The Surprising Way to Increase Salesforce Motivation

Want to Increase Salesforce Motivation and Performance?
Can you imagine any sales leader who does not want to increase the motivation and performance of their salesforce? Of course not. But, as we know from thousands of sales management training participants, easier said than done, right?

Sure, you must train your sales team and offer proportionate and aligned financial incentives, but we have learned over the last three decades that sales skills and financial rewards alone do not drive sales motivation and performance.

Year after year, the highest performing salespeople are intrinsically motivated. It is up to each sales organization to identify, align, leverage, and sustain that motivation at a high level.

The Surprising Way to Increase Salesforce Motivation
What most sales organizations miss when they seek to motivate their sellers is conviction – the heart-felt belief that their products, services, and insights provide unparalleled value to their buyers. There is a significant correlation between seller conviction, seller motivation, and seller performance. When sellers believe that their offerings bring unique value to their customers, they simply sell more.

The Relationship Between Sales Conviction and Sales Results
Sellers are more highly motivated and simply sell better when they can clearly identify, link, articulate, and substantiate the differentiated value that they can deliver.  Sellers with high levels of conviction have a strong belief in their company, their offerings, and the customer value they provide.

• Our sales research comparing sales reps with low, medium, and high levels of sales conviction found sales reps with high levels of sales conviction outperform those sales reps with low levels of conviction by 12%.

• Our organizational alignment research found compelling value propositions combined with an aligned sales culture drive 58% higher revenue, 72% greater profitability, and 3.2-to-1 better customer satisfaction.

What This Means for Sales Leaders and Sales Training
First, sales leaders should invest the time to ensure that their sales team is meaningfully motivated by how and what they sell. 

Second, before any business sales training is deployed to build new sales skills (like prospecting, discovering, qualifying, presenting, communicating, handling objections, building relationships, closing, getting referrals, and managing accounts), make sure that your sales strategy, target client definition, and value proposition are clear, compelling, believable, and differentiated in the eyes of your sales force and your target customers. 

The more sellers believe in what they are selling and why, the higher they will perform.

The Bottom Line
Do your sellers have enough sales conviction to understand, articulate, and demonstrate your unique value proposition compared to your competition? When your sellers understand and believe in the value they provide, their motivation and performance will reach higher levels.

To learn more about how to increase salesforce motivation, download Sales Conviction – Do You Have It?