You have worked as a sales representative for the last three years, and your bos

Question

You have worked as a sales representative for the last three years, and your boss has just quit. You have been asked to take over as manager of your region, and you are going to accept for two reasons. First, you would like to move up and try something different and more challenging. Second, you have been very disappointed with the way your prior manager ran your sales group. He was not a good people manager and he did very little to motivate the sales representatives. More specically, he let the low performers slide by, while the top performers (which you feel you are) did not seem to be recognized for their contributions. The situation was not horrible; he was not abusive or hostile in any way. But you know the group has some talented people and could do much better--if only they had a motivational spark. So how would you proceed in this situation? Where would you start? What types of things would you do to enhance motivation? What would be the biggest obstacles to getting this group energized? Would there be any predictable traps to avoid?

Explanation / Answer

There is a need to boost the morale and motivation of the team of sales representatives where the top performers are recognized for their work and poor performers are counselled and trained to deliver their best performance. I will start with the team discussion and introducing the reward program as a part of the variable component of the compensation being offered to the employees. Afterwards, I would take following initiatives:

1. Careful revision of the compensation structure into the fixed and variable component that duly recognize the individual as well as the team performance

2. Specific reward and recognition program for the team members that motivate the employees and drive them to the organizational goals

3. Counselling of each sales representative and assess the training needs if any, required to the employee and organizing the same for them.

4. Empowering the team with latest skills required to convince consumers and close the deals

5. Setting up a performance benchmark for each member of the team

6. Regular interaction and morale boosting talk with the team with sales tips and tricks

Biggest obstacle is to remove the mental blockage of either inability to perform at a higher level or top employees feeling anxious of non-recognition of their hard work. The team needs to restore the belief and the manager should help them regain it once again.

There will be a trap as sales representative may only sell those products that can fetch them higher incentives or commissions. It will highly unethical to their part as such practices don’t create value for the consumers.

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