Most Sales Managers believe the way to success is in the numbers. This is not necessarily true. Since a sales team is primarily comprised of a manager and the people that report to that manager, we would all agree they have one thing in common. Salespeople are first and foremost people. In years past, there was a Vice President of Sales and a Sales Director sitting in an office someplace deciding on the numbers. If you spoke to any salesperson on the floor or in the field about their goal, they would let you know that in most cases it had been set by management and they had little input. Often times they would mumble under their breath what they really thought about them.

Although most managers would like to think that once a number has been set, their team is motivated to achieve that number because of the money it will put in their pocket - this is surely not the case. While salespeople are definitely motivated by the dollar, they are much more motivated if they have input into these decisions. Joel Deceuster, founder of Deceuster & Associates, a consulting and business coaching firm says, “People, especially salespeople, don’t like being dictated to.” He believes the old school of sales management tells people what to do. But the new school invites salespeople into the process of setting quotas and goals, allowing them to figure out what they are capable of achieving.

While it is often a time consuming process, sitting down for a one-on-one with each team member periodically throughout the year can bring much more success than just throwing out a random number for them to reach. If you speak to the same team members mentioned above about their goal, once they have had input, you will see their attitude is completely different. It is no longer one of, “this is what my manager or director thinks I can hit.” It is one of ownership and pride. They will let you know what they have set the bar at and in most cases what they are doing to reach higher than the bar. They are happy to share their success when the feeling is one of a team and not one of, “what have you done today and have you put that in your forecast?”

The other piece that is important to remember when motivating your team is respect. Yes, you are in the management position for a reason, but your team is in the field and often times has the best understanding of what is going on with not only your customers and competitors, but the overall market environment. Including your sales team in the complete process, from product development through bringing it to market, can often times eliminate costly mistakes. They are with your customers and potential customers everyday, they will see things with a different set of eyes and be able to raise any issues or concerns prior to launch.

Numbers, are they important? Yes, of course they are, but working as a team will allow you to far exceed the numbers you had in place at the beginning of the year. It will lead you on a path of long term success.

Jill Blutinger is a sales and marketing expert and President of JDB Business Consulting in Southern California.

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