How to motivate sales teams?

( 4 minute read)

Like in every field of life, in selling profession we have down periods as well. There are times that we feel low and we postpone the prospection calls, the quotations to send, the monthly report, and so on… Then, we procrastinate. And in sales, it is much easier to find good excuses as we are constantly on the move.  We feel like we lack motivation.

It is a little provocative and unorthodox, but I do not believe that such a thing exists called motivation. (I also disagree with the title of “the motivational speaker,” but this is the subject of another post) For me, it is straightforward.  If you want to do something, do it.  If you do not want to do it, then don’t.  Of course, we all have tasks that we “have to do” but do not want to. Yet, motivation is not the thing we need; what we need is “the drive.”

The Cambridge Dictionary describes the drive as “a planned effort to achieve something” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/drive)

Think about the last time you were procrastinating.  It is very likely the main reason behind was the lack of drive, a planned effort to achieve that particular task.  I almost hear you saying that “yes, I could not build a planned effort due to lack of motivation.” I would again disagree.  If you have difficulty having the drive, it is mainly due to a lack of focus.  So, each time you think that you lack motivation, indeed, you lack focus.

Maybe hundreds of books written about the focus, and my favorites are Deep Work from Cal Newport and Atomic Habits from James Clear.  According to Newport and Clear, building and keeping your focus on specific tasks starts with small steps, a sense of accomplishment, and incremental progress.  The more you complete those small tasks, the more you will fulfill your sense of accomplishment. Therefore, you will get into the upwards spiral of incremental progress. 

There is an excellent example of this cycle from the army. In the military, the first thing you have to do in the morning is making your bed.  And not like most of us do at home.  They ask you to do it perfectly because they want you to focus on it.  The main reason is to help you build discipline, which makes you start your day with a sense of accomplishment.  And this is considered the first step of a chain of accomplishment.  Once you accomplish your first task, you are ready for the next one. Once you understand the meaning of making the bed, it becomes easier to focus. You can watch a US Navy Seal Commander explaining that in this link (https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seal-commander-explains-why-you-should-make-your-bed-2017-4?IR=T)

Coming back to the question in the title, how do we motivate sales people? Are they motivated by money? What about the bonuses? Don’t they motivate them? The answer is no. Unlike most people think, bonuses do not motivate us to do something we don’t want to do.  They are just the incentives to reward the performance.  It indeed comes with a sense of success and satisfaction, but it is not motivation. And again, it is about the focus.  Some salespeople put more focus on money, while others put their focus on satisfaction, glory, etc. It all depends where you keep your focus.

And keeping your focus is difficult! It requires making binary decisions. You need to be selective, yes/no situations and counting on the incremental progress.  You cannot (and would not) prepare your monthly report by having your bonus in mind. No matter how boring they are, you need to find your “making the bed” step for any task.  Make it easy and do it, get into the upward spiral of accomplishment.  And remind yourself why you need to do at the first place, the meaning.  

It boils down to what you choose to focus on and what you choose to ignore.

In conclusion, if you want to keep a sales team on track, show them the meaning, and bring them clarifty, rather than trying to motivate them with some external factors. This way you will help them to keep their focus.