Maslow described different levels of motivators

Can you be bought? What inspires you to extra effort? Will you do anything to win a trip even at the expense of your relationship with your customer? Obviously to the heads of Enron and WorldComm and a huge number of people in the financial industry, massive amounts of money overrode all other considerations. How do you feel about that?

Surveyed employees usually put money as 3rd of 4th in importance

As a management consultant for an international company specializing in small to mid-sized businesses, my co-workers and I often surveyed our clients’ employees to find out what was most important to them in their jobs. Interestingly, money was the most important motivator to only a fraction of the people we surveyed. For most, there’s more to life than money because they ranked it third or fourth in importance. Ahead of money were things like job satisfaction, recognition for a job well done, being part of a successful team, challenging and rewarding work, flexibility in work schedule, educational opportunities and opportunity for advancement.

Especially fascinating is that most small business owners and their managers were surprised. To most people I’ve known, this position sounds strange for a sales trainer and former sales manager to make. It is universally accepted that you motivate sales reps with money and material gain, like trips and bonuses. The thing is, I myself, am rarely motivated solely by money – and I have noticed lots of other salespeople who aren’t either.

Don’t get me wrong, money is a strong motivator for us, or we probably won’t make the effort to overcome a natural reluctance to make prospecting calls and deal with rejection day after day. Besides that, few really good salespeople work only a 40-hour week. We’re studying, researching for prospects, preparing presentations, or doing paperwork, sometimes even attending networking events after normal work hours.

Heart centered salespeople put clients ahead of immediate gain

But heart centered salespeople prefer the soft sell approach. As such, you won’t pressure clients just to win a trip or a bonus. Soft sell means that you care about serving the customer first; making a commission follows. Because of this, you may work extra hard to win a contest; you may even talk with your prospects about moving up their timing, but you value your relationships and your prospects’ trust too much to use high-handed techniques to manipulate them into buying now just for your gain.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs applies to sales rep motivation too

To understand this better, look at psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The most basic needs motivate people first. These form the foundation, the bottom of the pyramid. As you satisfy those needs, they lose their ability to motivate you to take action so you progress up to still higher needs. The higher you fall on this pyramid, the more likely you are to value heart centered sales and marketing. Keep in mind, as things in your life change, you can regress down the steps to more basic drives.

Remember, salespeople are people too. That means some are definitely motivated strongly by money and achievement; they respond well to hard sell. They love the game of “I win; you lose.” But the more you operate from Love/Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization, the more likely you are to find greater satisfaction in heart centered sales and marketing that uses soft sell over hard sell. For you, there’s more to life than money alone.

Passion gives wings to your work, your sales, and your life

Selling is one of the toughest jobs I know, especially for heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers. Selling can also be one of the one most exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling jobs I know, especially for heart-centered, soft sell salespeople and marketers. For me, it depended on what I was selling and how much I believed in the value my products and services delivered to my customers. When I was excited about the benefits of my products and services, I could be passionate and really enthusiastic about sharing with my potential buyers. But for me to have passion in my sales, I had to believe what I sold would improve their lives. And passion was important to seeing me through the rejections and the dull and unpleasant activities required in sales.

Among the most rewarding sales calls were those when I took the time to find out what the clients felt their problems were and what they were looking for before I started selling. When I knew what they wanted, it was easy to share, explain and demonstrate how my solutions would help them achieve their dreams or solve their problems. In other words, I would feel passionate about what I was doing.

I can think of few things more energy draining, and spirit-killing than going to work at a job I hate. I speak from experience. While I loved the Air Force and stayed in for 9.5 years, not counting my time as a cadet, I put myself into a dead end career field as an electronic warfare officer. For six years, I tried to find a way out and into management and command. I finally left the Air Force on January 1, 1979. My first sales job was in radio advertising in Riverside, California. While I lost the security of my military salary and benefits, I loved helping customers buy.

Questions to Help Find Passion for Your Sales and Marketing

So how do you find passion for what you do? Ask yourself the following questions:
• What is it you love about your products and services personally?
• What do you love about your company?
• What do you love about the people you work with, especially those who will support your customers?
• Get to know your company’s best customers. What do they love about your products and services?
• What problems have your products and services solved or dreams fulfilled?

When I had clear in my mind the value my customers would see, I found myself excited about going to work. The passion I developed for what I was doing enabled me to take rejections and keep going. I knew that what I offered wasn’t right for everybody so I simply had to find those for whom it was right.

Sales can be fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding

Sales became fun as I got to know my potential buyers and their needs. When they recognized my interest in them first, before the sale, we made a connection. We then worked together to create the right solutions or to fulfill their dreams. When you help customers buy, you can experience a sense of fulfillment that goes way beyond just the commission earned or profit made.

All salespeople have tasks they don’t enjoy. All jobs do. However, if you find what you do satisfying, rewarding, fulfilling, you will passionate about what you’re doing. When you see the real benefits which your prospects will gain from your products or services, it will fire you with a passion that will keep you going through the tough times and grunt work.

For more about love in sales, check my March 2nd post about “Love in Sales – It’s not that kind of love.” In that article, I talked about caring for your prospects’ needs before you attempt to help them buy.

The box is our own limited thinking – new experiences get us out

How often have you heard people advise you to “think outside the box”? If you’re in business or sales and marketing management, you’ve probably heard it a lot. One problem with this admonition is that they rarely tell you how to do it or even really what it means. So first, thinking outside the box means to be open to ways that you can do things differently than they ever were before thereby finding new and exciting ideas to capture people’s imagination and earn their business.

You need to get out for your thinking to get out

The bigger problem with thinking outside the box is that we are all limited by our experiences. So in order to creatively think outside the box, you need to get outside the box of your current experiences.

My friends Judith & Jim, in SSMA recorded teleconference, “Focus 2010 – What Do You Want?” brought up the point that if you have no frame of reference for something, you can’t see it even if it’s directly in front of your nose.  Judith & Jim described how when the Spaniards first came to the New World, many of the Indians were unable to see them as the ships were so far outside their experience these American natives were blind to them. The shamans, because of their openness to new experiences, were able to teach their tribe members how to see the ships.

I have a similar experience when playing Spinning Top’s series of games called Big City Adventures.  In various locations throughout a given city, you’re given items to find.  Some of them are obvious while others are extremely difficult to see. I may have to study the scene numerous times before I can find some objects.  Occasionally I have to click on Hint to find it because of how cleverly they disguised the item.

Most successful inventions merely expand on our past experiences

The point is that without new experience, it’s virtually impossible to think outside the box.  This is why most inventions are not truly unique, never before seen products.  In fact, from the business viewpoint, those are the hardest to sell as nobody yet feels a need for them. Most successful inventions typically are those that are just a step beyond our previous experience, something that takes us to a new level of convenience or savings or that solves a problem better than ever before.

A good example of this is Apple’s iPod that took the world by storm.  Prior to the iPod, we had a series of ways to record music.  We also had handheld computers with display screens. Apple’s genius was in identifying a pent-up demand for a means to carry your music with you without having to lug dozens of tapes or CDs – and to be able to manage the list.  So the next time you’re looking for a product to revolutionize the market, instead look for the frustrations and pent-up demand in your customer base then find the evolutionary, instead of revolutionary, product to fill that need or desire.

Three simple things to speak to your buyers needs better

Here are three ways you may be able to reach your prospects and customers needs better:
•    Reframe an existing product or service in terms which appeal to what people want to buy today – be sure it delivers though
•    Bundle it with other products that work together better than either did alone
•    Expand your experience

The problem with thinking outside the box is you have to get out of your box to do it

Basically, one of the best ways to learn to think outside the box is to expand your experience beyond what you already know.  Do something different.  Go to another city, attend a seminar or tradeshow, read a science fiction novel, attend a lecture on a topic you know nothing about, use a coach or consultant or join a membership site you value. Then, when you see something new and clever ask yourself, “Can this be applied or, how can it be applied, to my industry and to my products?”

Thinking outside the box and true creativity rarely come in a vacuum.  They builds on what we know and understand already.  The best way to think outside the box is to get outside your box by broadening your experience so that you actually have the ability to see and recognize the opportunity when it comes to you.

I find Judith & Jim in their weekly teleconferences for Soft Sell Marketers Association http://tinyurl.com/n56ytb (SSMA) help me think outside the box, to get new insights. I invite you to check SSMA out to see if there is value for you too in this community. Please be aware that this is my affiliate link so if you decide to join I will make a commission. Your membership fee will be the same whether you use my link or not.

At first glance, Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, seems like a strange book for sales managers. It was a book with no unifying theme. It was more like a collection of essays. However, these stories did indeed have a theme: motivation.

Finding the Underlying Motivation Can Be Challenging

The key point is that motivation is a complex issue. Sometimes money provides the motivation to take great risks, like street corner drug dealers or, in the case of real estate agents, to not risk losing a sure sale for the potential of getting a better offer for their clients later. Sumo wrestlers demonstrated that sometimes maintaining their close knit relationships outweighs the potential dishonor if you are caught throwing a fight.

Hard Sell Sales Organizations Rely Heavily on Money, Recognition, and Material Rewards

The same is true in sales management. The predominant motivator in hard sell organizations is money, lots of money. They also use recognition and other material rewards, like rings, watches, cars, and trips to exotic places.

True Soft Sell Marketers Won’t Push Their Customers Just for a Material Incentive

So why don’t these marvelous rewards always work? People are complex and complicated. We each have a self-image, which does not always mesh with doing whatever it takes to win big for us at the expense of our customer. Money alone does not make those of us who are soft sell marketers at heart sell out our values of caring about our customers. Serving them comes first, money second.

Our Personal Priorities Can Defeat Your Contest

We also have different goals. If someone’s primary value lies in being a parent, attending the son’s soccer game or the daughter’s solo performance might outweigh making the one extra sales call needed to win the cruise.

To Maximize Your Sales Plan, Develop Rewards Using a Variety of Motivators

I think that Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner in their book, Freakonomics, gave sales managers and small business owners the opportunity to understand motivation more deeply. By appreciating the complexity of what inspires people, you can develop incentives and compensation aimed at rewards which appeal to different salespeople. You can also avoid ones that unintentionally drive activities which hurt the company, like selling below your true costs. Sales can be fun and mutually rewarding for the customer, the sales rep, and the company — just be careful how you motivate your sales team.

When You Sell as a Service, You’ll Be Unhappy in a Hard Sell Company

Have you ever felt out of place? I have. I find it happens most often when I seem to share nothing in common with the group where I am. Despite having been in sales and marketing since 1979, I feel uncomfortable in a company or a conference where the sales style is hard sell. I have friends who excel at it. They like the game of jockeying for control. My orientation instead is a service one. I like affirming the client and working with him rather seizing control and dictating. It was really challenging working in a company where I was expected to take control of the client and to prescribe what he would do. One executive told me that I’m the doctor. It’s my job to tell clients what to do.

Had to Find a Way to Satisfy My Boss While Acting Consistent with My Values

I spent 40 months dreading talking to my office because I had to find a way to take their orders and attempt to carry them out using my style of working in partnership with the client. I believe that lasting change comes from buy-in, which comes from agreeing with the objective and contributing to the solution. That’s hard to do when you are ordering instead of proposing a course of action and discussing.

Judith and Jim Seek to Make a Space for Soft Sell Sales and Marketing People

This week I met over a Skype connection a couple who agreed with my viewpoint on working with clients. Judith & Jim are forming a community of people who want a kinder, more caring way of doing business. In contrast to the aggressive, pushy sales, they call it soft sell marketing. I train clients and their sales reps to help customers buy. We both believe in sales and marketing as spiritual service. That includes acting with respect for the prospect. It seems to me that the key difference between hard sell and soft sell sales and marketing comes down to attitude: power versus love.

Opportunity to Join Community of Soft Sell Marketers

Talking with Judith Sherven and Jim Sniechowski about sales and marketing was one of the most exciting moments in my business life. I found a home: people who understand me, people who care about their customers and clients like I do, people who respect their prospects’ right to make their own decisions free of control, pressure, or manipulation. I’m delighted to say that I joined their Soft Sell Marketers Association and became an affiliate right away. So, if you’ve felt like me, that you were a stranger in a strange land when surrounded by manipulative, in-your-face sales and marketing people, I invite you join me and the others in this new soft sell marketing community. Check them out at http://tinyurl.com/ab7cbn. And let me know what you think about a community of people wanting to make a world where soft sell marketing becomes the norm.

Actually, there are things we can do to encourage people to talk about us. I just listened to a fascinating podcast, “Word-of-Mouth Marketing,” by Karen E. Klein, Business Week Smart Answers columnist. She interviewed Bertrand Cesvet, about his new book, Conversational Capital.

Bertrand said we need to plan from the beginning to encourage word-of-mouth marketing. Think about the “story” we want people to tell. Basically, people talk about consumer experiences. He gave examples of Cirque du Soleil and Volkswagon to show what it means to have a story.

In Conversational Capital, Bertrand covers eight elements to becoming a topic people want to talk about. It really comes down to developing a great “story.” What I got from this is that it needs to be something people experience. I bring this back to benefits.

Just what is it that the customer can experience with your product or service that is exciting? In other words, what emotional connection will they make? Remember, not all word-of-mouth is positive. I’ve told my share of stories about service so bad I’ll never go back. Here’s an interesting “story” from a blog post Seth Godin made July 05, 2005: Red Lobster claims to be a Maine company, but they’re located in Florida and, at that point, didn’t have any restauarants in Maine. While I may not stop going there because of this lie, it undermines my respect for the chain. I’ll give them some slack because it’s a “theme” restaurant.

On the other hand, I’ve also heard wonderful stories about the salesperson who became a resource and so earned ongoing business – he helped the manager of this manufacturing line to solve a problem with production. The engineer I spoke to made it clear he wanted to ensure he would have access to that salesman’s knowledge and ideas because the rep made his job easier.

“Stories” I’ve told people include my confidence in getting a fabulous Ribeye steak at Outback Steakhouses everywhere I go in the U.S. The best story is about how Stephen Brooks in Covina comped a meal because the service wasn’t up to his standards. And I will long remember the extra effort by Tony Gonzales at my West Covina Men’s Warehouse to fix my cuffs so I could take the suit for a trip the next day.

What can you do to make dealing with you enjoyable enough that people will enjoy telling others about the experience? Give them a “story” to tell, but be sure it’s a good story.

What I particularly appreciated, though, was the story James shared about Michael Jordan telling him and seven others about how he finally realized that he needed a team to win championships. Being a great player and a great scorer wasn’t enough.

I often ask clients, “What does a team need to win the Super Bowl?” The answer is far more involved than most people think. When I ask the group to tell me what they need, obviously a team that wins the Super Bowl must have a great quarterback. However, he alone can’t win the game. He needs an incredible offense. Again, though, the best offense isn’t enough if the defense doesn’t keep their opponents from outscoring them.

So far so good. I will always get those responses. If I ask them for what else the team needs, they will mention the coach. However, I usually have to push to get them to mention the trainers. And if you’re playing in Houston in September in 95 degrees with 95% humidity, most will agree that you need the water boy. MORE ….

Years ago I read a story about a seafood restaurant that had
an incredible reputation for their clam chowder. When new owners
bought the restaurant, they decided to cut expenses to increase
their profits. They began watering down the soup. Over a period
of several months, the restaurant’s clientele began dropping away.
Loyal customers gave the owners the benefit of the doubt the first
time they found that their chowder was not up to the quality they
expected. However, most of them stop coming after the second time
they experienced the cheapened chowder. Pretty soon, the owners lost
enough customers to threaten the survival of the business.

The point here is to do everything in your power to maintain the
quality of products and services at the same level or better than
your customers expect from you. Otherwise, you could very well be
the one driving the nail in the coffin of your business.

I tell my clients that cutting corners on your product or service
in an effort to save money is “false economy.” In my first two years
on the road as a consultant, I wrote savings recommendations worth
$2,300,000. I believe in cutting waste and reducing unnecessary
expenses. However, cutting corners is foolish. Customers vote every
day with their money. MORE ….

What questions or comments do you have about selling for fun,
profit, and mutual rewards?