Comments on: Are coin-operated reps a barrier to complex sales?

By: Giving employees motivating purpose

Giving employees motivating purpose — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:36:24 +0000

[...] a previous post, I noted that traditional sales rewards may be insufficient to inspire stellar performance in the [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:45:00 +0000

When was the last time you actually through a live sales training? Those days seem to be gone as you said, how much can really be gleamed from a web streaming video in a 320 x 320 pixel window? Dan you are absolutely right unless you can find or cultivate those that care about the business and product…

By: Dan Geiger

Dan Geiger — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:28:44 +0000

Good piece and good question. Sales people must be “coin operated”, i.e., they must be highly motivated by money. I have no doubt of this. Nonetheless, like Dan Pink, I do not believe that money can be the only motivation for a major account rep involved in a complex sales cycle. For complex selling and the building of sustainable business relationships, people must truly care about their product, their customer, and their value to that customer. And then the money will come

By: lshirman

lshirman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:10:47 +0000

Jill,
Thank you for the kind words. And you are right – Before you can convince the sales force that what you do matters, you have to believe it yourself. Get a generation or two beyond the founders, and that passion and belief often gets blurry, or disappears altogether.

By: Jill Konrath

Jill Konrath — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:27:29 +0000

Excellent post with a great extrapolation for b2b sellers. Successful enterprise reps realize that they are the differentiator, not their product or services.

As such, they invest significant personal time acquiring business acumen, studying processes, analyzing trends, and more. They bring their brains and their passion to their jobs. And, they find meaning in what they do.

Companies who thing that sales is about coin-operated reps and spiffs may get short-term results, perhaps even at the expense of long-term gains. As my mother used to say, “Penny wise and pound foolish.”

Personally, I think that too many companies have lost their soul these days. It’s hard to convince a salesperson that their work has purpose when everything is focused on 3rd quarter results.