Know Your People

If you find our posts useful, don't forget to subscribe to our RSS Feeds or Email Updates

**Note: This is part one in a five-part series on the five principles of sales team leadership.

Over the years, I’ve personally found that people rarely perform well unless they are committed to something. Each person is different, but the following are some reasons why they would commit:

If the results have great personal meaning to them.
If the results have great meaning to someone they care about deeply.
If the results alone are of such significance and magnitude that they alone inspire commitment.

But the reality is, not all people are the same. Each of us grows up differently. We have different motivations, expectations of ourselves, and different definitions of success. Some of us are motivated to do whatever is necessary to achieve success, some are not.

So, why would someone commit to achieve their personal sales goal for the week, month, quarter, or year? Because it helps them achieve something else that they want badly. And how do you find out what is important to another person?

You ask them. You talk to them in terms of what is important to them, not you or the company. You uncover what a person thinks about, dwells on, hopes for, and passionately desires. Some of the questions you could ask are:

• - Why did you join the company?
• - What do you hope to achieve? Why? Tell me more about that.
• - What are some of your long-term aspirations?
• - What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
• - Where do you see yourself moving on from your current position?
• - Do you feel you are successful today?
• - Where do you suppose your internal drive comes from?
• - What have you taken the most pride in during your life? Why?
• - If money were no object, what would you really like to be doing?
• - How do you spend your free time?
• - How do you measure success?
• - How would you like to distinguish yourself?

This is your starter list. Of course, you don’t play 20 questions with your team members. You don’t rapid-fire the questions at them. The questions emerge in your face-to-face conversations, during ridealongs, before or after the selling day. And the motivations you hear will vary:

• - I want to get out of debt.
• - I want to buy a new home.
• - I want to buy a new car.
• - I need to save for my children’s college.
• - I want to allow my family to enjoy whatever activities we like.
• - I want my spouse and family to think and know I’m successful.
• - I want to be able to travel.
• - I want to know I’m the best in the company.

As you have conversations with your sales professionals, these answers need to be logged somewhere in your mind or your personal notes. You begin to know what drives your people. You know what’s on their mind.

Knowing your people is the first step to becoming a results-oriented, people-developing sales manager.