Over the past few months, I have been meeting (virtually) with CEOs and founders of small to mid-sized companies. Being a naturally curious person, I ask a lot of questions. My favorite question to ask is, "What was the biggest challenge you faced when initially scaling your company?" Most of the time, their answer was, "Sales."
Naturally, my next question is something like, "What did your company do to overcome this challenge?" Of course, the answer depends on the company, stage, revenue goals, and much more, but there are some common responses. Usually, I will hear something like, "We worked on developing KPIs, hiring more salespeople (reps and leaders), implementing new training, changing our commission structure, or reviewing the entire sales strategy."
Many of us are very data-driven and believe that other people are inspired to achieve more by having clear goals and constant tracking of their performance to those goals. This is true for some people but not everyone. There are also risks associated with only inspiring performance through data because the people who are not very competitive will achieve the goal and stop there.
The ideal situation is to create sales teams who know the goals and are motivated to surpass them consistently. The question is, how do we inspire our sales teams to do this?
All of the obvious answers are necessary:
Hire the right person for the role.
Set clear expectations.
Make sure they have the resources needed to do their job.
These are all great points, and every leader needs to be skilled in these areas. However, great founders and leaders go even further to truly motivate their people to go above and beyond what is expected of them. They do this by:
Providing consistent, constructive feedback on behavior and performance.
Specifically recognizing hard work and achievements.
Helping individuals understand their contribution to the company.
Responding to inappropriate behavior quickly and effectively.
Creating a positive company culture.
Focusing on enhancing someone's strengths instead of changing them to fit the role.
Truly inspiring great performance is a talent that goes far beyond these listed points, but these will give you a great starting point.
I will give more tips on achieving more and inspiring others to do the same in upcoming posts.
If you would like more ideas on achieving more, growing faster, and living fulfilled, please sign up for my weekly newsletter.
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