by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc. ®
“People say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar, Salesperson Par Excellence, Motivational Speaker (1926-2012)
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Only yesterday this writer was ‘somewhat’ sitting between Mort and Bert. Mort was celebrating his 69th birthday and Bert was a former business colleague, who came to join the special occasion. We were sitting in a gated New York City courtyard on a warm, summer afternoon. Our immediate post-Pandemic experiences spurred the outdoor venue and ‘somewhat’ acknowledged the safe, six-feet distance between everyone.
After the usual introductions, Bert explained how he and Mort worked at the same international publishing company and were both now retired. They were both avid stamp collectors, which created that extra special connection. Bert also related his prior, many years of career experience as VP Sales.
Owing to this writer’s interest in his career role, Bert started sharing some of his prior experiences on how he motivated large sales teams. Owing to our post-Pandemic scenario, the topic of whether people should work from home or from an office came to the fore. Apparently the in-office mode had worked for Bert over many years, where at least 40% of his many people would show up for Monday morning sales meetings. At some point that practice seemed to fade away to a large degree. That was around the time that Bert started getting involved with other consulting assignments prior to retirement.
And that’s where the next part of this thought-piece fits in. Bert began to outline a very recent post-Pandemic consulting assignment, where a CEO had approached him about an apparent 25% drop in publishing industry sales. This was hardly surprising considering the recent lockdown. Even so, when the lockdown was over, sales were not rebounding and the CEO was eager to figure out why the 25% drop persisted. He now sought Bert’s sales leader-manager expertise to resolve this urgent issue.
Not surprising, in view of Bert’s vast experience, he immediately started quietly investigating the full scenario. With the aid of his new client company’s IT executive, he requested a review of the total salesforce’s email patterns. He wasn’t interested in individual email patterns, but only in the flow of external emails that went to and fro to customers and prospective buyers as a whole team. This excluded all internal commun-ications. Within a short period of time the evidence was laid bare.
In general, it showed that the sales team’s emailing started at around 9.00 am and had pretty well stopped by 11.30 am; so maybe they had other things to do? They were all working from home due to the Pandemic aftermath. Bert also noted that since sales had dropped by 25% that emailing had also dropped by 25%, too. When he reported this evidence to the CEO, he recommended that his sales people’s remuneration should be cut by 25%.This cut could be restored when their activities returned to the 100% mark once again.
The CEO followed through on Bert’s advice and sales did indeed bounce back close to 100% once more. Bert was looking forward to an update meeting on the Monday immediately following our Saturday gardenbirthday party. What do you think he was expecting to hear?
Other than some immediate observations by this writer, the conversation with Bert seemed to peter out due to birthday party activities: like lighting candles, “Happy Birthday” choruses, and devouring Mort’s delicious chocolate cake. But it left your writer wondering, ‘Did Bert’s client follow the best option?’
Additionally, at the outset of any quieter moments, your writer was left pondering the question: ‘Was Bert’s client CEO more of a manager or a leader?’ Gut instinct indicates he must be more of a manager because he swallowed Bert’s recommendation. Conventional managers tend to be systems and process oriented, while enlightened leaders are more inclined to be people and progress oriented. Managers also lean toward penalties, whereas leaders err toward encouragement.
Consequently, an enlightened leader would more likely have consulted with his people before imposing a punitive measure. He could have done this by offering his sales team the following options, after pulling them together to explain his concerns:
» Give them a month to turn things around and then cut back remuneration by a certain percentage according to their new ratio. This would give them time to make amends knowing the consequences.
» Make a game of it: Let the sales team set a realistic sales rebound figure to cover the next month; then they share a temporary bonus, if they rebound beyond their proposed number.
» Break into ‘pairs’ of their own choosing: Since pairs are more likely to spur each other along; then they get a temporary bonus if they out-perform their objectives.
» Pick a related Pandemic charitable cause the team would like to support: Then, if the result is above 100% rebound, their additional bonus goes to that worthy cause.
» Have a bounce-back celebration: If the team meets or goes beyond 25% improvement over the next month, then there’s a virtual celebration.
» Based upon the lead-in of these five options: The team would have the opportunity to propose any other option they thought appropriate, which could then be added to the mix.
The team would be given a little time to discuss these 5-6 options and take a secret ballot by texting their preference to the CEO. Assuming a clear preferred option prevailed; it would then be implemented right away.
With such positive, intrinsic feelings, it would be amazing if sales didn’t rebound accordingly. Sales team members would feel great about their accomplishment. They would now be ready for another fruitful discussion about how they would like to build sales going forward utilizing a similar approach.
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