When managers complain that their staff doesn’t have the special fire that keeps them continuously reaching for the brass ring, they are really admitting that they don’t know how to motivate their people.

The following ideas will help you get a handle on what makes your sales people tick, so you can answer the million-dollar question: How do I motivate my sales people? In Part 1, we talked about helping them fulfill their dreams. In this section, we talk about the importance of talking their language and helping them strengthen their belief system. In Part 3, we talk about understanding their values and to establishing minimum performance expectations.

Talk Their Language
Become familiar with each person’s communication style, and learn to communicate in a way that resonates with that person.  Widely acclaimed executive manager Lee Iacocca says it best: “Communication is everything.”  You may be the boss, but people respond to those whom they relate to. 

In discovering their communication style, you’ll also find out their natural motivation gifts. Is it results and control, being involved and recognition, security and stability, or accuracy and order? Understanding these motivators will provide a framework for communicating in a manner that will make the person feel most receptive.  The DISC Behavioral Style tool I use provides distinct guidelines for talking to sales people in each of the four behavioral categories:  for instance, whether to pose specific/direct questions or emotional/feeling questions; whether
to offer statistics or analogies and stories to make a point; how to regulate tone and inflection.
 
Here’s an example: Walt, a sales manager with GNE, a medical software company was frustrated with his sales people because they didn’t follow his process.  Conversely, his sales people were irritated with him because they felt that Walt “micro-managed” them with his processes.  It was a standoff in which neither side was winning.

When we examined their communication and behavior styles, we found that Walt’s natural management gifts were his precision, attention to quality work, and timely follow-up.  But one of his sales people, Dale, had different natural gifts - optimism, enthusiasm and relationship-building skills.  Details burdened (and bored) him.

Once Walt and Dale, his most vocal sales rep, began to understand each other’s behavior and style, it became easier to negotiate activity and performance benchmarks, enabling them to work together synergistically.  Walt learned to augment his analytical style and create a collaborative working environment.  He learned to ask emotional/feeling questions in lieu of overly direct questions.  To emphasize points, he used analogies and stories instead of statistics.  

To reciprocate, Dale learned how to prepare his detailed case with sufficient backup data in advance.

Help Them Strengthen Weaknesses in Their Belief Systems
Next, identify the team’s beliefs about dispensing and new business development. Once those beliefs are identified, you must be willing to provide resources to address weak spots.  What do I mean by weak spots?  Objective Management Group, a company specializing in sales-force evaluations, identifies several issues that can sabotage performance. With disappointing results, motivation can quickly erode.

Dispensing professionals who are uncomfortable talking about money during the sales process are 25% less effective than their counterparts.  The firm finds that 55% of salespeople assessed demonstrate a money weakness.  Aside from the actual evaluation tool, one may detect a money weakness from a dispensing professional who continually reports that clients don’t have enough money money.  Or they frequently ask management to lower prices in order to close the deal.

Another belief-system glitch is a strong need for approval.  Dispensing professionals who find it difficult to ask tough, business-appropriate questions and fear rejection are 35% less effective than their counterparts.  They may have a full pipeline, but very little ever seems to leave it.  OMG finds that 45% of the sales people they evaluate have this weakness.

If your people have an intense desire to be successful and are unconditionally committed to success, one of your roles as a manager is to provide resources to help them maximize every opportunity.  In teaching them how to overcome their own fears and weaknesses, such as a money weakness or a need for approval, you create an environment where success breeds success. 

OMG assessment has been the most helpful tool I’ve found for understanding core beliefs that drive highly influential behavior.  After you uncover your salespeople’s unsupportive beliefs, you can “surgically” coach them and provide tools to help them be successful. (If you’d like more information on this, refer to my article “Coaching for Dollars.”)

Kevin, a knowledgeable sales person at a start-up medical software company, was very discouraged and ready to quit. Exceeding the 2004 revenue target seemed impossible.  Frustrated, he confessed that could not close deals he had gotten into the pipeline.  Prospects seemed to have either “no money” or “not enough budget”.  When questioned, he admitted that he viewed discussing money as “impolite” and “none of his business”.  After a couple of months of training and coaching, Kevin’s comfort level soared, and he continues to close larger and larger deals. He surpassed his 2004 target and has a solid foundation for over-achieving his 2005 goals.