How to Easily Motivate and Incentivize Sales Pipeline Building

June 20, 2023
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

Last week, I wrote about how the criteria you use to choose your all-time favorite songs is essentially the same as the criteria your prospects use to choose between you and a competitor. Today, I am continuing the music analogy, but this time, as it relates to motivational tools.

Let me explain and then I’ll pivot to selling. When it comes to yard-work I’m pretty lazy. It’s not that we hire others to do the work – we don’t – it’s just that I’m not motivated to do it – unless my music is playing. If the music blasting, I can work endlessly, compared to when the music isn’t playing. For example, each week I have around 8 hours of weed-eater work that I hate doing. But it has to be done or the area of our property that takes 50 yards of mulch (which I don’t spread myself) and contains massive perennial gardens will be over taken by weeds. I would blast the music but it’s impossible to hear the music over the noise of the weed-eater’s motor. Until yesterday.

I received a set of the Apple AirPod Pro earbuds for Father’s Day. Yesterday, I put them in my ears, turned on the weed-eater and voila. I couldn’t hear the noisy motor – at all – and with my music was blasting I worked for such a long period of time that I at up an entire 10-foot spool of trimmer line, and drained 4 batteries. I would have continued but the batteries need to be recharged!

For me, music motivates me to do what I otherwise don’t really want to do. But while everyone is different, I’ve seen music work as a motivator for others. But if not music, what else has the power to motivate? Cash? Food? Drinks? Shopping? Golf? Spa? A Nap? Time off? Those all make great rewards. Offer me an afternoon of golf, an ice cream, and a nap to recover and I’ll do anything!

What are the top five selling activities that salespeople are most frequently not motivated to do? In no particular order, they include, but aren’t limited to:

Pipeline Building – Making outbound calls and/or lead follow up
Enter activity into CRM and/or complete call reports
Follow up on opportunities
Thoroughly qualify their opportunities
Getting referrals and introductions

While music can motivate a salesperson to get numbers 2 and 5 done, rewards can work for numbers 1,3 and 4. This is so easy and transportable. It’s almost too easy. Salespeople can self-motivate, sales managers can do this to motivate their salespeople, sales leaders can use this to motivate their sales managers and CEOs can leverage this to motivate their top Sales Leader.

This is brainless! The only question is, why don’t more salespeople, sales managers and sales leaders proactively use motivation to encourage their salespeople to do the stuff they don’t do enough of?

Sales Leaders at nearly every company complain about CRM compliance. Motivate and incentivize your salespeople!

Sales Leaders at nearly every company complain about lack of new business. Motivate and incentivize your salespeople!

Sales Leaders at nearly every company complain about unqualified opportunities. Motivate and incentivize your salespeople!

Referrals and Introductions are an after-thought at most companies. Motivate and incentivize your salespeople!

Do you like my music analogies? Here are some more:

Can the Right Music Motivate and Improve Performance? (2012)

Put a Little Beatles into Your Selling (2021)

Did You Know the Beatles Taught us about Selling? (2019)

Chris Cagle – Great Example of Intangibles in Action (2015)

Only 11% of Salespeople Do This at the End of Their Sales Calls (2011)

School of Rock the Musical Demonstrates How to Sell to Existing Customers (2016)

Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and the Sales Assessment Industry (2012)