This spring’s Sales Management Association chapter meetings in Chicago and Atlanta included panel discussions on “Motivating the Sales Force.” [Our spring meetings were the first featuring a common topic, something we’ll continue as we add new chapters (including Houston and Twin Cities in the fall).]. In support of these sessions, the Sales Management Association also conducted research on sales force motivation. Here’s a recap of research findings and panel highlights from the spring sessions.
Atlanta held a series of roundtable discussions during their meeting. Attending subject matter experts included Scott Sands, Practice Leader, Sales Force Effectiveness at Aon Hewitt, Carl Strenger, VP of Sales Operations at UPS, Patrick Murn, Senior VP of Sales at LexisNexis and Cameron Fowler, VP of National Sales Strategy & Operations at Groupon; their input was coordinated by Atlanta Chapter leader Charlie Thackston from SOAR Performance Group. Modes of compensation, importance of establishing a culture of recognition, and characteristics of the millennial generation were some of the key points discussed. A one-page summary of takeaways from the Atlanta meeting was prepared by SOAR, and is available here.
Chicago staged a panel discussion chaired by Evergreen Growth Advisors (and Chicago chapter leader) Tom Knight, as well as Steve Potts, Vice President, CallidusCloud; John Scuras, Global Account Manager, The Forum Corporation; and Craig Wortmann, Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Topics of discussion included importance of adapting to change and transformation, scalability of high performing sales models, and inherent challenges in enabling sales management.
Attendees in both cities filled out a survey about motivating the sales force. This was the first time we’ve attempted to support these meetings with research. As such, our response rate was low (at 38 responses; only about one-third of meeting attendees completed the survey), though future efforts will build as we get the research promotion process working more efficiently, and as we launch more chapters. Nevertheless, there are some interesting findings worth commenting on:
- Sales force coaching is the single most important factor contributing to sales force motivation, according to survey respondents — yet respondents rank their organization’s coaching effectiveness as very low.
- Sales management is marginally more motivated than their salespeople, but the salesforce’s motivation has improved over the past 18 months to a greater degree than management’s.
Members can download the full survey results here.
Consider joining The Sales Management Association at an upcoming chapter event. Our summer chapter topic is Sales Manager Development (we’ll post more later this week on upcoming summer chapter meetings).
