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 Part 2, we addressed the importance of talking their language and helping them strengthen their belief system. In this section, we address the need to understand their values and to clarify minimum expectation metrics

Understand Their Values
In contrast to behavioral assessments, which help explain HOW a person behaves and performs in the work environment, understanding an individual's attitudes helps explain WHY they behave as they do. In order to maximize performance, it’s essential that the manager understand the values that motivate each team member.

Yet attitudes behind one's behavior are not always readily observed, which is why they’re sometimes called hidden motivators. The assessment tool I use to determine values measures the relative prominence of six basic interests or attitudes: Theoretical, Utilitarian, Aesthetic, Social, Individualistic and Traditional. The report helps illuminate and amplify some motivating factors and serves as a foundation for building on the strengths that each person brings to the work environment.

For example, our manager, Walt, ranked high Utilitarian, while his sales person, Dale, ranked high in Social. This difference was a source of frustration for Walt
when the company, in growth mode, needed to focus on improving account penetration with increased revenue per account and increasing the number of clients.

Here’s why: Dale covered a large geographical territory—Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota—which involved a significant expense in keeping him on the road. Each face-to-face visit needed to be maximized and yield a return-on-investment. However, Dale’s social motivation made his primary interest “helping” his clients even if the transaction didn’t earn him or the company any money. He routinely made out-of-the-way trips—some that cost up to four hours—to help even small clients. In understanding Dale’s values, Walt was able to reframe the purpose of the travel so that both needs were met.

Clarify Minimum and High-Performance Expectation Metrics
In addition to understanding communication styles, weakness in their belief system, and values, it’s imperative to clearly define “base-line” and “brass-ring” performance. An accurate understanding of activity and result minimums (base-line) as well as accurately articulating what stellar performance looks like (brass ring) is one of the first steps in building a motivational success system. These clearly defined expectations help sales people focus their efforts. As John Condry, a management expert with Career Success Seminars, says, “Sales people are paid in direct proportion to how well they manage their time and their accounts.”

Jim, the owner of a private audiology clinic, was disappointed with his staff audiologists’ performance. He was even more frustrated with his staff’s apparent disregard for fitting the minimum number of instruments in order to cover overhead costs.

I asked some questions that uncovered the source of the problem: Did they know their baseline, what they needed to produce in order to keep the doors open? Did they know what they needed to produce in order to pay for themselves? Jim quickly realized that he needed to communicate minimum performance expectations and ask his staff to step up their level of effort.

As we worked through the process, Jim also decided that he needed to be clear about what a “brass ring” in his company looked like. He needed to specify what each person needed to produce in order to be recognized as having an outstanding “report card,” which would translate into additional growth opportunities, an accelerated compensation plan, and other company perks.

In summary, you can successfully motivate your sales people when you understand their goals and help them achieve their dreams. Flexibility in management style enables sales people to be more successful in an environment that supports their personal work style. And when they understand what is expected of them, they will rise to meet those expectations.

Bio: Danita Bye

Nationally recognized sales management and Leadership expert Danita Bye has built her reputation on building and inspiring intentional, no excuse, high-performance sales teams that deliver bottom line results. With her unique Fortune-100 turned-entrepreneur perspective, Danita helps CEOs and company presidents take their national and international businesses to the next level. Her excuse-free approach to sales management, combined with her leadership acumen, enables sales staff and sales management to increase sales, boost profitability and create predictable revenue streams, all while reducing sales costs.

As a 10-year vetaran of the Xerox Corporation, Danita consistently achieved award winning sales performance before leaving Xerox to become an equity partner and national sales manager for Minneapolis-based Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, where she increased annual revenues from $300,000 to $10 million in just seven years. Danita has authored articles in Upsize Magazine, The Hearing Review, the Star Tribune, and Business Journal, where she was recently honoured as one of the its Top 25 Woman to Watch. Danita also featured as a guest on "The ruthless Entrepreneur television show" which will begin airing on Oxogen Network in 2010. Her new book Sales Management in the No Excuse Zone, is due for release in 2010.