Recognition: It’s the little things that matter

by: Mark Hein

Salespeople are just like everyone else; each of them have their own motivation. I guess that is why we’re all made a little different. Otherwise, we would all be robots walking around this Earth. In this post, I will talk about the people aspect, from both an employee level and a sales manager level.

First, the one thing I have realized over the years is that EVERYONE likes to be recognized. This is true from a management level, down to each and every employee. The trick is to understand the different nuances of each person and their preference for recognition. I will not begin to say that I am great at this, but it is certainly a never-ending journey at trying to recognize employees at every level of our organization. I’ve learned most of my tricks over the years from various people, as well as suggestions from different employees within the company. The fact is, every one of them works to some extent.

Salespeople are probably the easiest to recognize and motivate. Almost always, money is a significant motivating tool—that’s why they’re salespeople. But, the interesting thing is that after a salesperson attains a certain level of success, money—as the primary motivation tool—is quickly replaced by recognition from both fellow employees and clients as the motivating factor that gets him pumped. Recently, I polled 25% of our sales force. My goal was to understand this phenomenon in little more detail. Our sales staff were asked to choose their top three motivating factors from a list of eight, provided to them:

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