Thursday, October 30, 2008

Passion, Motivation and Employees

Contemplating some stuff from Fast Company magazine, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the ever pressing issue of salespeople. Is it enough that they are trying 40 hours per week? Or should salespeople be doing more?

If they lack product knowledge, it has to be gained as fast as possible to do the job well. So that would result in a 40+ hour week. After 6 months and no product knowledge, it has to go back on the employee. Seek it out, Demand it or Find it, but Acquire it somehow. It shows a lack of ambition. Moreso, it shows that you do not have a passion for your job.

Sales ultimately is about transfer of emotion. Your passion for what you sell is transferred to the prospect during the sales process. If you are not passionate about what you sell, your prospect won't be either. Sales is emotive. Remove the emotion and it is a numbers game (bid war). So no passion, few sales.

If your employees - sales or otherwise - have a passion for the business, they will be motivated. All this talk about motivating people is crazy. You can inject them with excitement temporarily but Motivation is internal. Passion is motivating. Fear of losing your job can be.

So to motivate your team, you have to get them to enjoy, like or have a passion for what they are doing - or at least for the end game. Salespeople who really believe in the product, believe that their product can and will help the client. That attitude is transferable. Customer service people who believe in the product will have an easier time of it because they know the product works and just want to help the customer (use it).

Next time you are hiring, look for Attitude. Enthusiasm, motivation, ambition, passion -- these are the intangibles that make up a great team. Think about the Marines. Marines truly believe in what they do and that they do it better than anyone else. They were selected for this special unit. Isn't that how you want your employees to feel?

Two things then: make your office the best place to work and select the best people possible to work there.

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