Sales team motivation

Grant Leboff: Tony, one of the tips in your book is about sales team motivation. I think this is a perennial issue for people; how do I keep my people motivated? So what sort of ideas would you have?

Tony Morris: It all depends on your team. I feel the most important thing is to know what motivates and drives every member and normally it is different. A good example is me. As a salesperson of 19 years, I have always been financially motivated. I’m quite materialistic I like nice things and I work hard for it. So for me to get that extra commission or the extra financial incentive, always drove me.

My wife, however, in sales – although I wish it was a financial incentive – she just wanted the cuddle at the end of the week by the boss saying well done, you’ve done incredibly well. So she craved recognition.

I think that for the sales manager, it’s about knowing your team inside out, knowing what really drives them and working towards that to help them achieve their goal, whatever it might be. I think if you know an individual in your team is financially driven, it’s not enough to know that I want to earn money, it’s what you need to earn, and what’s it for? If it’s for a car for example, which car? How much do you need to save? Help them to make it a real goal, as opposed to a dream that they want a nice car.

Grant Leboff: And how would you advise someone managing a sales team, whether it’s a sales manager or a business owner, to uncover those basic requirements of the team and what they like? Is it simply just having a chat with them or are there other ways of understanding it?

Tony Morris: I think the best way is, I would take them out of the environment as a first thing. So I would take every individual out for a coffee, after work, and say to them that my job as your manager is to develop you and help you achieve whatever it might be that you are striving for. So if that is your next move in your property, or a car or whatever it might be, I want to put a plan in place to help you get there. So I’m going to ask you a few questions if I may, and please don’t think that I’m rude by this, but the reason I’m asking is purely because, as your manager, I want to develop you and help you reach your goals. I think if you set it up like that and position it – that I’m asking you purely to achieve –  that’s what I would suggest.

Grant Leboff: And then how does it work with the other salesmen? Because obviously, clearly, you’ve got staff who are being recognised in different ways, which is fine. Do you keep those private, are they shared them amongst the sales team generally? I’m talking about the goals, not the motivations.

Tony Morris: It depends what the goals are. I think if they are very private, I would ask the individual what they would like, because some people will be quite reserved and they will want to keep them confidential. For example, I have managed teams where they were putting money away for their parents because their parents were in a bad financial situation and, understandably, they didn’t want everyone to know that.

So I think it completely depends on the individual. Some of the clients with whom I work, they are also very materialistic and have visuals in front of them of the next watch they want, or the next car they want, so it was very obvious what their goal was. But I think again it depends on your different team members and really what they would like.