Sales motivation starts with sales leadership….your own leadership and the way you lead your customers.  I’ve used the phrase:  “Sales = Leadership and Leadership = Sales” for a long time.  To achieve this, you have to understand your role as a leader and the responsibilities that go along with it.  It is a direct reflection of your passion to your customers and the product / services you sell.  

Many times, I find myself looking at blank faces when I share this concept with an audience.  After a program, I often have people telling me that they’ve never viewed sales in this manner before.   To me, this only reinforces the importance of viewing sales as leadership + passion. 

Today, I came across an article on Inc. Magazine’s website by Francisco Dao.  I encourage you to check it out. (The link is at the bottom of this posting.)  The success you achieve in sales is directly tied to your level of motivation, and this is tied directly to how much you accept your role as a leader.  This means you’re not leading because you have the best advertising, the lowest price, the best location, etc.   Instead, sales leadership is all about you.  It’s about you accepting your role in helping the customer achieve their goals by taking the time to listen to and truly understand them.  Leadership is not a short-cut to sales success.  Rather, it’s a “long-cut” to becoming the value-added solution to your customers.

http://www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20071101/dao.html