Money Motivation in Salespeople
In a study of 2,019 direct and inside salespeople from the
Inside salespeople tend to be more money motivated than direct salespeople. Figure 2 compares the responses of direct and inside (or telephone) reps. Approximately 86% of telephone salespeople say they are in it primarily for the money as compared with 73% in direct sales. Inside salespeople were 86% more likely to answer the money motivation question as “Strongly agree”.
What is the impact of money motivation on sales behaviors?
To answer this question, correlations were performed between responses to the money motivation question and various scales on SalesKey®: The Barnett Assessment of Sales Behaviors.
SalesKey® detects and measures 21 sales behaviors within four developmental levels proven to impact sales productivity.The first level of sales development is made up of those foundational behaviors and aptitudes that salespeople must bring to a sales career. Money may have a slight impact on how hard a salesperson will work (Energy, r=.102); however, compensation appears to be more strongly related to improving Goal Orientation (Goal Orientation, r=.388). Goal Orientation is critical to finding purpose in one’s career and dealing with adversity and setbacks.
Compensation may slightly improve the rep’s prospecting and business development behavior (Sales Initiative, r=.176), but a heavy focus on money may devalue a sales career in the estimation of the salesperson (Sales Identity, r=-.124).
Being strongly money motivated could have a negative impact on risk-averse individuals (Risk Sensitivity, r=-.115). It may be that the more a risk-avoidant person thinks about money, the more energy is diverted from productive behaviors into non-productive behavior such as worry.
Money motivation has little impact on Level 2 behaviors (Problem Solving, Focus, Coachability), but plays a huge role at Level 3 where the focus is on the selling style of the salesperson. Figure 4 uses the correlations of SalesKey® behavioral style scores (Empathizer, Analyzer, Performer, and Commander) with responses to the money motivation question to show the relative importance of compensation to the four types of salespeople.
Empathizers are driven by spproval-seeking behavior. Among the four behavior styles, Empathizers are by far the least motivated by money. Empathizers are highly idealistic and place significantly greater value on intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. This makes it extremely difficult to motivate Empathizers to change behavior. The same is true of Analyzers who are driven by a need for achievement.
One surprising conclusion from this study is that Performers (attention-seekers) are not strongly money motivated. The Performer’s preoccupation with status symbols and expensive toys does not appear to be the same thing as wanting or needing to make money.
Commanders are salespeople who are driven by a need for control. Of the four styles, Commanders are by far the most money motivated. It may be that to them money represents power. Commanders are extremely competitive and money is apparently how they keep score.
Implications for Hiring and Development
Sales organizations that do not rely on money to attract talent will likely attract candidates who are Empathizers and Analyzers. At the same time their selection and training programs will emphasize competence (Analyzers) and teamwork (Empathizers). These organizations should expect higher turnover among self-starting, competitive salespeople who are not motivated to long-term commitments in a low-paying organization.
Companies that pay more tend to attract better talent. Why is this?
It has been well established in many previous studies by this author and others that top producing salespeople are those who make the most contacts, see the most people, and more frequently ask for the business. Sales activities are the surest predictor of sales results. The ability of a salesperson to generate business opportunities is measured by the SalesKey® Sales Quotient (SQ) scale. SQ has been proven in more than 30 validation studies to be more than 80% accurate at forecasting sales productivity among direct and inside salespeople.
Inter-item correlations between SQ and behavior style scores reveal how selling styles impact the ability of a salesperson to make sales contacts (see Figure 4).Commanders and, to a lesser extent Performers, bring instincts and inherent abilities that promote the ability to succeed in sales while Empathizing can only be described as antithetical to productive sales behavior.
This study suggests that the reason Commanders tend to excel in direct and inside sales while Empathizers tend to do poorly can be explained by the power of money as an extrinsic motivator for Commanders. Because Commanders are so strongly money motivated, companies can more easily and more quickly incite excellence among these salespeople. If a business has too many Empathizers on its sales force, the company will struggle to discover, monitor and manage the subjective, esoteric motivators necessary for Empathizers to catch fire. Organizations that cannot pay top dollar to attract Commanders will want to structure compensation plans that encourage unlimited earning potential.
These findings suggest a reexamination of our theoretical assumptions about top producers. Our opinion has been that top producers are balanced in style; that is, one or two needs do not dominate an individual’s sales behaviors. While this is true, we may need to add as a corollary that, in direct and inside sales, companies using SalesKey® should give greater weight to the Commander and consider any above average Empathizing score to be presumptively disqualifying.
Empathizing is really anti-sales in the same way that Commanders are anti-service. Empathizers are service-oriented. They are so other-directed that it is very difficult for them to persuade buyers to take action. Sales is by nature predatory. It involves a determined hunter who seeks to take something that belongs to another. Selling measures success mostly in material ways. All this is deeply offensive to the Empathizer who has learned to live in the business jungle as prey who survive by changing color to blend in with their environment or seeking safety in numbers. When Empathizers are put in direct or telephone sales, they become impossible to manage or change because they feel threatened at a deeply personal level. The sales manager who demands more assertiveness from an Empathizer will not see change, but adaptation to survive unscathed.Empathizers fear the very things that are meant to help them succeed in sales.
Commanders similarly fail when they are forced into service roles. Service measures success subjectively and altruistically – by how people feel. This is confusing to the Commander who requires objective measurements of prowess. Commanders are motivated by money because it is rational and objective. This is not to say that the Commander doesn’t love family or value art; it does mean that they are motivated to sell by the desire for gain. Anthropologically speaking, they hunt to provide for those they care most about. Money is motivating precisely because it is unambiguous. With it Commanders buy what they value. Empathizers tend to see money as corrupting what is pure and selfless.
Service appeals to Empathizers precisely because the rewards are abstract and relational. Service and sales are polar opposites. Those who are good in one tend to do poorly in the other. The place for Empathizers appears to be in customer service, HR, or perhaps some account management roles, not business development. The place for Commanders is in the front lines of business acquisition.