Just enjoyed a wonderful Sunday Lunch with friends of ours, Ari and Irene. Ari is a very talented Sales Manager and the conversation turned to motivation. I don’t believe that there is such a thing as co-incidence so Ari has inspired me to talk about my passion for motivational techniques during this week’s blog.

When we feel motivated we are able to tap into the fuel that drives our performance. Motivation gives us additionally reasons to solve problems, overcome difficulties and persevere when the going get tough. Motivation can transform an ordinary performance into an extraordinary performance because ultimately if an individual wants to achieve a particular goal badly enough they will be prepared to do whatever it takes to get it. In a sales environment where sales people are often on the receiving end of countless rejections and tend to work mainly alone, the individual’s level of motivation will be demonstrated by the results they achieve, not necessarily instantly yet at some point in the future. An important characteristic required for sales people is that they possess a positive mental attitude to support them through times of stress and difficulties. Yet their attitude is often a reflection of their inner drive; they know what they need to achieve and why achieving it benefits them. Therefore, a Sales Leader who has the ability to ‘ramp up’ their sales peoples’ drive will generally be the Sales Leader who gets better results.

Every individual is completely unique and consequently has a set of values that are unique to them. These are the fundamental principles and beliefs that are considered worthwhile and desirable by the individual and consequently they hold a lot of emotional intensity. Many Sales Leaders make the mistake of trying to motivate their sales team in the same way or based on what is important to the Sales Leader. This approach may work for some people, those that have similar values to their Sales Leader, yet in the main it will fail. The best way to motivate a sales person is to identify what they value as important, in context of their careers, then, use this information to motivate and leverage their performance. The following process enables you to discover what is important to each member of your sales team and is an ideal session to do either during performance reviews or at some point during the accompaniment day:

• Prior to discovering a sales person’s values, ensure that you have built high levels of rapport to encourage open and honest communication. Because a person’s values are very emotive the sales persons needs to feel high levels of trust in their Sales Leader.
• Explain why you are going to ask them questions around what’s important to them. This should always include a benefit to them. For example, “To ensure that I give you the support needed to achieve your target, I’d like to ask you a few questions. Are you ok with this?” or “I want to really understand what motivates you so that I can do what I can to keep your motivation levels high. Therefore, are you comfortable with answering some questions?”
• Ask “What’s important to you in your career?” wait for their answer and write this down using their exact words. Then ask “What else is important to you in your career?” until you have written down approximately 10 -12 of their values. Never pass judgement on what they tell you because this could cause the individual to clam up. Expect long pauses and never prompt them with your own ideas – everything has to come from them.
• Then, ask the individual to number their values according to their importance. For example, 1 = Most important, 2 = Next important and so on until they have numbered every value. You’ll notice that the order of importance for most individuals is different to the order that they first tell you their values.
• Write out the individual’s values in order of important to them and then for each of their values ask “ Why is (value) important to you?” Record their reply. This step is helpful for two main reasons; firstly, you’ll understand what the value means to the individual and you’ll be able to use their words and phrases at future moments in time to motivate them appropriately. Secondly, you’ll be able to identify whether their motivation type is either ’Towards’ or ‘Away From’. Some individuals are motivated by what they can gain; this is called ‘Towards’ motivation. Other individuals are motivated by what problem they can avoid, this is called ‘Away From’ motivation. Both directional types of motivation work effectively and if a Sales Leader is aware of the directional type of each sales person, this improves their ability to motivate individuals in the most effective way. For example, if an individual wants to avoid failing (fear of failure is a common value held by many highly successful sales people according to Zurich Financial Services) then highlighting the success that achieving their targets will give them will not be as powerful as highlighting that feeling of failure that they’ll get if they miss their sales targets.
• Once you’ve completed this target, you then have vital information about what motivates the individual that you can use to help them accomplish different tasks. For example, if an individual’s most important value is recognition and you want them to increase the amount of time they devote to cold calling, you could say, “ Imagine the amount of additional recognition you’ll get from being successful at cold-calling.”

Good luck with the impending birth of your first baby Irene and Ari- he will be a very lucky little boy having you both as parents!

The sales results you create are based on your performance. Performance has many components for example, our activities and abilities that are typically where many organisations focus on. Yet beneath the surface, our beliefs about ourselves, our customers, our job, can either help or hinder our performance. You may have heard the expression, “Whatever you believe you can do, you will and whatever you believe you can’t do, you won’t.” It’s as if our beliefs (which are unique to us all) become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our beliefs can act as huge barriers that stop us giving 100 percent to something.

Three Stories that illustrate the impact of beliefs:

Ø    On May 6^th 1954, Roger Bannister was the first man ever to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Before this everyone had believed that this was impossible. Yet, in the same year 19 other athletes also ran a mile in less than 4 minutes….why? Because Roger Bannister had created the belief that it could be done and it was. Today, thousands of athletes worldwide run a mile in less than 4 minutes.

Ø    Charlie Harris was a hobo (tramp/homeless person) in Chicago and was looking for a place to sleep on a very wintery and cold night. He discovered a trailer yard and broke into one of the trailers. As he closed the door of the trailer, it jammed and he couldn’t open the door. After lighting a match, with horror he realized that he was stuck in a refrigeration trailer and would probably die from cold. He did die that night and the coroner found that he died from hypothermia. Yet, the trailer he died in was in for repair and not working. Charlie Harris’s belief that it was refrigerated, killed him. (Story taken from Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins).

Ø    The bumble bee has baffled scientists for years because aerodynamically it shouldn’t be able to fly. Yet, it believes that it can and it does!

Here are 6 beliefs that can have a positive impact on your team. Even if your team are not in full agreement with these statements at first, simply ask that they open their mind and act as if they are true. They will be amazed at the difference it creates to their life:

1.     Every Individual is unique and their perceptions are true to them

Because we each absorb 2 million bits of information unconsciously and can only process around 7 chunks consciously we each have our own unique perception of the world around us. If everyone reading this was asked to explain beliefs, each individual would give a different explanation. So who’s right? Everyone is right because your perceptions are true for you. That’s why the more respect we have for every individual and the more we seek to understand the viewpoints of other, the richer our communication becomes. By respecting the opinions of others, doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to agree with them, we just have to acknowledge that every individual’s reality is the one based on their own unique perceptions.

2.     Communication is successful, only if it achieves your desired results

It doesn’t matter if you think you’ve communicated well or if you think you’ve been crystal clear, what matters is that your communication is received and acted upon in the manner you wanted. How many times have you said something to another person who has totally misinterpreted what you meant? Equally, sometimes we are on the receiving end of communication that makes us feel bad. If we can look beyond the communication and try to see a positive intention behind another person’s behaviour, then our relationships and interactions with people become more constructive and empowering. When we communicate with people and if they are ‘not getting’ our point, then the responsibility is ours to adapt our approach until they do. For example; if we have communicated a price increase and the reasons for that price increase, and our customers have not understood those reasons, the responsibility for this mis-communication lies with ourselves. Therefore we can only judge the success of what we have communicated based on the reactions we get from other people.

3.     Resistance from another person usually signals a lack of rapport

Rapport is a vital ingredient when developing relationships because it builds trust and allows communication to flow. When that state of rapport is there, communication is a lot easier even if you don’t agree with the other person. When we don’t feel that rapport or connection we have a tendency to ‘nit-pick’ or find fault. Customers respond to people they perceive understand their position and are on the same wavelength. If we are encountering lots of resistance from a prospect or a customer, then it helps us to notice that we haven’t built sufficient rapport. Even if our prospect doesn’t agree with what we are saying, rapport enables us to have an open discussion where we can get an honest reason for their reaction rather than a ‘prickily’ brick wall.

4.     Flexibility improves success

The greater your flexibility, the greater your chances for achieving what you want. If we accept that every person is a unique individual then we have to accept that each prospect and customer will require a different approach. Using the same approach with all prospects and customers is like playing the lottery, the chances of getting it right are extremely low. If we have high levels of flexibility that allows us to adapt to each prospect and customer’s style then we are able to build more rapport and reduce resistance.

Albert Einstein gave the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over whilst expecting a different result. As an example, think about a fly…..have you watched how many times a fly bumps its head trying to fly out of a window? I guess that’s why it’s a fly.

The more we are able to adapt, the more opportunities we create. If what you are doing isn’t working, try something different and if that doesn’t work try something different again. Flexibility of thinking and behaviour creates awesome sales people. Your team are also unique individuals requiring a unique approach with how you manage them. The greater your behavioural flexibility the easier it is to connect and develop better working relationships.

5.     There is no failure, only feedback

Of course there is failure. If you take a driving test or exam you either pass or fail. Your sales people will either succeed in achieving their monthly sales targets or fail to meet them. The key is how you perceive ‘failure’. Every failure can be looked at as a learning opportunity that is beautifully epitomised by Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. Despite more than 10,000 failures, he stood by his dream until he made it a physical reality. He said that every discarded idea took him one step closer towards finding the idea that would work. One of the most powerful self-coaching questions sales people can ask is, “What will I do differently next time?” or “What can I learn from this?”  Sales people who make mistakes and learn from those mistakes have a tendency to do better than sales people who are scared to fail. Therefore if your team can be encouraged to see that when they don’t achieve their targets they have an opportunity to learn, because they have been given great feedback on what not to do next month.

6.     Accepting 100% responsibility creates transformation

Every action you take creates a reaction that is based on the formula of cause and effect. Everything that happens is the effect of an underlying cause. Most people spend their lives operating at effect….”It’s not my fault I always end up in bad relationships.” “Life’s so unfair, things always happen to me.”  “We’re in a recession, that’s why I haven’t achieved target.” “If I could only match our competitors prices, I’d win more deals.” True personal power can be achieved when an individual accepts 100% responsibility for what they create in their lives. To put it another way, you get one of two things; the result or outcome you want or the reasons why you didn’t (you may recognise these as ‘excuses’!)

The more you focus on the reasons (excuses) and blame circumstances beyond your control you push away your personal power. Therefore, if you believe that you are in control of the situations that life ‘appears’ to throw at you, then you are in control of your thinking and emotions, and therefore in control of your own life. This belief has given thousands of sales people the determination to breakthrough so many barriers and overcome countless challenges when at times it was tempting to wallow in self-pity.  If something good or bad happens, ask yourself, “How did I create that?” This question enables you to tap into your brain’s infinite potential and it will give you all the answers you need. If you’re prepared to commit 100% to taking responsibility for your own life, the results can be extraordinary.