Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from people searching for my post on the Motivational Letter to Our Sales Team I wrote a couple of months ago.  For this reason I thought I would do another quick post on the subject as it seems people are relatively interested in motivating a sales team.

From all of my years in management, I can tell you that what I’ve learned most about managing others, is that if the goals of the employee are not inline with company goals, then you’ll find employees less likely to achieve the success the company values. In other words, if the employee feels that their goals are not important to the company then they are less likely to put forth a good effort.

For this reason it is important that every “one on one” sales meeting you have with your sales employees, or customer service employees or any employees for that matter their personal goals should be brought into the conversation as part of the interaction.  This doesn’t mean their “personal sales goals“, or “company related goals” at all. This means if they don’t talk about that fact they really want to, let’s say take a vacation with their wife in Aruba for their anniversary next year, they are less likely to find value in the interaction.

The next time you meet with your employees in a “one on one” interaction take the time to find out what their personal goals are.  Then figure out a way by achieving the company goals their personal goals will be met, and you will find by the time you are finished the interaction your employees will have a new fire beneath them.

The difference is, by taking the time to talk about their personal goals you show an interest in their well being.  By discussing only their business goals, you relay the message the company is more important than they are.  By creating a plan whereby company goals and their personal goals can be met with the effort and energy necessary to reach those goals you will find the employees will be much happier and be willing to spend more energy to achieving those goals.

Recently someone asked me how to find a really good job in today’s economy, a dream job.  The truth is in today’s economy, dream jobs are not something you find, dream jobs are something you earn or create.  Doing business today takes a lot more than just selling a product, paying the bills, and keeping what’s left over as profit.

These days in order to succeed in most any field requires efficiency, creativity, zeal, and the ability to keep up with new trends.  While all of these characteristics are necessary, they are a little hard to prove on paper.  About the only thing you can do is to give examples and hope the person in charge of recruiting likes what they see.  Trouble is, many people have many examples of great work, so the question is how can you separate yourself from the pack.

Many people may argue with me concerning this, but today with the economy the way it is, recruiters have many great and even fantastic potentials with proven track records, but because of the law of supply and demand the amount employers need to pay for great employees is not as high as it was.  My point is rather than trying to ask for the Moon and promising the stars, you may need to ask for the minimum you need to pay your bills and promise the stars.  In other words, beggars can’t be choosers get your foot in the door first.

Now don’t get angry, my point is not that you shouldn’t expect to be compensated for your work, but if you wan to get a shot at a dream job be willing to settle for any job to start and work your way up.  Once you have proven your abilities, accepted responsibilities and worked your way into the system then you ask for a raise.  When it will cost less to pay you more than it does to go find and train someone else you will be compensated greatly.  Remember though in order to become that type of employee, you must continue to find ways to improve efficiency, maximize gains, and keep yourself educated so you will always be the ahead in your field.

A couple of examples:  One of my friends employers started them at $8 per hour and within a couple of years increased their wages to around $36K a year.  Another company recruited him from that position and offered $45k per year. Then within about 3 years they paying him around $120k. per year.

Then there’s another friend of mine.  He started out in a company at a good base salary and a company tried to recruit him away but the initial company offered him more to stay.  That didn’t just happen once either.  He is still with the same company, but each time a company offers to pay him more than he is getting paid now the company that originally hired him pays more to keep him.

My point of this whole post is that rather than trying to land the $40k job or that $60k job or even that $100 k job and continue being unemployed, be willing to take a $60k job and be paid $35k to get your foot in the door.  Once you are in the company you can begin to prove your worth as an employee, and the job just may become your next dream job.