Righttrack Whispers: Motivation; plain and simple

by Rennie Gould

When you ask a group of sales managers about the thing that most concerns them, the topic that comes up repeatedly is motivation.

But what is motivation? Put simply, motivation is the means, mechanism or process by which you encourage individuals or groups to move towards something of value. Typically, in a sales situation, it is the way that people are encouraged to improve their performance or to strive harder towards a specific objective or target.

Motivation can be either positive or negative in its effect: Positive when encouraging a movement towards something desirable or negative when encouraging a movement away from something undesirable.

There is however, the view that positive motivation is ultimately more powerful than the negative kind: pushing someone into the water will certainly get them swimming in order to avoid drowning (assuming they can swim) but it will hardly create an endearing passion for the water. Similarly, threatening people with negative consequences such as the sack or the hair-dryer treatment, might work in the short-term, but is unlikely to generate the positive climate of improved performance in the long run.

So, what are the rules of motivation? Let’s look at each of them in turn:

Is the objective desirable?

This might seem an obvious one, but not every objective is equally desirable to everyone. In sales for example, financial rewards are usually universally desirable, but other objectives can often have a strong pull for certain individuals.

Such things as status, social involvement and self-development can be equally motivational. These non-financial elements constitute the so-called Psychological Contract that exists between the individual and the organisation. These unwritten contracts are very powerful and represent the exchange of what an individual offers to the organisation, in return for what is received. Each psychological contract is therefore specific to each individual. The only way to know what the contract should be is to know each individual and what is important to them.

Motivator or Hygiene factor?

The psychologist Frederick Herzberg identified that providing a sense of achievement, whilst offering recognition and responsibility is strongly motivational, whereas such things as interpersonal relationships, company policy and working conditions are merely Hygiene Factors, i.e. things that do not motivate on their own account, but which can lead to demotivation if not addressed.

The implication is therefore to get the Hygiene Factors out of the way first to reduce any possible demotivation, but then to concentrate on providing the environment in which motivation can be created.

Is the objective achievable?

The best performers seem to prefer objectives that stretch them by a moderate amount, whereas lesser performers either accept average performance or alternatively set themselves such totally unrealistic objectives that they soon become dispirited.

The implication is first to recruit people who respond to reasonably challenging goals and then to set targets they believe they can achieve through reasonable improvements in performance.

Conflicting Targets?

Too many different types of target can lead to confusion and lack of focus on the most important objectives. Similarly, the more targets there are, the more likely they are to conflict with each other, such as stressing the importance of teamwork and the sharing of know-how / business opportunities across the sales team, whilst only rewarding individual performance.

Are the objectives broken down into a series of stepping-stones?

The importance of breaking down large objectives into a series of smaller interim objectives has been well proven. A series of monthly objectives is more motivational than a simple yearly target.

The implication is to chunk down objectives into those that can be achieved over a lesser time scale. Their achievement will also generate a momentum of success.

Do the necessary abilities exist to perform to the required standard?

This would appear like an obvious one, but without the necessary abilities, no amount of motivation can raise performance.

An important implication is to ensure that the appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes have been identified and that they form the basis of your training and development plan.

Is there a direct link between effort & reward and is it fair?

Many sales incentives schemes fall foul of this rule. Targets can be seen as unfair or slanted towards certain individuals rather than others.

A common problem in sales is to set territory targets that are seen to bear no relation to the actual business potential of that territory. This can lead to some people having to kill themselves to meet target, whereas others can turn in exceptional numbers by barely turning up. The implication is to ensure that targets reward effort, not just lucky geography.

Conclusion

As we come out of the downturn and business opportunities increase, perhaps it is an appropriate time for managers to look at whether they are creating the right kind of motivational environment to generate success.