The Importance of Goal Orientation: Why it can kill potential! – By: Matthew R. Robinson

I was in a one-on-one coaching session with Kelly, a sales manager struggling with one of her sales representatives named Dave. Dave had won contests earlier in his career and consistently outperformed his peer group quarter in and quarter out. Kelly was frustrated because over the past year Dave’s production had dropped off so significantly that she was twice forced to put him on remedial performance plans.

“I know Dave has the ability,” Kelly said. “How do I help him recover his potential?”

I explained that diagnosing this problem requires knowing the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientation. An extrinsically oriented salesperson is motivated to sell primarily to meet the goals other people set: meet the company quota, win a contest, or keep the manager off the rep’s back. The intrinsically oriented salesperson works to satisfy goals set by the individual him or herself because those goals represent something the rep personally values or needs. I call extrinsic motivation little “g.” It’s little because it possesses nowhere near the motivating power of big “G” — salespeople driven to achieve what’s intrinsically important to them. Reps with primarily a “little g” orientation rarely reach their potential and can be toxic to your team’s sales results. Large companies are filled with reps like Dave. The ability is there; the will is not. There is only one fix. Managers have to become extremely skilled at turning the little “g” into a big “G”.

Sales managers who can master the ability to identify the intrinsic motivators of their reps are able to maximize the performance of their teams. The alternative is to threaten, plead, and bribe in an effort to squeeze every ounce of production from salespeople. This only reinforces extrinsic motivation and virtually guarantees sporadic, mediocre performance. I cannot state this strongly enough, as long as goals are the manager’s or the company’s, sales teams may continue to hit corporate minimums but typically will fall far short of their true earning potential. Incentivize more prospecting contacts from extrinsically motivated salespeople and you will probably see the numbers improve, but the reps will not be focused on the return, and the bottom line may change only temporarily. When the contest is over, results fall back to previous levels. So, you’ll spin your sales team’s wheels faster but won’t make much progress. Corporations raise minimum targets and miraculously little “g” reps barely squeak above the bar, at least frequently enough not to get fired. This is especially costly for corporations who guarantee some level of income.

So, what’s the answer? If a salesperson is primarily motivated to do only enough to hit minimums there really is not much we can do about it. Or, that’s the fate sales managers accept because they don’t know how to transform little “g” into big “G.” It’s easier to learn to accept the mediocrity of those salespeople while pleading with the top producers to sell more, pounding into their heads every day the necessity of making more contacts, frustrating them until they decide it has to be better somewhere else. Only, it’s typically not much better somewhere else because corporate America has trained sales managers to be little “g” experts, focusing on what matters to the company and themselves instead of what matters to the people who are supposed to be out there selling everyday and making money. The real solution is to gain a new mentality about how we motivate salespeople.

When I told Kelly she needed to develop a shark mentality, she reacted with surprise as most folks do. Sharks often strike fear into people, but they are creatures perfectly adapted to their environment and task. Sharks swim around continually looking for blood. They can sense it from far away. When a manager has a shark mentality he or she is alert to even the faintest clue their sales reps give about what might motivate them to reach the full potential they have developed.

I told Kelly about another manager who was struggling with a similar situation: rep with great potential just satisfied to reach the corporate minimums and go home. The manager needed more from this rep and asking for more contacts produced additional activity but not better sales results. I suggested the manager become cognizant of conversations around the office and the pictures and other things that might pop up on this rep’s desk. The manager needed to sense the “blood” that would turn the rep’s little “g” into a big “G” so sales activities were personally meaningful to him and not just a checked box to keep management off his back. A couple weeks went by and the manager called back to enthusiastically report his shark mentality was developing. He overheard a conversation his rep was having about season tickets to a local professional sports team. A colleague asked him where his seats were in the stadium. The first rep replied that his seats were in the “nose-bleed” section because he couldn’t afford the more expensive seats closer to the action. The manager recognized the season tickets could be an intrinsic motivator for the salesperson. A conversation ensued around the possibilities of sitting in the lower bowl next season. They ran the numbers to figure out how much more revenue the salesperson needed to generate each quarter to afford the more expensive season tickets. Kelly shook her head like she got it when I told her that salesperson caught fire and in one quarter sold enough to switch seats in the middle of the season.

Managers should ask their people, “What do you want to accomplish?” If their answer is anything unconnected to a personal goal, their only motivation will be to keep their job and perform at corporate minimums regardless of what their potential is. It’s ok to start out by creating some “pain” to help motivate the rep with a little “g”. Try this: lay out what the salesperson could reasonably be capable of earning based on all the evidence; subtract out what they are currently making, and have them come to grips with how their life would change on a daily basis if they could collect all the money they were leaving on the table and they were living up to their full potential. Clearly illustrate just how much their little “g” goal orientation is costing them and in some situations their family. Once we establish a new level of desire and effort then we can be more effective as coaches, increasing the value of every conversation.

I am no longer amazed at the difference we can make in the earning power of salespeople as well as the level of personal satisfaction and fulfillment people discover in their work. It happens when managers focus on underlying personal motivators of behavior rather than merely on satisfying the company’s or our own desires. When a salesperson is infected with a little “g” goal orientation managers have to approach their reps in the same way salespeople must approach their prospects; focus on creating an awareness of needs (personal motivation) before we offer the relief (solution).

If you’re in the same situation as Kelly, saddled with a team of average producers, or perhaps frustrated by one under-achiever at the moment, take a step back. What lens are you looking through? Is the lens focused on your frustration they are not helping you hit your goals, or is the lens focused on helping them maximize their potential? Little “g” is an absolute “potential – killer”. If you want to help your reps maximize their potential and you want to maximize the potential of your entire team make sure you help them with the most fundamental aspect of sales: why am I doing this and what is the purpose of my next call? If that purpose is intrinsic, that is, coming from within to satisfy a personal desire rather than being focused on satisfying someone else’s goals, don’t be surprised to see extra effort going into every call, every day without needing you to babysit their daily activity. Being intrinsically goal-oriented is the life’s blood of selling. Like a shark, you can become perfectly adapted to your environment when you get the scent of that blood and follow wherever it leads in the hunt of helping reps clarify and get what is really important to them.