Ask Amanda is an advice column for you to anonymously submit questions about the soft skills and hard topics you need to master as a go-to-market leader.
With a deep understanding of how EQ shapes decision-making, team dynamics, and lasting success, Amanda McGuckin Hager of TrueDialog is here to help you unlock your leadership potential, one question at a time.
Amanda,
Can you give me some practical advice on motivating a sales team?
From,
Coach
Dear Coach,
When considering ways to motivate sales teams, it’s important first to discuss what kills a sales team’s motivation: frequently moving goals and unrealistic targets built on thin air.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about motivation.
Often, people refer to the carrot and the stick. A carrot is a positive external reward for desired behaviors, and a stick is an negative external consequence for not performing the desired behavior. Much of the approach depends on your company's culture, and usually, with sales teams, elements of both have been shown to work. Common carrots include performance bonuses, weekly SPIFFs to drive the desired behavior, an exclusive invite to the President’s Club, etc.
Regarding the stick, sales leaders sometimes resort to public shaming and stern talking-to’s where frustration and exasperation reign supreme. Others fire the bottom 10-20% of poor performers, sometimes quarterly, sometimes annually.
There is plenty of information out there on these common tactics, so I’d like to talk with you about something different: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within. It is the drive that comes from purpose, passions, personal goals, or a sense of mastery. Assessing this in your hiring process will separate the candidates who just need a job for cash flow and benefits from the ones who will be successful—with or without you.
Extrinsic motivation is the external motivation that you originally asked about. One practical tool is the assessment from the NeuroLeadership Institute which uses the SCARF model. After the assessment, individuals learn what motivates them the most: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. Knowing how each of your team members responds to the different social motivators can help you better serve them and, ultimately, serve the team and the company’s larger goals.
Additionally, consider asking each team member in your next one-on-one, “Why do you get up every morning and come to this job? What are you working for or towards? What are your goals—personally and/or professionally?” Everyone has a different story, and you might be humbled to hear the answers.
So, Coach, ask yourself, how are you willing to show up for your team?
Best,
Amanda McGuckin Hager a.k.a. Ask Amanda
Amanda regrets she cannot reply to questions individually. By submitting your questions to Ask Amanda, you agree to have them published anonymously on Pavilion’s Blog.
