big deal she has been in school plays in the past and this is not a big deal.” Everyone looked at Sheryl and said to go home that Elliott never gives anyone time off at the end of the month. She smiled and said she was staying.

After a very long day, Sheryl and Elliott were the last to leave and walked out together that evening at 10:45 PM. On the way home Elliott stopped by a 24 hour pharmacy and bought a thank you card. He went home and wrote out the card and mailed it early the next morning on his way into the office. This was another long day, but not nearly as hectic.

As tough as Elliott is on employees at the end of the month, he's a little pussycat at the beginning of the month. Wednesday the workload was much lighter and that morning Elliott went to Sheryl and told her to take off about 1:00 PM for the rest of the day.

When Sheryl got home that afternoon Danielle was already home from school and came down the hall running hollering “Mommy, Mommy, I got a card from your boss.” Sheryl sat down and read the card that was sent to a nine year old little girl. The card read,

Dear Danielle,
Thanks for sharing your Mommy with us. We know how much she loves you and wanted to be with you Monday night at your school play. We love your Mommy very much and we love you too. Elliott and the staff at…

Elliott sent this card to a sweet, nine year old little girl not because he was trying to motivate his employee, but because it was the right thing to do. Over the next few months Sheryl’s quality of work improved dramatically. Her error ratio dropped by almost 5%. Her first time approvals increased by nearly 15%. Was this because she was better trained? She now realized she meant something to the entire team. The added motivation was nothing more than a by-product of a great leader recognizing the important things in an employee’s life.

The old adage still holds true - people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do you know the first names of each of your team member’s spouse, partner or significant other? How about their childrens' names? Now, what about their pet’s names? These are the things that are critical to the success of any team regardless of the level or industry.

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
This is a classic example of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators are those motivators that hit the heart, mind, and soul. They tend to be remembered for a long time. Extrinsic motivators work - they just do not have the staying power. The most common extrinsic motivator is money, and as Zig Ziglar says, “Money may not be the most important thing in the world, but it ranks up there close to oxygen.” When an employee is not making enough money to meet their basic survival needs, then money is the only motivator. As long as they are meeting their basic survival needs, then money is not the most important motivator.

Think about this one. If you have an employee working significant overtime, think about sending a note home to his/her spouse. At least the spouse will know they were really working.

Progressive leaders choose to inspire and empower rather than direct and control their sales force. Recognizing that a strong relationship is indeed the key to their success, they lead by example, praise achievement, and strive to maintain open communications. Those managers who adopt and practice the principals of enlightened leadership find that their people understand what is expected of them and deliver.

What are the critical factors that contribute to the retention of top producing salespeople? Why are some sales managers able to consistently recruit and retain quality salespeople, while other managers have a revolving door? Excessive personnel turnover is not only unhealthy for the morale of a sales force, but it is also costly in terms of time and money. Perhaps less obvious, but just as detrimental, is the negative impact excessive turnover has on eroding customer confidence and loyalty.

A career in sales can be extremely lucrative for the person who is able to prospect effectively and willing to work hard. However, surveys indicate that compensation is just one piece in the career satisfaction puzzle. Salespeople make their decision to leave or stay with a company for a variety of personal and professional reasons. Retaining successful salespeople is not a secret recipe, but a formula that includes factors such as leadership, recruitment, training, and professional growth opportunities.

Salespeople Don't Quit Companies, They Leave Managers

While the skills required to be an effective salesperson are fundamentally important, they are not always a reliable indicator of leadership potential. Companies need to select the right people for management positions and offer them development opportunities to ensure that they continue to enhance their leadership and communications skills.

A sales manager's career and income potential is inescapably intertwined with their ability to recruit, develop, and retain a top producing sales force. The most effective sales managers acknowledge the reality of personnel turnover and prudently plan for replacements. Only naive or inexperienced managers are oblivious to their critical role in the equation of agent retention. Job exit surveys consistently indicate that job satisfaction is directly linked to the quality of the relationship they have with their sales manager. Award winning managers intuitively understand this important fact and as a result, treat their salespeople more as business partners than employees.

Open Communication

Both Success and Failure Leave a Trail

The retention of quality salespeople is not accidental and begins up front in the recruiting and selection process. Due to the high rejection and demanding nature of a sales career, it is fundamentally important to administer a temperament suitability evaluation early on. While there is no testing instrument that can guarantee you will hire the right person every time, a temperament evaluation will provide valuable insight into a candidate's career suitability and potential success as a salesperson. Sales managers who utilize temperament evaluations find that they are better prepared to interview in a more in-depth manner.

Loyalty And Dependabilty

During the selection process, it is imperative to check references and look for a history of job stability. In my opinion, there are two mandatory qualities any new hire should possess. The first quality I look for is loyalty. If a person is not loyal to their company, they are more likely to violate company policies and procedures. Disloyal employees are also the first to leave when the going gets tough. The second quality I look for is dependability. It makes absolutely no sense to invest huge amounts of emotional and financial capital training someone you can't depend on.

Training

There is absolutely no substitute for a well-trained and highly motivated sales force! Training is critically important for both the new and seasoned agent alike and is a key ingredient for agent retention. Experienced sales managers place a high premium on training and purposefully design their programs to be timely, relevant, realistic, and reoccurring.

In his best selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey makes a strong case for the fundamental importance of training, or as he calls it, "sharpening the saw." Salespeople are often reluctant to take time away from their busy schedule for training and as a result, over time, become less productive. While established salespeople might not always ask for assistance, they frequently need help game planning appointments and appreciate their sales manager's involvement.

Growth Opportunities

In an effort to retain solid performers, progressive companies offer a clear career path and proactively support the leadership development of their top salespeople. People want to grow personally and professionally and wise managers encourage and accommodate this need by providing a wide range of opportunities. Access to ongoing training and personal development is important and often provides a strong incentive to stay with a company.

Recognition and Rewards

Traditionally, sales managers have relied primarily on commission to motivate their sales force. A compensation structure based solely on commission does not address separate motivational factors and therefore, commission alone will not adequately motivate nor retain a sales force. To be effective, a sales incentive program should not only appeal to top producers, but it must also excite average to below average salespeople as well. Once a salesperson stretches to a new level of personal production, their self-confidence and expectations skyrocket!

The key to staying one step ahead in these competitive times is recognizing that people are by far a company's most important asset!

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John Boe
		About the author:
		John Boe is an entertaining speaker with a powerful message and a passion to help salespeople reach their full potential. He has devoted the last two-decades to training and motivating high-performance, successful salespeople. His knowledge has been synthesized into one of the most powerful sales training programs ever created on the subject of peak-performance selling and personal achievement! .