The biggest challenge facing Sales Managers today motivating and retaining employees. Motivated employees are needed in rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated sales teams help organizations survive simply because they are more productive. Motivation is an organization's life-blood; yet "motivation," as a business subject, is largely ignored. Seldom is a clear, coherent, and overall approach taken to the challenge of motivating people. Most organizations don't give it much thought until something starts to go wrong.
Different people are motivated to become happier employees in different ways. Money becomes a less effective motivator as salaries rise, and work that fascinates the employees becomes more important.
Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who pioneered humanistic counseling methods. He also came up with the term "trans-personal psychology". He theorized that a person's need to develop their basic potential can transcend other factors that seem more obvious.
Maslow made an important contribution to psychology when he pioneered "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." This five tier model explains human needs in terms of how much value they assign them, thereby shedding much light on what motivates certain people to seek out certain positions. Sales Resource professionals can use this information to decide how to use the basic components of human nature most effectively.
In the first phase of physiological needs there is a need to survive, and to have the basic necessities. These are the most prominent needs that will shape any man's motivation. Maslow believes all of these needs have a specific order, thus causing a person to meet physiological needs before addressing anything else such as safety, love, and so on.
Moreover, Maslow considers the first four needs in his hierarchy "deficiency needs," which stop providing motivation once they are satisfied. However, the hierarchy's final need - self-actualization - is a "being" or "growth" need that drives behavior throughout a person's life. Therefore, if a business continually gives its employees opportunities to meet this high-level need, the company can expect a well-motivated workforce.
Because self-actualization is such an intangible concept, there are two theories surrounding it. One school of thought is that we never actually achieve self-actualization but are always striving to achieve our highest potential, while the second belief is that we can achieve self-actualization which lasts only a short while because we will soon find another pinnacle to surmount. Those who strive to realize their potential tend to look for positions which allow them autonomy so that they can make an impact by creating something special or putting their ideas across in an important way.
