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The Sales Dodo: Motivate Your Sales Team to Crush the Tomato
September 26, 2008
Motivation is one of the biggest keys to developing successful teams. Every day, highly-skilled teams are beaten by lesser-skilled ones loaded with heart and desire. But who creates the motivation for that to happen?
By Lee B. Salz
Motivational issues are present within sales teams every day. Many times, salespeople show up to work without really being there—present in body, but not in mind or spirit. They work the hours, collect a paycheck and begin the process all over again the next day. Whose fault is it that this culture exists in your company? You, the manager. And as the designated leader, you are responsible for inspiring your team to perform and hit those "home runs."
Step up to the Plate
One of my favorite hobbies is playing baseball with my children. I'm very involved with their Little League teams and volunteer to help teach baseball skills to the kids. My seven-year-old son, Steven, is currently playing his first year of coach-pitch baseball. Prior to that, he played T-ball which is a very different game.
One day at practice, I was pitching to the team of seven-year-olds. Boy after boy came up to home plate and swung the bat as if it were a wet noodle. The ball dribbled a few feet in front of home plate and then the process began all over again. It wasn't fun for the kids to play, and even more painful for parents to watch.
After having watched a few kids poorly swing the bat, I had an idea. I picked up the ball, walked over to the batter, and asked what I was holding in my hand. The boy, looking puzzled, said, "It's a ball, Coach!" He resisted all temptation to finish that statement with, "you dummy." I contradicted, "No, it's not! It's a tomato. And the next time I throw the tomato over home plate, I want you to crush it with the bat. Crush the tomato!" A dastardly smile appeared on the boy's face. He went back to home plate to hit again. Ball after ball sailed into the outfield as the boy crushed the tomato. And it wasn't just the one boy. It was hitter after hitter crushing the tomato with a big grin on their face.
What changed? We didn't teach hitting technique. We didn't change their stance, nor did we alter their swing. All of the factors were the same, but the results were drastically different.
The change was a shift in player mindset. That shift changed their performance. For one, the kids had a fun visual in mind when they were hitting. It also had a little "naughty" in it. Wouldn't these kids get into trouble if they were crushing real tomatoes? This real-life story is really Motivation 101 at its core.
There are three reasons why the strategy with the Little Leaguers worked.
1. The motivation was fun. Sure, technique is important, but that's not the only ingredient of the success recipe. Successful teams have leaders that motivate the group so it wants to excel. The team relies on its leader to make work fun. Perspiration without inspiration leads to frustration. Inspired teams don't even notice that they perspire.
2. They could visualize the metaphor. When I spoke with the kids, I didn't toss out meaningless, trite expressions. "Win one for the Gipper" would not have worked with these kids. The tomato was a metaphor that created an image in their minds. I probably could have use a piñata and had the same effect. Give your team a tangible goal—and make sure its realistic. This way your reps can envision themselves hitting that quota out of the ballpark.
3. They had a focus for their energy. As you can imagine, many of the fathers were bellowing at the kids: "Lift your elbow"; "Turn your foot"; "Move your hands." None of those worked, just like yelling at workers to work harder doesn't yield productivity improvement. The "crush the tomato" expression gave them one thing on which to focus. We just wanted them to swing the bat as hard as they could without directly telling them to do it. We wanted them to swing the bat because they wanted to, not because they were told to do it.
These same three ingredients can be used as a motivation recipe in the workplace.
• Pick a specific area of the business in which you desire an improvement in the results the sales team is producing.
• Create a fun program to inspire the team and create awareness of the issue.
• Develop visuals to promote the program.
Home-run Practices
One of the most rote sales functions is prospecting. Salespeople, fundamentally, despise it, but every salesperson needs to do it to be successful. Sales managers have an opportunity to reduce this pain and make the exercise fun. For example, create a team prospecting time where everyone makes calls at the same time. Have prizes for, not only the best results, but also the funniest story about a prospecting experience. Every sales person has one of those, if not a bunch of them.
Years ago, I managed a lead creation channel that was underperforming. Yelling at the partners was not a prudent strategy. So, I created a mock, fantasy football league where the channel partners played against one another each week to get them up to snuff. Points were awarded for different lead types and standings were kept for the season, and more importantly shared amongst the channel partners. They quickly forgot about lead generation and became focused on winning the championship. Needless to say, we were very quickly drowning in qualified leads.
Leadership at its core is about motivating a team to perform at levels they never dreamed possible. You see it in sports every day. The team that wins the championship isn't necessarily as skilled as the others, but they are driven to achieve. Get creative and inspire your team to crush the tomato!
Lee B. Salz is the CEO of Business Expert Webinars, President of Sales Dodo, and author of "Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager." Known as "The Sales Dodo," Lee specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. He is an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and the host of the Internet radio show, "Secrets of Business Gurus." Look for Lee's new book in 2009 titled, "The Sales Marriage: How to Hire the Right Sales People." He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached via e-mail at lsalz@salesdodo.com, or by phone at 763.416.4321.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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