What Motivates And Distinguishes Successful Salespeople

Managers attending management training courses often ask about the key motivators of successful salespeople. If these can better understand, they will be more effective at managing these successful people.


Personal success evidently comes before team performance

Top sales people are rare. What actually distinguishes them from others? Over a period of 22 years the Gallup Management Consulting Group have carried out Studies which revealed the following key abilities and talents:

Attribute 1: Concluding sales negotiations

The capability to conclude sales negotiations productively is first and foremost the result of an astonishing amount of doggedness. Top sales people do not permit themselves to be disheartened by failure. They recognize that double the amount of sales negotiations equates to double the amount of failure.

They put up with the unavoidable number of unproductive visits, because they have unconditional faith in themselves and the product and services that they are selling.

Attribute 2: Self motivation

The reasons for top sales people wanting to get to the top are as diverse as the people themselves: money; acknowledgment; getting to know people; the desire to prove themselves; etc. The one thing they have in common, nonetheless, is the fire burning inside them. It is not the sales manager who has lit this fire, but it is he who controls the quantity of air, which fans the fire and makes sure that it, does not go out.

This internal motivation is stronger than any inspiration package a sales manager can initiate and makes it possible for top sales people to accomplish exceptional performances.

Attribute 3: Self discipline

Customers are challenging and there is tough competition. Against this background, sustainable, long-term success is only possible if sales people work in the most organised way possible.

Trustworthiness, meeting deadlines and conscientiousness are the building blocks of a top sales person’s working style. They have made to measure various aids they have to help them achieve this: forms, lists, deadline overviews, and presentation portfolios.

Attribute 4: Empathy

Offensive sales people and power sellers are unquestionably successful in certain markets.  In general, however, sales people have to build up and cultivate a relationship with the customer. This always entails looking at the circumstances from the customer’s viewpoint and with a good understanding of the customer’s problems. A sales person will only have the tolerance to do this if they accept the client and emphasise the things that they both have in common.

If you have a top sales person like this in your team, then it is your responsibility to make sure that they maintain their “inner” impetus as taught on all good management training courses. What is the driving force that motivates them? Four “motivational factors” and the effect these have on a sales team are mentioned in the Gallup Study:

Competition

Sales people who are motivated by rivalry do not only want to win, they want to be better than their competitors. In doing this, they make no distinction between a sales person from a rival corporation and a co worker. They are fair, however, their performance will also encourage their sales team.

Ego drive

The ego of these top sales people is the central point of everything.  They want to be the best and get the glory for themselves. Team performance means nothing to them. You can on the other hand encourage these sales people by making them mentors for less experienced sales people. They are elated when these sales people think highly of their expertise.

Love of success

This is the incentive that is most attractive to drum into team thinking; unfortunately team thoughts seldom enter the head of top sales people. Any sales person who loves victory feels motivated by the task at hand. If they achieve a target, their sights are automatically set to look for the next objective. Colleagues’ accomplishments do not bother them; since the most important thing is that the task has been completed. Make sure that top sales people constantly have as many challenges as necessary to stretch them.

Service strength

The strength of sales people who have this inner inspiration is the ability to create and build on client relationships. They are relentlessly on the lookout for the most favourable uses for their customers. They are the ones who communicate with as much compassion as possible what it is the customer actually wants and then goes out of their way to accomplish this. In the sales team, this type of sales person is frequently the workhorse who does the less popular tasks, because these are the ones, which are complex and drawn out. You need to identify the fact that your top sales people fulfil this role.

These are the key motivators and attributes of successful sales people. Managers who wish to further develop the skills of identifying and motivating successful sales people can attend relevant management training courses. 

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