The Sales Dodo: Motivate Your Sales Team to Crush the Tomato

Tag : tomato

What changed? We didn't teach hitting technique. We didn't changetheir stance, nor did we alter their swing. All of the factors werethe same, but the results were drastically different.

The change was a shift in player mindset. That shift changed theirperformance. For one, the kids had a fun visual in mind when theywere hitting. It also had a little "naughty" in it. Wouldn't thesekids get into trouble if they were crushing real tomatoes? Thisreal-life story is really Motivation 101 at its core.

There are three reasons why the strategy with the Little Leaguersworked.

1. The motivation was fun. Sure, technique is important, but that's not the only ingredientof the success recipe. Successful teams have leaders that motivatethe group so it wants to excel. The team relies on its leader tomake work fun. Perspiration without inspiration leads tofrustration. Inspired teams don't even notice that they perspire.

2. They could visualize the metaphor. When I spoke with the kids, I didn't toss out meaningless, triteexpressions. "Win one for the Gipper" would not have worked withthese kids. The tomato was a metaphor that created an image intheir minds. I probably could have use a piñata and had thesame effect. Give your team a tangible goal—and make sure itsrealistic. This way your reps can envision themselves hitting thatquota out of the ballpark.

3. They had a focus for their energy. As you can imagine, many of the fathers were bellowing at thekids: "Lift your elbow"; "Turn your foot"; "Move your hands." Noneof those worked, just like yelling at workers to work harderdoesn't yield productivity improvement. The "crush the tomato"expression gave them one thing on which to focus. We just wantedthem to swing the bat as hard as they could without directlytelling them to do it. We wanted them to swing the bat because theywanted to, not because they were told to do it.

These same three ingredients can be used as a motivation recipe inthe workplace.

• Pick a specific area of the business in which you desire animprovement in the results the sales team is producing.

• Create a fun program to inspire the team and createawareness of the issue.

• Develop visuals to promote the program.

Home-run Practices

One of the most rote sales functions is prospecting. Salespeople,fundamentally, despise it, but every salesperson needs to do it tobe successful. Sales managers have an opportunity to reduce thispain and make the exercise fun. For example, create a teamprospecting time where everyone makes calls at the same time. Haveprizes for, not only the best results, but also the funniest storyabout a prospecting experience. Every sales person has one ofthose, if not a bunch of them.

Years ago, I managed a lead creation channel that wasunderperforming. Yelling at the partners was not a prudentstrategy. So, I created a mock, fantasy football league where thechannel partners played against one another each week to get themup to snuff. Points were awarded for different lead types andstandings were kept for the season, and more importantly sharedamongst the channel partners. They quickly forgot about leadgeneration and became focused on winning the championship. Needlessto say, we were very quickly drowning in qualified leads.

Leadership at its core is about motivating a team to perform atlevels they never dreamed possible. You see it in sports every day.The team that wins the championship isn't necessarily as skilled asthe others, but they are driven to achieve.Get creative and inspireyour team to crush the tomato!



Lee B. Salz is the CEO of Business Expert Webinars, President ofSales Dodo, and author of "Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager."Known as "The Sales Dodo," Lee specializes in helping companies andtheir sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changingworld of business. He is an online columnist for Sales andMarketing Management Magazine and the host of the Internet radioshow, "Secrets of Business Gurus." Look for Lee's new book in 2009titled, "The Sales Marriage…How to Hire the Right SalesPeople." He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a businessconsultant. Lee can be reached via email at lsalz@salesdodo.com , or by phone at 763.416.4321.