When do you do your best work? When you feel bad or when you feel good?

The obvious answer is when you feel good. No one feels like doing much of anything when they feel bad.

So it begs the question: does the salesperson brimming with confidence sell more than the salesperson who lacks confidence? The answer may seem obvious, but why do so few average sales managers spend the majority of their time building their people’s confidence up instead of ripping it down?

It could be that many sales managers are former sales salespeople themselves and “seagull sales management” (swoop in, dump on the rep, then fly away), is all they know. In this case, unfortunately, ignorance begets more ignorance…

Or it could be that many salespeople come from a background of athletics and sales like sports, is highly competitive and similar to athletics in lots of ways, where managing by tearing down is extremely common. I’m not sure, but I do know that this form of “management” is way too common and far too ineffective for creating superior results. They can still be motivated and not make them feel bad?

Feel good = sell more

This may be the basics of sales 101, but the salesperson who feels good, sells more; it’s just that simple. People perform better under a feeling of appreciation and praise than they do under a feeling of criticism and negativity.

If you make them feel important and make them feel good about what they are doing day to day, then you’ll be on the path to superior results. Sometimes all it takes is just a few words to let them know that you appreciate what they do.

You may believe that the only thing that all salespeople are interested in is money as their reward. However, even the most materialistic of us knows that there are more important rewards than money alone.

The two rewards that top the list are: self respect and the respect of others.

People love to look good, so your job as an excellent sales manager is to create an environment in which your people look good. Seek out opportunities to tell them that you appreciate what they are doing. In doing so, you will find that the work and results you receive in return comes back to you tenfold.

You need to know how to do it though. This is important.

Post a comment below and tell me how you boost the performance of your sales representatives so they can sell more.