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2 4 5 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT L E S S O N 1 4 : MOTIVATION L e a r n i n g O b j e c t i v e s On completion of this lesson,you should be able to Understand the meaning of motivation Nature and importance of motivation Theories of motivation Relatinship between motivation and leadership Meaning of Motivation Motivation is goal-directed behavior, underlying which arecertain needs or desires. The term needs suggests a lackof something that reaching the goal could satisfy, while the termdesires suggests positive ardor and strength of feeling. Thecomplex of needs and desires stemming from within individu-als leads them to act so as to satisfy these needs and desires.Specifically, as applied to sales personnel, motivation is theamount of effort the salesperson desires to expend on theactivities associated with the sales job, such as calling onpotential accounts, planning sales presentations, and filling outreports. Expending effort on each activity making up the sales job leads to some level of achievement on one or moredimensions of job performance-total sales volume, profitabil-ity, sales to new accounts, quota attainment, and the like. Motivational Help from Management Most sales personnel require motivational help frommanagement to reach and maintain acceptable performancelevels. They require motivation as individuals and as groupmembers. As individuals, they are targets for personalizedmotivational efforts by their superiors. As member of the salesforce, they are targets for sales managment efforts aimed towardwelding them into an effective selling team. Four aspect of thesalespersons job affect the quality of its performance. Thefollowing discussion focuses on these aspects, each is animportant reason why sales personnel require additionalmotivation. Inherent Nature of the Sales Job Although sales jobs vary from one company to the next, sales jobs are alike in certain respects. Every sales job is a successionof ups and downs a series of experiences resulting in alternat-ing feelings of exhilaration and depression. In the course of days work, salespersons interact with many pleasant andcourteous people, but some are unpleasant and rude and aredifficult to deal with. They are frustrated, particularly whenaggressive competing sales personnel vie for the same business,and they meet numerous turndowns. Furthermore, salespersonnel spend not only working time but considerable after-hours time away from home, causing them to miss manyattractive parts of family life. These conditions cause salesper-sons to become discouraged, to achieve low performance levels,or even to seek non selling positions. The inherent nature of the sales job, then, is the first reason that additional motivationis required. Salespersons Boundary Position and Role Conflicts The sales person occupies a boundary position in thecompany and must try tosatisfy the expectations of peopleboth within the company (in the sales department and else-where) and in customer organizations. There is linkage withfour groups : (1) sales management, (2) the company

organiza-tion that handles order fulfillment, (3) the customers, and (4)other company sales personnel. Each group imposes certainbehavioral expectations on the salesperson, and, in playing thesedifferent role, the salesperson faces role conflicts, such as1.Conflict of identification arises out of multi groupmembership. As the salesperson works with the customer,identification is with the customer rather than thecompany. On returning to the company, the salespersondrops identification with the customer and identified withthe company.2.Advocacy conflict arises when the salesperson identifieswith the customer and advocates the customers positionto other groups in the company organization. this may beimportant and may be encouraged by the sale managementgroup, but the advocator is in a difficult position.3.Conflict is inherent in the salespersons dual role as anadvocate for both the customer and the company and thesalespersons pecuniary interest as an entrepreneur paiddirectly or indirectly on the basis of sales volume, thesalesperson has an interest in selling as much as possible inthe shortest time. However, the salesperson may uncoverfacts the customers organization limit the productsusefulness. If the salesperson tells the customer aboutthese conditions and that, in all probability, the productwill not meet the customers needs, the salesperson riskslosing the sale and the income that goes with it.Not much can be done to reduce the role conflicts of salepersonnel. Some evidence exists that experienced sales person-nel perceive significantly less role conflict than do those with lessexperience. This suggests that a salespersons perceptions of,and ability to cope with, role conflict are influenced not only byexperience but by the effectiveness of sales training. It alsosuggests that those who become experienced sales personnelmay cope better with role conflicts (that is, psychologically) thanthose leaving the sales organisation earlier. So improving salestraining effectiveness and revising selection criteria are two roadsto reducing the impact of role conflict on sales force morale.Role conflicts traceable to the salespersons linkage with groupsthat have divergent interests, then, is another reason whyadditional motivation is required. Tendency Toward Apathy Some sales personnel naturally become apathetic, get into a rut.Those who, year after year, cover the same territory and virtuallythe same customers, lose interest and enthusiasm. Gradually 4 6 1 1 . 6 2 3 . 2 CopyRight:RaiUniversity SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT their sales calls degenerate into routine order taking. Becausethey know the customers so well, they believe that goodsalesmanship is no longer necessary. Their customer approachtypically becomes: Do you need anything today, Joe? They failto recognize that friendship in no way obviates the necessity forcreative selling and that most customers do not sell themselveson new products and applications. the customers response, asoften as not, is: nothing today, Bill. Later a competingsalesperson calls on the same account, uses effective salestechniques, and gets an order. Many salespeople requireadditional motivation to maintain continuing enthusiasm togenerate renewed interest in their work. Maintaining A Feeling of Group Identify The salesperson, working alone, finds it difficult to developand maintain a feeling of group identity with other companysalespeople. Team spirit, if present at all, is weak. Thus, thecontagious enthusiasm-conducive to improving the entiregroups performance-does not develop.If sales management, through providing added motivation,succeeds in developing and maintaining team spirit, individualsales personnel strive to meet group performance standards.Few people who consider themselves members of the salesteam want to appear as poor performers in the eyes of theircolleagues, providing the kind of working atmosphere in whichall members of the sales force

feel they are participating in acooperative endeavor is not easy-nevertheless, effective salesmanagement works continuously to achieve and maintain it. Need Gratification and Motivation Behavioral research studies show that all human activity-including the salespersons job behavior-is directed towardsatisfying certain needs (that is, reaching certain goals). Patternsof individual behavior differ because individuals seek to fulfilldifferent sets of needs in different ways. Some salespersons, inother words, are more successful than others because of thediffering motivational patterns and amounts and types of efforts they exert in performing their jobs.How particular individuals behave depends upon the nature of their fulfilled and unfulfilled needs modified by their environ-mental and social backgrounds. The motives lying behind anyspecific action drive from tensions build up to satisfy particularneeds, some beneath the threshold of consciousness. Anyaction taken is for the purpose of reducing these tensions(fulfilling a need or needs to reach a goal or goals).Needs are either primary or secondary. Primary need are theinborn or physiological needs for food, water, rest, sleep, air tobreathe, sex, and so on, the fulfillment of which are basic to lifeitself. Until primary needs are satisfied, other needs have littlemotivational influence. Secondary needs arise from an inindividuals interaction with the environment, and are notinborn but develop with maturity. Secondary needs includethose for safety and security, belongingness and social relations,and self-esteem and self-respect. Hierarchy of Needs A.H Maslow, a psychologist, developed a theory of motivationbased on the notion that an individual seeks to fulfill personalneeds according to some hierarchy importance. He suggests thegeneral priority of need fulfillment. Maslow suggests that afteran individual gratifies basic physiological needs, he or sheproceeds to strive to fulfill safety and security needs, thatbelongingness and social relations needs, and so on-theindividuals level of aspiration rising as needs on higher levelsare satisfied. Not every individual and certainly not everysalesperson, of course, establishes the order of priority of needfulfillment suggested by Maslow. Some sales personnel, forinstance, appear to assign earlier priority to filling the esteemneed (for self-respect) than they do to filling the need for socialrelations within a group.After meeting basic physiological needs, it probably is impos-sible for most individuals to satisfy fully their needs on anyhigher level-needs seem to multiply along with efforts to satisfythem. As a particular need is satisfied, it loses its potency as amotivator, but other unfulfilled needs, some of them new, gainin potency. Individuals continually try to fulfill ever-largerportion of their need structures, and the unsatisfied portionsexert the strongest motivational pull.What, then, motivates salespeople? Salespersons motives forworking vary according to the nature and potency of theunsatisfied portion of their individual hierarchies of needs. Wemust also recognize, however, that some of the salespeoplesneeds are filled off the job as well as on it. One salespersonworks because of the need for money to feed a family; anotherbecause the job is seen as a means for gaining esteem of others;still another because of a need to achieve (self-actualization) tothe maximum of ones abilities, seeing job performance as ameans to the end.If sales management knew the makeup of the unsatisfiedportion of a salespersons hierarchy of needs at a particulartime, it could determine the best incentives. The fact thatindividual has needs causes him or her, consciously or not toformulate goals with those of the organization, then individualbehavior is channeled along lines aimed at achieving both setsof goals. For management sees how furnishing the salespersonwith opportunity to earn more money will also further theattainment of organizational goals (perhaps that of increasingthe size of orders), then offering the salesperson the chance toearn more money for obtaining larger is a powerful incentive.Money however, loses its power as an incentive once theindividual has gratified physiological needs and most safety andsecurity needs. Other incentives (for example, a chance forpromotion, which is one way to fulfill esteem and self-respectneeds)become increasingly effective. The promise of moremoney becomes a weaker incentive the farther up in thehierarchy an individuals unfulfilled needs are pushed. Whateverpower a large income retains is related to unfulfilled esteem andself-actualization needs and the extent to which income cangratify them. Of course, the, the threat of receiving a lowerincome, a negative incentive, endangers the fulfilled part of

anindividuals need structure, and to the extent that this threatexists, money continues to have power as an incentive. Noticethat where as motives are internal to the individual, incentivesare external. Sales management influences the behavioralpatterns of sales personnel. Sales management influences thebehavioral patterns of sales personnel indirectly through theincentives it offers. CopyRight:RaiUniversity 1 1 . 6 2 3 . 2 4 7 SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT Motivation-hygiene Theory Frederick Herzberg and his co-researchers developed themotivation-hygiene theory. According to this theory the factorsthat lead to motivation and job satisfaction are not the same asthose leading to apathy and job dissatisfaction. In other words,the contention is that job dissatisfaction is not the opposite of job satisfaction-two separate groups of needs are involved, onerelated to job satisfaction and the other to job dissatisfaction.While most needs have potentials for influencing both therelief of job dissatisfaction and the increase of job satisfaction,each need serves predominantly either a hygiene or motivatorpurpose.Deficiencies in fulfilling the hygiene needs cause job dissatisfac-tion. These supervision, and other factors extrinsic to the job.Fulfilling the hygiene needs does not lead to job satisfaction,but in the achievement of a neutral point known as a fair dayswork. Performance at this point does not result from motiva-tion.At the fair days work point, the individual is ripe forinfluence by the motivation factors, ones intrinsic to the jobitself. These factors reflect needs for personal growth, includingachievement, recognition, nature of the job itself, responsibility,and opportunities for advancement. The motivation factorsrepresent needs that, when fulfilled, lead to job satisfaction.Figure 15.2 shows the considerable similarity of the Maslowand Herzberg models. Herzbergs division of the need hierarchyinto two factorshygiene and motivational-implies that formany people, including most sales personnel, only Maslowshigher-order needs (esteem and self-actualization) are primarymotivators. Yet even these people must satisfy the lower order(hygiene) needs for maintenance of their job satisfaction.Motivation-hygiene theory has two important implications forsales management. The first is that management must see thatthe job provides the conditions that prevent job dissatisfaction(to get a fair days work from the salesperson). This means thatmanagement needs to provide an acceptable working environ-ment, fair compensation, adequate fringe benefits, fair andreasonable supervision, and job security. The second implica-tion is that management must provide opportunities forachievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement (tomotivate performance beyond that of a fair days work). Achievement-motivation Theory David McClelland, in association with other researchers,developed achievement-motivation theory. According to thistheory, if a person spends considerable time thinking aboutdoing his or her job better, accomplishing something unusualand important, or advancing his or her career, that individualhas a high need for achievement (nAch). Those who have highfor achievement (1) like problem situation in which they takepersonal responsibility for finding solutions (ones in which thepossibilities of reaching them are reasonable), (2) tend to setattainable achievement goals, and (3) want feedback on howthey are doing. In practical terms, nAch is a motivation to exceedsome standard of quality in personal behavior-individuals whoare self-motivated and who continually strive to improve theirperformance are in this category. Many individuals like this areattracted to personal selling jobs, especially those wherecompensations largely in the form of commissions-jobscharacterized by opportunities to influence outcomes throughpersonal efforts, challenging risks, and rapid feedback of results.What are the implications for sales management? If individualswith high nAch can be the best performers in the companyssales jobs, then management might traget its recruiting towardsuch

people. McClelland and his co-investigators used theThematic Apperception Test (TAT) in their research onachievement, so management might consider including theTAT in the sales selection system. But management wouldwant to make certain that the sales job environment was one inwhich high achievers flourish.The fact that nach drives individuals to act from an internallyinduced stimulus is noteworthy. People with high nAch are self-starters-they require little external incentive to succeed andconstantly challenge themselves to improve their own perfor-mances. Such people do not require motivation by managementother than that of providing the right kind of job environment. Understanding the concepts behind nAch, and theconditions that individuals high in nAch seek in their jobs,helps to explain and predict the behavior of sales personnel. Expectancy Model The expectancy model, developed by Vroom, conceptualizesmotivation as a process governing choices of behavioral activity.The reasoning is that the strength of a tendency to act in acertain way depends upon the strength of an expectation thatthe act will be followed by a given outcome and on thatoutcomes attractiveness to the individual. Put differently, anindividuals desire to produce at a given time depends on thatindividuals specific goals and perception of the relative worthof performance alternatives as paths to attainment of thosegoals.An expectancy model, based on Vrooms, is shown in Figure15.3. The strength of an individuals motivation to behave in acertain way (in terms of efforts) depends upon how stronglythat individual believes that these efforts will achieve the desiredperformance patterns (or level). If the individual achieves thedesired performance, then how strongly does the individualbelieve that the organizations rewards/punishments will beappropriate for that kind of performance, and to what extentwill this satisfy the individuals needs (goals)?The expectancy model raises motivational issues of concern tosales management. Does the company reward structure providewhat sales personnel want? Do individual sales personnelperceive the kinds and amounts of effort managementanticipate that they will make to attain set performance levels?How convinced are individual sales personnel that givenperformance patterns lead to given towards?Sales management, however, must recognize that this model isconcerned with expectations. Sales personnel need counseling toview their own competencies realistically. They also need salesmanagements support in developing the skills that lead toimproved performance. Interdependence and Motivation In the formal organizational plan, each salesperson reports tosomeone higher up in the structure, a sales supervisor, a district