The Power of Belief and ExpectationWritten by John Boe
By John BoeWhile you may not always get what you want, you will always get what you expect! Belief is most powerful state of mind because your belief system defines and shapes who you are and determines your potential. I believe Henry Ford was correct when he said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.” Your belief system doesn’t differentiate or judge, it simply accepts as truth what you feed it. Interestingly enough, power of belief and expectation works just as effectively on your feelings of self-doubt and limitation as it does on your thoughts of success and achievement. Think thoughts of defeat or failure and you are bound to be discouraged. In his classic book, The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale revealed that strangest secret in life is that you become what you think about. If you want to know what you believe, look at what you are experiencing in your life. As within, so without. Your thoughts are creative and express themselves through your emotions, which in turn, drive your actions. Everything you say is literally an affirmation, both positive and negative. You must be careful to guard your thoughts and words for they become your deeds. I once heard a story about an eager, new insurance agent who had just received his license and was looking for prospects. He met with a successful businessman who had agreed to provide him with referrals. As he handed salesman
| | The Art of Motivating SalespeopleWritten by John Boe
When tide comes in, all boats in harbor go up! The long-term benefit of an incentive program is to coax your sales force out of their production comfort zone. Once a salesperson stretches to a new level of personal production, their self-confidence and expectations skyrocket. Traditionally, sales managers have relied primarily on commission to motivate their sales force. Unfortunately, a compensation structure based solely on commission does not address separate motivational factors and therefore, commission alone will not motivate your sales force to peak performance. The challenge of designing an effective sales incentive contest is that it should not only appeal to your top producers, but it must also excite average to below average salespeople as well. A successful incentive program is a mixture of awards, recognition, and peer pressure. To encourage salespeople to reach their full potential, successful managers personalize incentives. The secret to motivating a salesperson lies in discovering their “hot buttons” and designing an incentive program that showcases them. You can identify your salespeople’s hot buttons by getting to know their interests, hobbies, and recreational activities. While money is certainly an important ingredient in any incentive program, it should by no means be only tool in a manager’s motivational toolbox. If money by itself were a sufficient motivation, salespeople would simply sell more without additional enticement. Once you have identified meaningful hot button incentives, you are now ready to develop a written program that is understandable, measurable, and achievable. Any program that does not take these three critical components into consideration during design phase will be confusing and more than likely counter-productive. In order for your program to be financially self-sustaining, you must reward productivity, not activity. In other words, don’t pay on attempt, pay on measurable results. One of biggest mistakes a manager can make is to water down incentives by under funding program. A well-structured program will more than pay for itself from increased revenue it generates.
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