What manager doesn’t want motivated employees? Absolutely every manager I have ever talked to asks me the same question: “How do I motivate employee performance?”

Over the last several years I’ve written a number of posts on employee performance, which you can find here. 

Clearly, motivating employee performance is important for every manager, and sales managers have challenges that other managers do not have. I’m going to make a sweeping generalization here when I say that in order to be in sales and be successful, you typically are money-motivated.

I understand that this may not apply completely for some sales positions that are not based on commission or have bonuses based on production. Yet I think selling is difficult for most people, and unless you really enjoy some aspect of it, you won’t be successful, whether you are commission sales or not. 

What I found, though, when I was in sales management is that some percentage of the salespeople, once they reached a certain income level, they were no longer motivated by money.

Maybe they had reached an income level that was comfortable for them.

In the end, as a sales manager, one must find something other than money to motivate employee performance.

What might motivate a salesperson besides money? 

#1: Recognition is important to many people, and having awards can impact performance

#2: Finding what gets them juiced. For instance, is it referral business, repeat business, the dollar volume of the sale, skill-building…there are many other things, and you just need to find the key for each person

#3: Mentoring upcoming salespeople. Successful salespeople can get a kick out of training and mentoring someone new to sales

#4: Seeing where they can improve their skills. You might notice some salespeople are very motivated by improving their sales skills

When I was in sales full time, I was personally motivated by ‘the hunt.’

I was in executive recruiting at the time, and what really motivated me was when I had a prospective employer say, “Yes, Linda, we will use you and give you an exclusive for three weeks.”

I was confident about my ability to fulfill the assignment, so getting them to say ‘yes’ was the big motivator for me. I used to love to watch their face and body language turn from “probably not” or “not sure” to “YES,” and it was a huge kick for me. 

As a sales manager, how good are you at identifying and then motivating employee performance?