Sales professionals, in any organization, are the ones who are directly responsible for contributing to the revenue of the organization. Hence their managers continuously look for newer and novel ways to keep them motivated. Competent managers treat their sales force like class of kids (metaphorically speaking) that demands different styles of attention and management. That’s because just like kids, some sales professionals have greater ability, competency and internal drive than others. If we categorize the sales professionals, we get 4 categories namely Drifters, Strugglers, Troublers and Stars, who are all motivated by different factors. On an average, any sales force has a clear majority of “Drifters” and “Strugglers”, a small but elite group of “Stars” and a group of “Troublers” . A judicious sales manager uses different strategies and tactics to motivate each group and thereby move the performance curve of the team upwards.

Written below is the name of the category and suggested ways to motivate that category

Drifters:

Drifters are people who are highly skilled but their motivation has waned away lately. Often these are your star performers who have slipped down the other side of the slope. This is a potential nightmare any sales manager can face. When the motivation of Drifters decreases, so does the application of their skills. But this is not the only damage that they do. Their de-motivation and negativity, if left unchecked, spreads to other members of the team. Drifters need to be given direction. They need to be managed positively to return them to a motivated state. The objective is to re-focus upon them as a person to uncover the cause or source of their de-motivation. Coaching is an essential tool in achieving this. Once uncovered, these issues have to be addressed as positively as possible.

Strugglers:

Strugglers have low skill but high motivation. They might be a new recruit, from inside or outside the business. They’ve got a brand new and exciting job. They are new talent on the road all set to build a sales career and enjoy all the rewards that it brings. They are very keen; very motivated. But they struggle with the skill to make their energy reap the necessary fruits. Strugglers need to be channelled. They need to be positively challenged and driven to increase skill to maintain motivation. If the skills do not develop the motivation will eventually die. As a result, they will slip backwards and could become Troublers. Pace-setting goals, targets and bonuses have been found to motivate Strugglers by keeping them enthusiastic and fore seeking of genuine praise earned via the achievement of targets and development of skills.

Troublers:

Troublers suffer from both low motivation and low skill. A typical example of this might be a person who was moved into a sales role from an administrative position as part of an overall business restructuring and has not been trained in sales. It could also be a case of a person who is demotivated and unwilling to move up the skill and will curve. Troublers need to be given clear directions. They need to be driven to increase skill and rewarded when they show willingness to perform. Problems need clearly defined Standards of Performance/KPIs (SOPs/KPIs) within which they need to work. A carrot and stick approach also works.

Stars:

People that are highly motivated and skilled and are always achieving their targets are called Stars. They are highly skilled through training and experience. They have high achievement orientation quotient. Stars are an asset for any sales organization. They need lot of contact and attention from the manager and genuine praise saying ‘good job’ which go a long way in maintaining the motivation of these valuable assets. Bringing variety into the job for them and using their skill and experience to produce special projects or benefit other members in the team, aspirational incentive plans and over achievement bonuses are some ways that will also have a positive effect on prolonging their motivation.

This blog has been written by Meena Murugappan, an Associate Partner with Growthsqapes