Your motivation, your mindset and your actions are critical in helping you to achieve your goals and close the sales and build the business that you want. When I am invited to companies one of the most common questions asked by sales managers, sales directors and business owners alike is, "How do I get and keep my sales teams motivated?"
Indeed, one of the most common questions asked of me by salespeople themselves is, "How do I get and keep myself motivated?"
Most people do not understand how and why they get motivated and therefore their motivation levels tend to ebb and flow like the daily tides. Few people have total control of their own motivation levels. Salespeople know that they need to be motivated to sell, they want to be motivated to sell, but often they just cannot maintain that all important motivation to sell.
Motivation tip 1:
Motivation starts and finishes with you. You determine your own motivation. Motivation is internal, it's something that you control; even though you may not realise that this is the case. Most people think that motivation is something external to themselves, something that happens to them. For this reason they and their sales results get buffeted severely throughout life.
Top sales performers do not believe or act like this. Sales superstars know that their personal motivation is down to them. No matter what anyone else does or says they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether they get the deal or they lose the deal, they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether life's going the way they want or it's not, they get to choose their own motivation levels. And it's that choice that sets them apart and defines them as the rock stars of sales.
If you want to join the ranks of the sales rock star elite now then you need to take responsibility for your motivation on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and moment to moment basis...
Step 1 is to decide to do just that. To decide to hold yourself to a higher standard, to decide that nothing short of operating at the optimum level is acceptable for you anymore, to decide that you are a sales rock star.
Step 2 is to employ effective strategies for boosting your motivation and staying on top of your game. One powerful way to get that jolt is by sharing proven techniques so this post is a double whammy - you gain by reading & you gain by sharing.
Start by making a list of ways that you can motivated both yourself and your team and take time to employ them on a daily basis.
Happy selling.
Copyright (c) 2008 Gavin Ingham
Pick up a typical report and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess and schedule, are used in pursuit of organisations that are efficient, productive and predictable. What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive and co-operative. But I believe we need to go beyond ? we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives. We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.
For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
"To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual."
The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force,
-Do you understand their motivators ? what is driving them?
-Do you have visibility of their numbers ? year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
-Activity levels ? are they working hard and smart enough?
-Engagement ? are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
-Messaging ? are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
-Qualification ? are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
-Closing ? are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?
Controlled Management:
The basis of Controlled Management is to provide a means of effective management by adopting different approaches in different situations with different people. Studying the approach and methods of great leaders in history, shows a variety of styles and proves the point. Compare for example, the styles of leadership displayed by say, Montgomery at El Alamein, Pope Jean-Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church or Bob Geldof and Live Aid. All three proved themselves effective leaders but in totally disparate situations and with very different groups of people. Controlled Management is a model, which provides guidance on the most effective management style to adopt in certain situations, with different types of people.
CM is a model, not a theory. The difference is that a theory attempts to explain why things happen, whereas a model is a pattern of events, which can be learnt and repeated.
There are four management styles: Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating.
Each style is appropriate in certain circumstances and they can be illustrated as follows:
Directing - Low Supportive, High Directive.
Delegating - Low Supportive, Low Directive.
Coaching - High Supportive, Low Directive.
Supporting - High Supportive, High Directive.
CM is a way of describing and analysing leadership styles. It is a combination of directive and supportive behaviours.
Directive behaviour involves telling people what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it and then closely supervising this performance.
Supportive behaviour involves listening to people, providing support and encouragement for their efforts and then facilitating their involvement in problem solving and decision-making.
Top performing Sales Directors and Managers understand instinctively when a situation requires them to Direct, Coach, Support or Delegate but learning these skills takes time and practice and underpinning this advanced approach to management must be a range of core competencies..
The moral right of the author, Jonathan Farrington, has been asserted. All rights reserved.This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system or otherwise, unless this notification of copyright is retained.
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Both Gavin Ingham & Anthony Kristovich Iii are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Gavin Ingham has sinced written about articles on various topics from Time Management Skills, Telemarketing and Sales and Negotiation. This article is couresy of Gavin Ingham's Real World Sales Tips project. You can read more and share your strategies and thoughts for how to get motivated at his website. Gavin Ingham's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
Anthony Kristovich Iii has sinced written about articles on various topics from Forex Guide, Home and Business and Finance. Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group. Since forming jfa in 1995 he has authored in excess of three hundred skills developme. Anthony Kristovich Iii's top article generates over 301000 views. to your Favourites.