100 Ways to Motivate Others : How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy

one muffin
to
the team’s total.
Managers need to simplify, simplify, simplify. They do
not need to do what they normally do: complicate,
multitask, and complicate.
Keep it as simple as you can for your non-producers,
focusing on outcomes and results only. Spend more and
more time with producers who are looking for that extra
edge you can give them.
Coach the Outcome

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/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
Non-producers have a huge lesson to learn from you.
They could be learning every day that their production is
a direct result of their own desire (or lack of it) to hit that
precise number. People figure out ways to get what they
want. Most non-producers want to keep their jobs (be-
cause of their spousal disapproval if they lose it, because
of their fear of personal shame if they lose it, and so on),
so all their activity is directed at 
keeping the job
from one
month to the next. If they can do the minimum in sales
and still keep their job, they are getting what they want.
People get what they want.
The manager’s challenge is to redirect all daily effort
toward hitting a precise number. If your people believed
that they 
had to
hit that number, they would hit that
number, and technique would never be an issue. Skills
would never be an issue. They would find them. They
would try out every technique in the book until that num-
ber appeared.
Somehow, non-producers have convinced themselves
that there is no direct cause and effect between increasing
certain activities and hitting their numbers.
Do you remember those little toy robots or cars you
had when you were a kid that would bump into a wall and
then turn 30 degrees and go again? If you put one of those
toys in a room with an open door, it will always find the
way out the door. Always. It is programmed to do so. It is
mechanically programmed to keep trying things until it is
out of there.
That’s also what top producers program themselves
to do. It’s the same thing. They keep trying stuff until they
find a way. If they bump into a wall, they immediately turn
30 degrees and set out again.

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The non-producer bumps into the wall and gets de-
pressed and then shuts himself down. Sometimes for 20
minutes, sometimes for a whole day or week. Alternately,
he bumps into a wall and doesn’t turn in any other direc-
tion, so he keeps bumping into the same wall until his bat-
teries run down. Death of a salesman.
Managers also make the mistake of buying in to their
non-producers’ perceived problems. They buy in to the
non-producers’ never-ending crusade to convince every-
one that there is no cause and effect in their work. It’s all
a matter of luck! In fact, non-producers almost delight in
bringing back evidence that there is no cause and effect.
They tell you long case histories of all the activities they
did that led to 
nothing
. All the heartbreak. All the times
they were 
misled
by prospective buyers.
A manager’s real opportunity is in teaching his people
absolute respect for personal responsibility and results.
Everyone selling in the free market is 100-percent account-
able for his or her financial situation. Every salesperson is
outcome-
accountable as well as activity-accountable.
Your non-producers will always want to sell you on
what they have done, all the actions they have taken. What
they don’t want is to take responsibility for outcomes. Good
sales management is outcome management, not activities
management. Yet most sales managers go crazy all day
managing activities.
Why? Because they