What is the most important asset a company has? It’s people. Sounds like a token statement, doesn’t it? But the truth is that if a company wants to get at the heart of sales motivation, it better pay close attention to the company culture being fostered. Are individuals encouraged and expected to continually learn and grow? Is this a core value?
Any business is in business to satisfy customer needs. If things work out correctly, they can fill those needs at a value for which customers are willing to pay and at an amount that is more than the company has to spend to prepare the item for sale. It’s that simple – nothing complex, nothing behind the magic curtain. Just sell something for more than it costs to make it and you’re fine. Wrong.
We all know there are numerous other factors that can and do come into play with regard to how a business operates, and it’s all of these other circumstances that require the proper use of intellectual capital. The level of intellectual capital in any business is going to vary dramatically. More importantly, how the intellectual capital is ultimately used is going to determine the success or failure of a business.
In my role as a sales consultant, I’ve watched a great number of people with incredible sums of intellectual capital not being challenged at all to contribute. At the same time, I’ve watched people who are, for lack of a better phrase, “a few dollars short upstairs,” making all of the decisions without any input.
Whenever I work with salespeople or any other business professionals, including CEOs, I love to challenge them with a few simple questions. Here goes:
What did you learn yesterday?
How did you apply today what you learned yesterday?
What do you expect to learn today?
If you want to see sales motivation soar individually and corporately, engrain the above questions into the fiber of yourself and the fiber of your company. Think I’m crazy? Steer the ship in that direction for six months and see the difference it makes. You could I suppose stick with status quo. But why leave so much profit on the table? Why leave so much sales motivation untapped?
The choice is yours. Intellectual capital has everything to do with sales motivation.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
