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67: How are your reps motivated? · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Very few human beings are just motivated by money.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that includes salespeople in this.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are human beings as well, after all.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, if not money, what are we motivated by?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the bite-sized sales podcast, where we believe that you don't need to take time out of the field or off the phones, stuck in a classroom, in order to get great sales and sales leadership training, and that taking bite-sized steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve your results.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and I'm using my 20 plus years in B2B sales to bring you simple, actionable ideas that you can use every day to help you get better.
• 1:23
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• 1:29
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• 1:36
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• 1:52
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• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome to episode 67 of the podcast.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll tell you, I get genuinely pissed off when I hear people say things like, oh, all my sales reps are coin operated, or all salespeople care about is money.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's way too simplistic thinking.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's lazy thinking.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: I also think at some point it's self-fulfilling, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're running a company and you you you decide you want to uh provide commission to sales reps when they succeed and you see them hitting numbers, you think, oh, it's because I they're money motivated and therefore my comp plan worked or whatever.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's very kind of lazy thinking about us as human beings.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, almost every time I've ever talked to a salesperson, a leader, a manager, an individual contributor, and they say, Oh, I'm you know, I want to make money, when you really ask the questions and dig deeper, there's something else underlying it, right?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's something else that they're trying to get with that money, they're trying to achieve with that money.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think when you think about salespeople just in terms of the results they produce, which you know is often, you know, bookings and then the commissions that go with that, I think you're missing the wider human being that is a salesperson or is a sales leader.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're missing the other deeper things they look for in work and what they want to achieve in their life and what motivates them, the values and things like that.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So really just focusing on that one thing is way too simplistic in my mind.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: What was interesting for me was that last year a book came out from Susan Fowler called Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that she does is she she kind of um pricks the bubble of a whole bunch of preconceived notions about what motivates people.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the whole carrot and stick idea was something that was dreamed up, you know, 80, 90 years ago.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently almost all the science since then has said it's not true, doesn't work, doesn't have any measurable impact on human beings, things like that, right?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So she's she's bursting the bubble of all these preconceived notions that we may have.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: What she does do though is talk about the three things that we do look for as human beings in our work and what we're looking for.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let me read directly from the book.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our need for choice, connection, and competence has been verified scientifically, and I think you'll resonate personally with a definition and description of each scientific truth.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, first scientific truth, you need to create choice.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: You have an innate need to perceive you have choices, recognize and feel you have options within boundaries, and have a sense of control over what is happening at any time.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am the source of my behavior.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't create choice, your energy is diminished and you are less likely to achieve your goals.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, second scientific truth, you need to create connection.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have an innate need to feel a sense of belonging and genuine connection to others without concerns about ulterior motives, pursue goals aligned to meaningful values and a noble purpose, and contribute to something greater than yourself.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't create connection, your energy is compromised, and even if you achieve your goals, you are less likely to feel the experience meaningful or worth repeating.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Third scientific truth, you need to create competence.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: You have an innate need to feel effective at managing everyday situations, demonstrate skill over time, and feel a sense of growth and learning every day.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't create competence, your energy is blocked, and your frustration and not being able to meet challenges or make progress puts achieving long-term goals at risk.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: The evidence supporting the three scientific truths at the center of your motivation is compelling.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But all you need to do is look around you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that when you create choice, connection, and competence, you feel a sense of well-being, are in a flow state, or experience deep-seated peace.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: On the flip side, observe that when one or more of the three truths are diminished, you feel pressure, you feel tension, stress, loneliness, pride, superiority, despair, fear, anger, or frustration.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: When you create choice, connection, and competence, you flourish.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: When they are eroded, you languish.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's from Master Your Motivation by Susan Fowler.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go through these.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is kind of interesting.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's quite similar to Daniel Pink's book from a few years ago, where he talked about similar ideas.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think the same or similar research probably backs it up.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when she talks about choice, you know, I think as a salesperson, individual contributor, you know, you get a lot of leeway about how you do your job, right?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even these days with cadences and sequences and the things that we're given to help us succeed, there's still a lot of leeway about how you go execute that.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're trusted to go and make decisions and make things happen and do things the most effective way.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's a lot of value in that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think most sales teams that I've ever been on, that's been a given for me.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing she talked about was connection.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to feel part of something bigger.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this one is interesting, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I remember, you know, working away a few years back for companies where there really was no bigger purpose.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: The whole company was oriented around hitting numbers.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And sure, we we did things that were impactful for our customers, but we never really talked about the bigger purpose we were trying to do, the big, the big impact we're gonna have on the world if we achieved our goals.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And those environments were pretty cutthroat, those environments were you know, people came and went pretty quickly as well.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: There was no longevity to the teams that we were working in.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if that's part of it, right?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't feel that that bigger connection.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and when I've worked in companies when there has been that, and you know, the leaders, the CEO, founders are taking the time to really talk about you know why they form the company and the big impact they want to make, then you do find that sense of connection comes in and you feel like you're achieving something a lot bigger than just numbers.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love a phrase I heard the other day, which I loved, which was you know, in this social media age, never have we been more connected, but never have we felt less connection.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's true, right?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very this social media world is very transactional, it's it's fleeting, it's there's no soul to it, right?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's no real in-depth conversations, things go to arguments and and and hurling abuse of people way too quickly in that world, which you know most of you will never do face to face.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I think the sense of connection is important.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when you think about your team, right?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, hopefully you're at a company where the team the company's on this bigger purpose, but I wonder what the biggest purpose is for your team, where you know you definitely want to hit the numbers, but if you do that, so what?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for your region, for your team?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What are you trying to achieve that'd be so impactful beyond you know meeting your commitments to hit some numbers?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, competence.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think there's a lot to this, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: If we feel like we're making progress, even if we're not perfect, right?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: But if we feel like we're on the right path and we're getting better each day, and we feel like the the grind is is is is not so bad each time we do things, then we feel that momentum and we feel moving forward is great.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: When we're sitting there and we begin a task and we've got no idea how to do it, and it just is hard to figure out, and you feel like you're lost and you're set up for failure.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's when for me, and I'm sure for most of us, we feel you know very disconnected.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: We feel like you know, we're left and demotivated, and you wonder where the light in the tunnel is.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that idea of you know moving forward and moving towards competence or achieving when you get there is one of the three C's that Susan Spoiler talks about.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, again, for the competence side as a leader, this is where, you know, by and large, I think a lot of first line managers sort of dip their toe in a little bit on I don't want to help my teammates, my team members.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you we don't go all in and really sort of grab them and say, let's have a plan to help each one of you get better and achieve great competence and mastery and things like that.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think maybe there's a gap there that we can all work on.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, from uh for this episode, the summary, Susan Fowler, master your motivation, the three things are choice, connection, and competence.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: My challenge to you is rep by rep, do you feel like the each of them are have got hold of those three things, are are connected to the choice, have the connection and have the competence, and how can you help them get there?
• 11:04
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• 11:12
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• 11:23
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• 11:25
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• 11:35
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• 11:37
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• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up this episode, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you heard something today that you want to use, take action right now and keep getting better every single day.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm sending off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying, gone to sell.