Motivating Yourself-Move It Or Lose It!

A few years back I was at a Sales Conference, and yes I do occasionally amuse myself by going to one or two conferences to actually learn something new. Throughout the conference, this particularly pressed, perky, pumped up, little pain in the ass, starting talking about how great a sales rep she was, which naturally pissed me off.  I hate arrogance.  I like confident people, but I hate arrogant people.  If you're talking about yourself and your accomplishments without anyone asking, then you're an arrogant jerk.  And naturally she fit the bill perfectly.  She was constantly getting up and speaking out of turn in the general session, and speaking particularly about what she did, and how she was able to help people, and how she...you get the picture. Consequently, I couldn't keep my mouth shut during our round table session, when she was seated right across the table from me.  Our discussion topic was "What Motivates A Great Sales Person?"

"Terri, you've been telling us all how great you're doing.What makes you such a great salesperson?"

She stood up from her chair to ensure that she would be the center of every one's attention. " Well, uhm, I'm sorry I can't remember your name.", she was obviously blind, or didn't care to read my name tag.

" It's right here on the tag.", I said and pointed at my GIANT name tag.  People in the room started laughing. As a sidebar, I  think conference organizers make tags large enough for a person to read them across a crowded room. Subsequently,  for her not to know my name was absurd, or she was just so involved with herself and her own agenda, she didn't care to know my name. I believe this was probably closer to the truth.   

" Oh right, it's M.  My bad.  Well M, if you must ask.  It's because I'm super motivated everyday, and it's infectious.", and as she said this she made a fist pump, and then actually hopped forward like a well dressed bunny rabbit.  Wow! She was so annoying.

" So if you're super motivated how do you motivate yourself." I asked in the most droll and boring voice ever to illicit a reaction.

" I can see you're not a motivated person like I am M. I can sense it in your voice." she said and then made a frown and continued by imitating me, "How do you motivate yourself? M you sound like you don't want to be here first of all.  That's your problem.".  A few people chuckled uncomfortably, but I just laughed along with her. 

" I didn't realize I had a problem but thank you for pointing that out Terri.  Since I'm apparently a social idiot who needs motivation can you explain how you stay super motivated.", I said loudly, gave her a little fist pump, and then smiled broadly with a great deal of fake enthusiasm cocking my head to the side. 

"I just get up every day and greet it with a smile, and then carry that with me into the field.  People always react well when you smile, and I have a great smile so people just like me naturally.  Smiling is a great icebreaker.  You should try it sometime." , she said and gave me a smile but then rolled her eyes, and at this point no one at the table was laughing.

" Okay well Terri.  I didn't realize this was going to be a personal attack on me, but since we're going down that road.  Can you please give an emotionless loser like myself some better advice than to just smile more.  I  really think there has to be more to motivation than that."

She looked perplexed at first and was definitely confused by my question, "I'm not sure what I do to stay motivated.  It just comes naturally to me.  I greet everyday with enthusiasm. I guess I'm just lucky to be born so perky." And again she gave us all a fake smile.

One of the other participants chimed in, "As you can tell not all of us are born so...perky as you put it.  I'm just wondering what is it that keeps a rep motivated."

"I don't know what is I do each day buy I'm always so excited!", Terri said and jumped up again.

"Cocaine maybe?", I answered and she gave me a dirty look, while everyone at the table chuckled.

"Terri since you have so much energy, grab that white board and we'll all write down what motivates a great sales person.", I said, and I phrased it politely so she couldn't get upset.  She rushed to the white board and grabbed a marker. We wrote down what we perceived were 7 key motivators for reps and why. They are listed in no discernible order because they all seem to motivate people to varying degrees:

• Money - Despite what everyone thinks, this is still probably the key motivator in every one's life.  I know there are theoretical people who will argue that Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose are the key intrinsic motivators to people's work, but they live on the planet Theory and not Earth.  Money makes the world go round, and with it, you can provide a better life for yourself and your family. 
• Family-In the age of "Generation Me", family is still very important to people.  No matter how much we value our own lives, we value the lives of our children more and we want to be able to provide for them.  If you're a rep and you need motivation, take a picture of your kids with you when you're out in the field and that will motivate you pretty quickly.
• Security-In light of the decline of Social Security, Medicare, and pensions, people need to feel secure as they get older, and making a good living with do that for people.  Having a job today in lieu of all the layoffs in recent years in good incentive to keep a rep motivated.  No one wants to be struggling to make ends meet in today's business environment.  People want to feel safe and secure in their current position, and working hard is a good way to start. 
• Recognition-Sales people have egos.  Boy do we have egos!  And when we are recognized for doing well, we let everyone know how great we are.  We party and celebrate, and tell everyone what we did, and if we win an award, you can bet we're going to place that thing where everyone can see it.  Maybe even mount it on the hood of our car.  Recognition is a key motivator for reps. 
• Fear-Fear is always a motivator for any job.  Fear that you're going to fail, fear that you'll be fired, fear that you'll be laid off, and fear of your boss.  It's a sad fact that it still motivates us, but in the wrong ways, and eventually people leave a job where there working with fear as a main motivator.  That type of environment provides too much stress for most people to handle.
• Competition- Many reps I've met are former athletes, cheerleaders(men and women), so they are naturally motivated by competition.  They want to out perform their peers so they can win awards, receive a raise, and be recognized for their achievements.  I remember as a manager, I was motivated to kick this one manager's ass every year, because he was an asshole, and I don't like assholes.  So my goal was to be the best in the region, but mainly my goal was to be higher than him in the standings every year.  And when he was fired, I had to find another thing to motivate me, because there weren't any assholes left in the region.  Weird story, but true. 
• Autonomy-Many people are in sales because of the autonomy of the job.  They embrace it! It allows them to be free with their schedule, and to really take responsibility for their own success or failure. For me, it allows me to virtually run my own business, give myself raises, and partake in my own success.  A lot of reps I've noticed get caught up in what happens at corporate, but for me I try to focus on what I can control and what works.  Plus if you're a good rep and you don't like the direction corporate is taking, you have the autonomy to leave and find a better job.  Autonomy is a great motivator especially in the sales environment.

By the way if you're not motivated by any of these things, you're probably an alien, and you might need to consider returning to your home planet.

Have a good week selling!

-M