Motivation

Motivation is like a fire. Unless we keep adding fuel, it dies out, and fuel to a good professional is feeding the de-motivation creeps  in. A true professional is driven because they consider themselves self-employed. 

Some people stop working the moment they meet their quota or target because they only want to keep their job, they are not internally motivated. They produce only enough, so that their supervisor has no reason to fire them. They do only enough to get by with. They are really not motivated, they would go beyond the call of duty. Is there anything known as beyond the call of duty is actually the duty! In face, how can duty stop when more can be done! If you've done your duty, how can there be anything left beyond?

Getting motivated is probably easier than staying motivated, especially, in the face of recieving rejection a lot of the time. Staying motivated is not easy and is the tyru test of a professional. Different people do is the trye test of a professional. Different people do different things for different reasons. SOme poeple run fast to win a marathon race or a medal at the Olympics. Otheres may run ecen fater if a god cahsing them on the street. SOme are motivated by positive sreatds; others are motivated to avoid negative consequences. Some people sleep out of relaxation, others sleep out of exhaustion.

As good sales professionals, our objective is to provide positive motivation to the prospect to purchase. Hence, not only should we show a benefit but also how we can prevent a loss, i.e. desire to succeed versus desire not to fail. Both pain and pleasure can be strongly motivating. Those who are insecure often buy things that they cannot even afford only to avoid the feeling of inferiority. Some buy expensive cars, jewels and paintings only for prestige reasons, whether they can afford it or not. They are satisfying a need of inadequate self-esteem. The needs convert into wants. The desire to avoid pain can be a very strong motivator. Just because an ineffective salesperson is not able to uncover a need ore a problem, it does not mean that the problem does not exist or that the client does not have a need.

Motivation is really the spirit in the person. It is the fuel in the car that starts the engine. Most people don't take the time to find out what motivates them. They have no goals to strive for, nor any benchmarks of values and ethics. Both goals and ethical standards drive behavior. Values such as integrity, respect, responsibility are the foundation of belief and commitments that drive behavior. You can only give what you have in life. If you do not practice integrity, respect and responsibility with yourself, how can you practice it with anyone else? If I cannot be honest to myself, how can I be honest to anyone else? If I am not responsible for my behavior, who is?

Is family Pride a Motivation?

I have seen athletes do exceptionally well on one particular day and when asked, "How did you perform so well? What was motivating you today?" Many times the answer is, "My family is watching me today" or "My family is in the audience and they have great expectations of and I cannot let them down" or "I must make them proud."

On the lighter side :

A business was running into problems because of very low sales and the deep deficit was marked in red color on the sales and the deep deficit was marked in red color on the sales chard. The manager called in a consultant and started showing the territory, all the red colors demarcations and the pins holding them up. With great hope, the manager asked the consultant what he should do. The consultant said, The first thing you do when the sales people walk in Monday morning, is take these pins off and stick it in their behinds. A carrot and a stick always work better than only a carrot.