You want to know how to motivate your salespeople? There is no magic formula. Doing basic, simple things that get them moving in the right direction is all you need to do.

Everyone, from the CEO of the largest corporation to the sales clerk at the grocery store to one of your under appreciated salespeople wants to be told that they are doing a first class job. They all crave recognition. One of the great needs of all people is the need for recognition. It’s as important to them as the air they breathe.

Just a little bit of encouragement or a splash of recognition at the precisely right moment is oftentimes all it takes to transform a good salesperson to a great one.

I just had this experience recently in a sales call with one of my relatively new (four months) sales execs. We had a 9 AM appointment with this prospect. The office manager came out and said that the main contact was coming in late and they would not be able to see us. Even though they didn’t want to see us from the start, she somehow worked her way to the back office, where she knew she would see the decision maker. Sure enough, despite his objections to “not having enough time” and “being behind”, she got in front of him, gently, but forcefully asking him all about his office and his needs, while gaining a full understanding of his business. After a full investigation, she then made her pitch using all the information she had just gathered, perfectly tailoring her offering to his unique needs.

I came out of the call with her and she was bubbling with excitement at the outcome of the call, clearly happy at the outcome…as was I.

As we were about to get into her car and drive to the next appointment, I stopped, turned to her and said: “you are really good – in fact, you are going to be hugely successful in this company performing like you just did. I really mean it, you took that call and did it just as well as you possibly could have done it, how you easily uncovered his needs, went through our offering hitting on the needs you just uncovered, it was just great. It’s especially impressive considering your limited tenure (three months at the time) with us”.

I could just see her glow.

That glow lasted all day long. It lasted into every other call she had that day. And boy, did we get some business that day.

At the end of the day, she turned to me, clearly reflecting on the day and wondered: “this was such a great day we had together today, why is it that whenever we ride together, we have such great days?”

I think I know why.

What did I do? All I really did is highlight and reference her considerable talents (like our previous lesson) and told her how much I appreciate her efforts.

Most importantly, when your reps feel good, feel confident, feel like what they do matters, they produce big time results for you. You have the ability to do it…all you need to do is do it.

Post a comment in this blog below and tell me what do you think are the best ways in motivating your people.