{"id":1346,"date":"2007-12-19T12:26:51","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T18:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/motivating-salespeople\/"},"modified":"2007-12-19T12:24:43","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T18:24:43","slug":"motivating-salespeople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/motivating-salespeople\/","title":{"rendered":"Motivating Salespeople"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sales managers have to be part-time psychologists in their leadership position.\u00a0 The best salespeople have an internal motivation that drives them to succeed.\u00a0 Yet, a strong sales manager still has to know each salesperson&#8217;s drivers and how to access them when needed.<\/p>\n<p>Selling Power offers a short article titled <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sellingpower.com\/article\/display.asp?aid=SP8666514\">Internalizing Motivation<\/a> that discusses this topic:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sales trainer Don Hutson recounts the story about a sales manager who approached him at one of his seminars and said, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in motivation because it doesn\u2019t last.\u201d Hutson replied, \u201cA bath doesn\u2019t either, but it\u2019s a good idea to take one once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hutson says sales managers can\u2019t directly motivate salespeople to sell any more than salespeople can directly motivate customers to buy. It\u2019s an indirect process. Motivation has to come from within if it\u2019s going to work and last. Sales managers can create an atmosphere and environment around their salespeople that encourages self-motivation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That bath line from the above quote is priceless.\u00a0 Motivation is important in that there will always be days where a salesperson could use some external motivation.\u00a0 I won&#8217;t define what that motivation needs to be, but you get my point.<\/p>\n<p>The first key to properly motivating a salesperson is knowing what that salesperson&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Motivations.html\">motivation<\/a> is and, simultaneously, knowing what <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Rewards.html\">rewards<\/a> they value.\u00a0 These are measurable traits that can be provided to a sales manager as part of our <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Developing_Salesperson.html\">sales development plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sales managers have to be part-time psychologists in their leadership position.\u00a0 The best salespeople have an internal motivation that drives them to succeed.\u00a0 Yet, a strong sales manager still has to know each salesperson&#8217;s drivers and how to access them when needed. Selling Power offers a short article titled Internalizing Motivation that discusses this topic:\u00a0 Sales trainer Don Hutson recounts the story about a sales manager who approached him at one of his seminars and said, \u201cI don\u2019t believe in motivation because it doesn\u2019t last.\u201d Hutson replied, \u201cA bath doesn\u2019t either, but it\u2019s a good idea to take one once in a while.\u201d Hutson says sales managers can\u2019t directly motivate&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/motivating-salespeople\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,4],"tags":[155,154,152,153],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-sales-management","tag-internal-motivation","tag-motivating-salespeople","tag-motivation","tag-sales-motivation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-lI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/05\/motivating-a-sales-force\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":0},"title":"Motivating a Sales Force","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm catching up to some older articles in my RSS feeder and came across this AllBusiness.com article - Managing and Motivating Salespeople. We have an appreciation for tactical management articles. What I mean is articles that take a \"how to\" approach to management. There are plenty of strategic, mile-high articles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/outside-of-their-comfort-zones\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":1},"title":"Outside of Their Comfort Zones","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"June 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across an article on Comfort Zones from a couple of years ago that discusses motivating salespeople and well worth the read. The author has this to say why sales managers don\u20ac\u2122t push their salespeople out of their comfort zone. Many managers who are in their own \"comfort zone\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1162,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-sales-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":2},"title":"How To Get The Most Out Of Your Sales Team","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The first step and greatest key to get the most out of your sales team is to know what you have. I realize many sales managers believe they know their team's strengths and obviously they do to some level. But I'm thinking deeper than an observational level. Assessing and evaluating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1432,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/why-do-salespeople-quit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":3},"title":"Why Do Salespeople Quit?","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"February 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've read\u00a0in many articles, blog posts and white papers that people take a job because of the company and quit because of a manager.\u00a0 I have talked to many salespeople about why they are looking for a new opportunity and\u00a0the vast majority do come down to their manager.\u00a0\u00a0But there is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2447,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2010\/10\/roe-over-roi\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":4},"title":"ROE Over ROI","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a somewhat ethereal concept I have been encountering in this present economy.\u00a0 It starts with this \u2013 return on investment (ROI).\u00a0 ROI has been the backbone of sales since time immortal.\u00a0 This is the basis of sales in that customers pay the money to receive the solution.\u00a0 As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":379,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/10\/sales-aptitudes-series-personal-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":1346,"position":5},"title":"Sales Traits Series &#8211; Personal Drive","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week we covered Self-Starting Ability. This week we look at a complementary aptitude - Personal Drive. Most salespeople work within the framework of a company but their actual performance takes place on a one-to-one level...salesperson to prospect. To be successful, salespeople have to have the internal drive to succeed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Aptitudes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Aptitudes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/aptitudes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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