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No issue dominates the thinking of sales managers more than motivation. It's the motivation to sustain effective prospecting, planning and selling behavior that most clearly separates peak performers from average performers and increases a bank's capacity for earnings.

Call programs fail most frequently because they don't sustain the willingness of Calling Officers to do what needs to be done.

Why is it, then, that some Calling Officers are consistently productive, while others experience frequent slumps, level off at some plateau or never acquire the drive for sales achievement in the first place? What drives "nonsell to sell?

Surprisingly, the nation's most sophisticated sales organizations are looking to the banking industry for the answers. In recent months, sales organizations such as DuPont, General Foods, and Properties of America have sought our experience with commercial Calling Officers at Schneider Sales Management, Inc. for help in getting technically-driven "nonsellers" such as engineers to sell.

In conducting sales management training and in-depth interviews with hundreds of sales managers across North America, we've found no one knows how to motivate salespeople better than salespeople themselves. All motivation is self-motivation, and a Calling Officer won't be effective at selling unless he or she is also effective at self-management. It's our track record in transforming "nonsellers" into sellers in banking that's driving other industries to take a closer look at our self-management approach to motivation.

Among our clients, innovative bankers, such as Rick Dye of AmSouth Bank, Tony Luciano of CrossLand Savings, and Mark Silverstein of Glendale Federal, have been effective in increasing motivation by attacking the issue on two fronts:
a) the inner game of selling and
b) the external world salespeople sell in.

MASTERING THE INNER GAME OF SELLING
Motivation to sell is a complicated blend of driving forces such as needs, goals and satisfactions and potentially restraining forces such as ineffectiveness, obstacles in the environment and fear. Most banks devote considerable attention to influencing the driving force with rewards, but our clients have achieved the sales behavior they want from salespeople even faster by also influencing the restraining forces. Through effective sales training, clients such as Greg Sharp at Southeast Bank, have found they can help their Calling Officers manage the inner game of selling.

"Mental toughness is the ability to create and maintain
positive feelings no matter how difficult the situation is."

The importance of self-management in sales motivation tells us something else about sales management in banks. Banks are still hiring too many bankers who will never succeed at the inner game of selling. They're not placing enough emphasis on recruiting salespeople who can sell and on fitting the seller's personality to the right type of selling. Each type of selling requires its own form of mental toughness.

Mental toughness is the ability to create and maintain positive feelings no matter how difficult the situation is. A seller's motivation and performance are a direct reflection of the way he or she feels inside. Our banking clients have demonstrated that through training and coaching you can increase motivation by improving a seller's self-management skills.

Most effective Calling Officers seem to have in common at least these key self-management skills which help them sustain their motivation:

They maintain optimism. The probability of succeeding is a major factor in motivation. All salespeople experience surprises, rejection and negative events in their selling. How sellers interpret and react to those events differs widely.

Some salespeople lose their motivation when the product isn't selling, competition gets tough or the bank's pricing rises above market. Others react to the same circumstances with optimism. They choose to believe they can control their reaction to changes in their situation.

Research of top performers has proven that those who believe they are masters of their own fate are more likely to succeed than those who attribute events to forces beyond their control. They try harder and longer, have more resilience to resistance, and receive more support in their selling from other people.

"Sales training can actually damage motivation and sales performance,
if it teaches "fail safe" selling formulas that cause sellers to lose their customer focus."

They maintain customer focus. Top performers sell with purpose, with real interest in solving the customer's problems. As a result, they're more relaxed and less hesitant, and they sell with enthusiasm, one of the greatest sales motivators of all.

People perform best when they're committed to doing important things- a mission outside of themselves. Sales training can actually, damage motivation and sales perform-ance, if it teaches fail safe selling formulas that cause sellers to lose their customer focus.

The best sellers sell relationships, not products, and they can count on repeat sales to sustain their motivation.

They sell without fear. If a seller has the personality and skills for success in selling, but isn't willing to do what it takes to be successful, the reason may be fear. The most frequent reason for low motivation and failure of Calling Officers to meet sales quotas in their first year of selling is call reluctance.

Even among experienced bankers, many Calling Officers frequently have fears about their performance, about rejection or about intruding on other people and not being liked. This anxiety about selling often leads to self defeating behavior such as overly passive or overly aggressive selling, or to no selling in the instance of call reluctance.

Some Calling Officers are hesitant about making cold calls, selling on the telephone, selling to the real decision maker, asking the right questions, making group presentations, closing, introducing themselves to new people, or risking being rejected or viewed as pushy by making new proposals. As a result, they don't do the things they know how to do to make sales.

When salespeople are tense, they tend to be more interested in themselves and their product than in their prospects, and they're more likely to go all out against resistance, a mistake which is self-defeating in selling. Self-confidence is critical to effectiveness and effectiveness is critical to long term motivation.

"Contrary to stereotypes of salespeople as being disorganized,
top sellers are very disciplined in sticking to the fundamentals of selling."

They find success in every sales contact. As a result, they have fun and sustain their selling energy and motivation.

Top sellers think of success in selling as a combination of sales results (even moving a step closer to a sale), the sales experience (was it fun, interesting or challenging?), their relationship with the customer and learning. Success in any one of these factors improves the quality of the other three and increases motivation.

They consistently execute the fundamentals of selling. Contrary to stereotypes of salespeople as being disorganized, top sellers are very disciplined in sticking to the fundamentals of selling. They follow the selling routine emphasized by their company, and seldom take shortcuts in their selling.

Selling is simple, but it isn't easy. Most of what works in selling is execution of the fundamentals. Sellers who get off track often experience plateaus and slumps which dramatically reduce their motivation.

They set goals and step goals. The most important factor in achieving success is the intention to get there.

The most important thing you can know about goal setting is that it works. Among salespeople of equal ability, the salespeople who set specific, challenging goals and break those goals into smaller step goals almost always make more sales. In sales training we find that low performers can seldom cite specific sales or personal goals that drive them.

By focusing their attention, successful sellers learn to sense the subtle shifts in direction that take them off track, or move them down the track at a faster pace. They're able to see their achievements more frequently and that continually refuels their motivation.

Working toward a goal, sellers are able to sustain their motivation in the face of difficulties, self-doubt and fatigue, and to recognize opportunities other sellers miss. Once sellers have focused their attention on what they want, they're more alert to the people and the selling activities - that will help them get it.

They build a support system. No Calling Officer can sustain his or her motivation and effectiveness for long without the willing cooperation of other people.

If a seller continually encounters resistance from other departments, finds no one ready to help in a jam, and sells without the free sales force a referral network provides, the unending resistance to his or her selling will eventually cause motivation to fall like a souffle'.

Our research to top sellers demonstrates that they're better than other bankers at selling people within their own organization to support them.

"By always prospecting, they feel in control of their selling
and avoid mental slumps that reduce their motivation."

They're always prospecting. Knowing that it may take three years to land a major banking relationship, they eliminate demotivating peaks and valleys from their selling by continually adding new prospects to their prospect pipeline.

By always prospecting, they feel in control of their selling and avoid mental slumps that reduce their motivation.

All of these selling factors are part of the inner game of selling. The most effective sales managers we've worked with have influenced motivation by training and coaching their Calling Officers to better self-management.

THE MAGIC OF SALES LEADERSHIP
Most banks seem to believe that once they've put in place a sales infrastructure with sales tracking, sales training and rewards, the job is done. That's when sales management begins!

In every sales organization someone has to manage the sales process.

To increase sales force motivation, effective sales managers have to also manage the environment in which sellers sell.

People are the basic unit of excellence in a sales organization. The sales manager's job is to help others achieve their goals, and that includes stripping away obstacles to self-motivation.

In our sales management courses, bank sales managers are always asking us how to motivate their sales force. Again, the answer is simple, but not easy:

• Sell the Sales force on a motivating, customer-focused mission
• Set motivating goals and establish clear performance expectations.
• Give the sales force feedback on how they're doing
• Reward success, even partial success, so it's repeated
• Select the right people for the right jobs and support them with whatever is needed to get the job done

More specifically, we find that effective sales managers sustain motivation by executing well a few fundamental principals of sales management:

"Effective sales managers think of management as
'renting their employees' behavior' so they're
not afraid to ask for performance."

They communicate clear expectations. For many banks, their sales recruiting process is so weak that sales managers are afraid to get tough on performance, particularly in the important first weeks of employment when they should weed out low performers. Effective sales managers think of management as "renting their employees' behavior" so they're not afraid to ask for performance.

Employees want clear direction. That's one of the reasons Wells Fargo and Union Bank of California operate with a separate business development group so their sales force has clear purpose and accountability. Our research has also proven that the higher a seller's goals (assuming they're realistic), the higher the sales results. Often, the only way to reach low performers is to ask them to meet minimum standards.

They manage behavior. If you get the right behavior, you'll get the right results.

Too many sales managers dampen motivation by asking their employees to simply increase their sales. What do they have to do to increase their sales? We find it particularly effective to coach Calling Officers in how to stay in touch with "the feel of the sale" so they can adjust their selling behavior to the customer's responses as needed.

By managing behavior and the consequences of behavior, sales managers can avoid demotivating defensiveness and increase motivation.

"Coaching is simply using your relationship to
help a person learn a skill or reach a goal."

They reward performance. While many banks offer bonus or incentive rewards, few operate effective appraisal processes which link sales performance directly to pay and advancement in a meaningful way. Effective sales managers hold Calling Officers accountable for their sales effectiveness, and recognize improvement as well as performance. They also develop rewards for top producers based on their Calling Officers' values.

They coach. Only the very best bank sales managers commit substantial time to coaching and development of their Calling Officers. And it works.

Coaching is simply using your relationship to help a person learn a skill or reach a goal. Sales managers who spend time coaching their Calling Officers with a questioning, self-coaching style help their salespeople build their self-management skills and develop a sense of achievement which is highly motivating. Their investment of coaching time alone is encouraging.

Sales managers can increase the payoff on limited coaching time by leveraging their time consistently on those few selling behaviors that will make the greatest impact on each Calling Officer's performance.

They fit people to the right type of selling. Contrary to popular belief, all selling isn't the same. There are significant differences in how salespeople function in each of five different types of selling we've identified for the banking industry. There's also overwhelming evidence that each type of selling requires a different type of personality for top performance.

Indirectly, sales managers can increase sales force motivation by recruiting people who can sell when they don't need salespeople. By hiring without pressure, they can fit the right people to the right sales positions so each Calling Officer can do what they do best.

"Sales managers can increase both sales force effectiveness
and motivation by focusing Calling Officers on specific
prospects and helping them plan specific sales calls."

They do sales planning. For many Calling Officers, the lack of focus to their new business development efforts is demotivating. Sales managers can increase both sales force effectiveness and motivation by focusing Calling Officers on specific prospects and helping them plan specific sales calls.

They remove demotivating obstacles. For experienced sales managers, their first priority is solving problems and removing obstacles within the bank for their Calling Officers, whether that means getting a computer print-out of key prospects for their people or simply getting a top producer's vacation plans approved. They know that if the environment for selling is demotivating, their sales force won't make sales.

They train their top producers. Most banks operate as though sales training is a one time event, reserved for new Calling Officers. In reality, top producers axe lifelong learners and learn more from sales training than other salespeople. Even more important, rewarding top performers with extra training is motivating and a ten percent increase in their sales produces big dollars.

How do banking's best sales managers keep their salespeople selling? They manage the sales process by helping their Calling Officers learn to manage themselves and by fighting through bank bureaucracy to remove obstacles to motivation.

The secrets of sales motivation aren't the exclusive franchise of IBM and other nonbank conglomerates. You'll find these simple secrets at work in the effective management of banking's best sales programs.

Schneider Sales Management Inc.
5340 S Quebec Street, Suite 265N
Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111
Phone: (303)221-4511
Fax: (303)221-4650
Email: info@schneidersales.com

Copyright 2006, Schneider Sales Management, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

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