6. Autonomy
Karl Staib posits that some people simply don’t realize they already have a large amount of autonomy in their jobs. What Staib, author of the book Work Happy Now, recommends is as straightforward as it is brilliant:
Remind employees about the autonomy they already have.
Sales Motivation Tip: What freedoms are your salespeople not taking advantage of?
7. Interconnectedness
In Quartz, Jayson Marwaha says Medicare started using results from patient satisfaction surveys to calculate how much money to pay hospitals. This change led to hospitals improving the patient experience, yet resulted in changes that definitely didn’t make nurses happier.
Discussing how happy caregivers create a happier patient environment, Marwaha’s article speaks volumes about the connection between happiness and how we shouldn’t just emphasize the importance of one group’s happiness yet neglect another group’s happiness.
A survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of the recruiting and staffing provider, Spherion backed this up. It found that 60% of workers noted that they’re happier when they see others happy at work.
Sales Motivation Tip: Your sales team shouldn’t focus solely on your clients’ happiness. Keep in mind that if your team focuses on each others’ happiness, this will positively affect the client experience. As Spherion put it, happiness “brushes off” onto others.
8. Over-deliver
James Altucher, the author of books about wealth, success, and happiness such as I Was Blind But Now I See and How to Be The Luckiest Person Alive, asked himself a great question in a LinkedIn post: “Why does over-delivering make me more happy and productive?” He has an equally excellent answer: “I have no idea. I do it and it works.”
Luckily for us, Altucher provides some insight into how to over-deliver. He recommends that we shouldn’t give people what they expect — we should instead give them what they deserve.
Sales Motivation Tip: Do you sometimes feel like we’re living in a world where you have to take whatever you can? If so, as Altucher says, a better approach is to flip that around and to give what you can.
9. Transparency and honesty
Ryan Harwood, CEO of PureWow, maintains that happiness is affected by transparency and honesty. An example he gives in Fortune relates to management making a big decision or implementing a new policy. Sure, some staff might agree with the decision or policy, but if management explains the rationale behind it, the staff is more likely to understand and respect it.
Sales Motivation Tip: Have you recently made big changes to how sales are conducted? If so, did you not only get buy-in from your team, but also a sense that they understand the rationale behind the change?
10. Good old-fashioned “happiness interventions” such as chocolate …
Chocolate and clips from a comedy movie were two things a research team called “happiness interventions” and “short-run happiness shocks” in recent experiments. Conducted by three University of Warwick researchers, these experiments tested whether they could “induce happiness” in their subjects. They found a link between human happiness and performance. Indeed, they reported that happier employees are about 12% more productive than average.
Sales Motivation Tip: We wouldn’t suggest using these findings to justify stocking your office kitchen with Hershey’s Kisses and M&Ms, or letting your staff watch YouTube for an hour each morning at work. But then again, if it’s for a greater cause …
11. Show me the money
Can money buy happiness?
While many workplace gurus extol non-financial drivers as being crucial to employee happiness, a regular paycheck certainly motivates a large percentage of employees.
Three recent surveys by Spherion, SAP and the Society for Human Resource Management come straight out and say the No. 1 factor that motivates employees — and makes them happy — is compensation.
12. Show me the benefits
But it’s not all about your salary, Jada A. Graves avers in Business Insider.
Even if your salespeople are each pulling in six figures, there will moments in their careers when nothing matters to them as much as benefits your company provides, such as wellness programs, vacation time, nutrition counseling, child care assistance, vision insurance, employee discounts and so on.
Citing a MetLife survey about benefits, Graves writes that employees who are satisfied with their benefits are twice as likely to be satisfied with their work.
Sales Motivation Tip: What benefits are you offering your sales team beyond what the market offers?
13. Forget money and benefits, just show me thanks
Perhaps pay and perks aren’t the be-all and end-all.
Speaking about how a company doesn’t have to necessarily compete against what other companies in the marketplace are offering in terms of money and benefits, Laura Troyani, marketing director of TINYpulse, says how you treat employees on a regular basis — for example, positive workplace interactions — plays a key role in their satisfaction.
Quoted in an Entrepreneur article, Troyani also mentions that saying “thank you” and explaining why you’re grateful go a long way in improving employee perceptions of the workplace.
Sales Motivation Tip: In a way, gratitude as an elixir for happiness seems quite obvious. And yet how many of us get thanked enough for all our hard work? On the other hand, how many of us thank others enough for their hard work?
14. Fewer meetings, more breaks
Dan Schawbel, writing in Forbes, highlights what some salespeople are afraid to mention to their colleagues — that some meetings are simply a waste of time.
Also, sometimes we have meetings for the sake of having meetings. Accordingly, Schawbel advocates fewer but more structured meetings. He also says that it’s essential for companies to encourage employees to have more downtime so they can network.
Sales Motivation Tip: How many of the meetings on your calendar are really necessary?