This list comes from Brian Tracy via the SellingPower.com Incentives newsletter.  If you have ever managed salespeople, you know how important proper motivation is.  Some days salespeople just don’t have it so you have to step in as their manager and give them that push they need.

The problems start when you find yourself stepping in daily.  At this point, you clearly have a de-motivated salesperson.  If you are at this point, here are some topics to consider:

1. Where am I going?
Salespeople lose their sense of direction when they are unclear on precisely what is expected of them on a daily basis, what their goals and quotas are, how their performance will be measured, and in what time frame. If, as the saying goes, clarity is 95 percent of success, the lack of clarity must be 95 percent of failure.

If you want to see this problem in spades, hire a new salesperson and leave these items undefined.  We have seen it too often of late.

2. How am I doing?
Ken Blanchard says that feedback, not Wheaties, is the “Breakfast of Champions.” On a weekly, daily, even hourly basis, people need to know how their performance measures up against stated goals and quotas. When a rep makes a sale, pick up the phone and offer congratulations. During weekly sales meetings, take the time to summarize the week’s sales results and share how well different team members are doing.

We had one sales manager who did not offer any feedback to his salesperson.  When we asked why, he said he was simply “observing him.”  Frightening.  The concern here is always the same – if you don’t interact with them, you can’t coach them.  If you don’t coach them, they will do things their own way.  It is at this point that the sales manager now loses touch with the critical pieces of information needed to do his or her role (forecasting, market adjustments, share competitive info with the team, new product/service suggestions, etc.).

You can read the entire article to learn all 7 de-motivators.  I highly recommend it.

Comments(0)

Here is a trend I have not heard of – managers without human resources backgrounds being moved into HR Manager roles.  From the Wall Street Journal online:

Of the 15 large-company chief HR officer changes that consultant Brian Wilkerson has tracked in the past five years, about one-third have been filled by non-HR executives, he says. That compares with maybe 10% of such appointments before…

The driver behind this increasing approach is fairly simple:

The shift reflects the increased importance that chief executives and boards place on recruiting, retaining and grooming employees. It also reflects a perception that some traditional HR professionals lack the deep understanding of business and financial issues that CEOs increasingly want, say consultants and recruiters.

“Many organizations are looking for their HR leader to be able to understand in great detail the business and the challenges of the business,”

This approach makes great sense as talented managers from other departments bring a different perspective.  There seems to be some irony if the HR department is fully focused on experience-based hiring.  A manager from outside the HR world brings hope of changing that unwise conventional wisdom.

Comments(0)

I’m not sure the implications of this information, but Inc.com reported that the sheer number of online ads has decreased from last month and last year.

The number of new jobs posted online in June was unchanged from May, marking the fourth straight month of year-over-year declines, the Conference Board reported this week.

Some 3.8 million job openings were advertised online last month, or about 2.5 vacancies for every 100 persons in the labor force, according to data compiled from 1,200 Web-based job boards. That’s down from 2.9 vacancies per 100 persons in May, and 11.2 percent below a year ago, the report said.

I’m not certain what data is used in compiling the number, but I have to think Craig’s List, LinkedIn and Facebook are having some effect on the overall numbers.  Many niche boards are also sprouting up.  Whatever the factors, the hiring pace has slowed down.  Remember, hiring is a trailing indicator so the economy may be rebounding while the hiring numbers show decline.

Comments(0)