Staying Motivated – The Hunt, The Kill, or The Meal

What keeps you engaged in the sales process? 

What aspect of the process motivates you to do it all over again?  I’ve broken it down into three aspects: the hunt, the kill and the meal.  Most of our time is spent filling our pipeline and moving opportunities through a process that leads to a close: the hunt.  In a fleeting moment, we see the opportunity to close the deal: the kill.  After closing the deal, we get to enjoy the reward for our efforts: the meal.

So lets look at each aspect and how they might deliver some rewards along the way.  For me, the hunt is the grind that fills and develops my pipeline.  In many cases, it is truly a grind, filled with mundane tasks.  However, my colleagues and I have created an intermediate goal of getting appointments with c-level officers, which is one of the most difficult aspects of our work.  It’s not quite as good as a close, but worthy of a 10 second celebration and a “BOO YA” to our office mates.  When I’m playing a round of golf, I don’t stand at the first tee thinking about what my score for the round will be at the end of the day.  On a good day, there will be a few opportunities to celebrate a particularly good recovery shot or a long putt.  Reward yourself for the effort and success during the less-than-glamorous phase of your sales process.

Closing business shouldn’t require much discussion.  It’s just fun to close the deal.  Psychologically, it provides all the validation you could want, because you can’t be a “hunter-killer” if you don’t achieve the kill.  It is the culmination of your pipeline management, but for me, it is usually short-lived, as there are other tasks to do and opportunities to manage.  Interestingly, I find that others around me spend more time reveling in the good feeling that comes from landing a nice opportunity.  Maybe that says something about what motivates me, but I suspect this is common among seasoned sales professionals.  Perhaps this is because we always have the expectation of success.  This is where self-fulfilling-prophesy is a very good thing.  I find it more important to celebrate the contributions of others that supported me in closing the business.

That leaves the ultimate payoff for the sum total of our efforts: the meal.  As a primary bread-winner, I have a responsibility to fulfill, that of providing for my family.  Being compensated for your efforts is not something to be shy about.  You worked for it and you earned it.  A great compensation plan rewards you in a timely fashion and is reflective of the level of success you achieve.  Hopefully, your plan is well tailored to the nature of your business.  Having changed industries, it became apparent that the type of compensation plan that I have worked under in the past would not work in my present situation.  Finding the right solution is more difficult than I realized, but without thoughtful consideration of input from the plan’s beneficiaries, the right solutions might be unattainable.  If the reward is too far away, the motivation disappears.  Suffering all year prior to a large payoff toward the end of the year might leave you very unfulfilled if the payoff goes toward credit card balances, because your income was insufficient through 10 months.  If you are looking for a new opportunity, take a very close look at how a prospective employer manages variable compensation and how this might impact your lifestyle.

All of these factors influence what drives you to succeed at a particular opportunity.  How these are weighted in your overall motivation equation, might differ from others, but they are all important in keeping you successful.

By David Phillips
Connect to me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidlphillips