Increase Salesforce Motivation: The Surprising Research

Want to Increase Salesforce Motivation and Performance? Why Intrinsic Drivers Outperform Incentives Alone
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 rep assessment simulation participants, easier said than done, right?

Sure, you must train your sales team in solution selling 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 the sales motivation.
• Align the sales motivation.
• Leverage the sales motivation.
• Sustain that sales 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.
• Seller performance.

Our research found that 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

1. Align Motivation with the Work of Selling
   First, sales leaders need to take the time to ensure their sales force is genuinely motivated by both how they sell and what they sell. If that connection is weak, even the most skilled professionals will struggle to sustain high performance over time.
   
   
2. Get the Foundation Right Before Building Sales Skills
   Second, before rolling out any business sales training aimed at building sales capabilities — such as prospecting, discovery, qualification, presenting, communicating, handling sales objections, relationship building, closing, securing referrals, or managing accounts — leaders must first ensure the foundation is solid. That means the sales strategy is clear, the target customer profile is well defined, and the value proposition is both compelling and credible. Just as importantly, it must be meaningfully differentiated in the eyes of both the sales force and the customers they serve.

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

The Bottom Line
Do your sellers have the conviction to clearly understand, confidently articulate, and consistently demonstrate your unique value proposition in ways that stand apart from the competition? When salespeople truly understand the value they create — and genuinely believe in it — their motivation becomes more durable, their conversations become more compelling, and their performance naturally reaches a higher level.

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

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.