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How can I motivate a young sales team?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Trevor Usken
The young today or Gen Y group is highly mobile, independent, sensitive yet ambitious and can work hard if they see a benefit and certainly wants to play hard too. Not much of a loyalty factor but very performance oriented incentivised by rewards and appreciation or attention.
I have note from experience, that when a team of young people work and there is a definite group of very successful achievers, the rest do tend to fall back. This is because that, they are wondering if its worth the effort to try harder since someone else seems to be doing so much better already.
One way of developing this further is to break up the group, where the achievers now work on a market segment to generate more success seperate from the rest. The rest of the group now has a new market segment where they now have an opportunity to compete for success and top position.
- Recommended by:
- Trevor Usken
Herman,
I find myself struggling with the same issues with my own group of young sales people. Effective management and motivation are crucial factors, but like Bill noted, some people have the skills and drive to succeed and others do not.
Here is an article I wrote about some of my best practices for managing a young team of professionals.
http://www.focus.com/ugr/research/sales/guide-managing-peers-generation-y/
- Recommended by:
- Tony Williams
YOU CAN'T!! Not for long anyway.
Motivation comes from within not from without. Only through leadership can you catalyze the motivation in others. And only when done this way do you get outstanding performance from average people.
Leadership in a nutshell is...
Vision -- you must give the team a vision they can believe in and get excited about. A vision is a goal or objective -- something the team can achieve. It is like JFK's statement we should go to the moon -- the whole country got motivated.
Empowerment -- you need to provide the team with the tools to do the job and they need to know those tools will be there in the beginning or they may not believe the vision can be achieve.
Training -- you need to train them to be the best they can be -- getting better at something is one of the best motivators there is.
I hope that helps.
you must also realize how you felt at there age just starting out wanting to succeed but more so just there for the paycheck. this is were incentives programs work. these dont have to be company crippling like heres a new car but more like heres a gift cert. or pizza party (on there normal lunch break of course). another thing is to make them feel as if they are a part of the decision making. the more someone feels a sense of ownership the more they will be willing to help that business succeed.
Herman:
The points that you raise are valid.Research has shown that 25% of individuals involved in sales are unsuitable for sales.
The normal distribution is 16% top performers,68 % average performers and 16% passengers.
The answer is to use predictive analysis at the time of recruitment.
Contact me at john@humanresourcesinsights.com and I will send you some material that would assist you.
i agree with Flyn, try teaming the potentials with the performers. Call it a mentor program or something instinctive. Sometimes people just need to be lead/shown how it is done. It may not work for everyone, but the true enthusiasts will show their true colors through attitude and hard work. I have helped numerous under performing reps become satisfactory achievers through a mentor guidance program. Make sure you team the right people together.
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I agree with HK that Gen Y is a more mobile generation, but I don't agree that what motivates them is different than what motivates other generations.
We have young salespeople working for us who are every bit as loyal as their older counterparts; loyalty given by employees mirrors the loyalty given by employers.
There will always be top achievers in every group, regardless of age, sex, national origin, etc. It's just a fact of life. There is even some research that has found that instead of Pareto's Principle (80/20 Rule), that there is instead a 20/60/20 rule that states 20% of people will over-perform, 20% will under-perform, and the remaining 60% will be average. If a person leaves from the over-performing or under-performing group, a member of the average group will move into that vacancy. I've seen this happen several times in practice.
From a management standpoint, you'll never have everybody as a stellar performer... and you probably don't want them. They're typically guns-for-hire, less loyal, rule-breakers, and motivated by extrinsic rewards. I'm not knocking that group, but the traits that make them good salespeople are the same traits that create management headaches.
As with any salespeople, give them the tools, continually work on skills, and let them sink or swim.