Motivation

I was recently asked to teach some younger sales reps on the subject of Motivation. This is perhaps one of the more valuable things that a Salesman needs to have. I've found by experience, study, and observation, that those in sales who have the psychological "edge" are the ones that are the highest paid. By psychological edge, I would include motivation, drive, confidence, etc.

Many people think that you must be born with self confidence in order to have it. But this is something that can be grown and cultivated--which perhaps should be a blog entry for another time. The same is thought of Motivation. Many mistakenly believe that you either have motivation or you don't. But this is something that can grow, the same way a muscle is grown. Through careful observation and exercise.

I set out to do my training on Motivation by interviewing the top 5 out of over 200 salespeople, along with our Sales Floor manager, who had been one of the top performing sales reps before he became manager. I asked them questions like What motivates you? How do you stay motivated? And how do you push through rough weeks when you aren't feeling very motivated?

I learned the following:

A clear picture of what they WANTED to be:

The top performers all had a very clear picture of what they WANTED to be. This was to be expected though. When we think of someone who is very motivated, we think that they are aspiring to be something great, that they are holding an image of what they want to be very clearly in their mind's eye. In fact, when I opened up my training, I asked the newer sales reps what they THOUGHT motivated the top performers and these were the first things that came up in the discussion.

A clear picture of what they did NOT want to be:

What I found quite interesting though, was that in every case, the top performers had an even clearer picture of what they did NOT want to be. In other words, they all used FEAR as a motivator, to keep them from becoming or performing like something they did not want to become. One top performer said that he knew he couldn't live with himself if one day he were passed over for a promotion because he wasn't on his "A game". Another said that he continually reminded himself of what "the alternative" was--that if he didn't work hard, if he didn't push through the difficult days, his entire lifestyle could change. Another top performer said "I hate to lose... I hate to lose...I hate to lose..." probably 8 or 9 times during our conversation. His fear or dislike of losing was so vivid, that it spurred him on during difficult weeks or days. Another top performer said he hated the idea of ever being associated with those on the bottom.

I'm not suggesting that we as salespeople focus on the things we hate--because I also believe that you become what you think about most of the time. But I did learn a very powerful lesson from studying these top performers. They use both forms of motivation, the carrot and the stick, to drive them.

Sales is very much an internal game. Use every way possible to motivate you this week. Find something you don't want to be, as well as something you want to be. Use both vivid pictures to spur you on, helping you work harder and harder.

Committing to Excellence This Year

New Years Resolutions are somewhat of an enigma to me. On one hand, I'm a huge fan of setting goals. I think without setting goals, I'd never have achieved the success I have in various different aspects of my life. On the other, I know that if you don't have a realistic plan for achieving them, they can get forgotten and discarded along the way. I've read plenty of self-help books that say that you greatly increase your chances for achieving goals if you write them down, even if you never look at them again--but I've also experienced plenty of years where I've written down a pretty audacious goal--then forgotten I'd ever even set it. That probably has more to do with writing something down that isn't alligned with what I was committing my efforts to. Which makes me think back onto the times I HAVE achieved success in certain areas vs. those areas in my life where I've fallen short. The one thing I've noticed is that in all of the areas I've excelled, I had made a determination that I was going to be as good as I possibly could be--whereas the times I've fallen short I just made the determination to do what I needed to do to "get by."

I was reading an article about Frank Mir, a UFC fighter who told a story about a time when one of his trainers asked him, "Do you want to be a figher? Or do you want to be a Martial Artist?" At the time, he didn't know the difference. He then learned that a Martial Artist continually improves himself. A Martial Artist realizes that he will never know all there is to know, and will continually strive to learn more from others, from his mistakes, from his failures and his successes.

The same could be said about Sales. Are you a Salesman/Sales Consultant/Employee? Or are you a Sales Professional? Or even, a Sales Artist? Are you continually learning? Or are you just plugging away, content with the "law of averages", or "it's a numbers game" philosophy?

Commit first and foremost to achieving excellence this year. Make the decision that mediocre is not enough in ANYTHING that you do. From the first opening statement with the first contact with a new prospect, all the way to closing the deal, and everything in between, make everything better. Commit this year to leaving the best voicemails, to improving your doubt resolution skills, to improving your project knowledge.

Above all, commit to being a Sales Professional--not just having a job. By adopting this as a way of life, you will have a far better year in 2009 than in 2008. Not just financially, but in job satisfaction and overall personal fulfillment.

Let's all have an amazing 2009. Happy New Year everyone!