COMMENTS
An increase in excuse making seems to be more the result of transparency in communication thanks to the web than a change in the way B and C sales people think.
To answer the question of motivation I would suggest that leadership stop taking such a 'scalable' macro approach of blasting the entire team with a new process, measurement or competition and instead look at something a little more holistic - motivating individuals by evaluating and encouraging that the person operate in their strengths. If their strengths do not line up with the positions need than you can effectively move them into a different role or out of the business all together.
This economy has done a good job of separating the great from the average who could 'appear' great. We can leverage insight gained from our economic challenges to build better, more productive teams comprised of thinking, highly skilled sales people, not just the 'run of the mill' sales person that most companies seem to complacently accept.
Dave - sounds like sales managers are going to have to get better at motivating, caoching and holding people accountable to counteract this trend. From what we know many managers were not good at that in the best of times with people that were extremely money motivated! What happens now?
@Cody - I like your solution, except for the exclusion of process and measurement. You may not need to focus on process or measurement in single account farming but when hunting is involved, it's very difficult to manage sales without it.
@Frank - great points!
I believe the the importance of finding people with an entrepreneurial mindset is more critical than ever. Especially with the managers. They need to be motivated by having an inherent ownership mindset. This attitude...which I don't think can be instilled...could serve as a strong motivator...assuming the values are aligned between the manager and owner. I think today...after the economic fallout...certain people want security by controlling their own destiny.
Interesting comments all. Companies need to hire and promote individuals who have a complete alignment to the positions values, behaviors and interest levels.
When reviewing metrics sales managers often only review sales metrics (s/gm, #number of calls made, gm%, territory size etc) to determine who is the best. I believe they also need to apply a subjective measurement of follow through, manageability, customer interest etc. While some of these measures may be subjective I believe they can still have a numeric value applied.
I urge this, because we tend to believe those with the highest numbers are the best. I don’t disagree completely, however territory size, territory customer make-up, years of service, industry knowledge and other factors may influence outcome. Using a balanced scorecard taking into consideration some subjective data (or semi subjective data) could expose a different view of who is really the best.
I want to see and examine the best looking at the total person. Learning styles, behaviors and interest. When we know the total person we can be closer to understanding what motivates their behavior, how to teach them and then we can design their compensation package around them.
We want to design compensation packages around accounting! Accounting believes they are paid too much to begin with! If it is hard for them to calculate or explain then they will not support. They support extremely black & white programs, not people.
@Karl - good point on entrepreneurial mindset - there are some positions where that makes a big difference and others where it could be a detriment.
@Kim - your additional measurements are important but should it really be subjective. Wouldn't those metrics be even more powerful if they were objective. You can measure follow through, interest and manageability by simply adding criteria and tracking accordingly.
There are many ways to measure, track and hold accountable but it's important for all of those metrics to be objective rather than subjective.
Dave
You appear to have hit on a raw nerve with this subject. The issue of money motivation is one that has concerned me with the evaluations we have conducted here in Australia. Our experience is that over 80% of the sales people that we evaluated are not money motivated. It may be a cultural thing but my observations are that companies are paying their sales people too much as a base and as a result get mediocre sales outcomes. They are paying their salespeople not to sell. Changing this management mindset is a problem because most sales managers that we evaluate have the same problem.
I believe that for meaningful change to occur in sales remuneration, companies must first experience enormous pain. Only then will they be motivated to address the difficult issue of sales and sales management remuneration. Clearly Australia hasn't experienced that pain as severly as some other markets such as the US and the UK.
One of the best ways to find out what motivates an individual is the P
Predictive Index Assessment. We represent them in Florida, but others can find the at PIworldwide.com