Motivation and retention of employees are two of the biggest challenges facing Sales Managers today. The rapidly-changing workplace of today mandates that employees stay motivated. Sales forces that stay motivated help businesses survive due to increased overall productivity. Motivation is the basis for survival for an organization, yet it is usually ignored as a business topic. There is no clear-cut and well-defined approach to tackling the challenge of employee motivation. Most companies usually ignore it unless a problem crops up.
There are various factors that motivate employees and they keep changing and entering into new stages of fulfillment. As employees' income increases, money becomes less of a motivator. Similarly as employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator.
Abraham Maslow was the name of the American psychologist who coined the term "trans-personal psychology," and was widely known as a pioneer in humanistic counseling methods. It was Maslow's belief that the human need to develop one's basic potential can often take precedence over other motivators, although, they may appear to be more obvious.
Maslow Pioneered a model commonly known as 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs', which sheds much light on what motivates people to seek out certain positions and therefore helps sales Resource professionals to determine how best to use these basic building blocks which encompass human nature. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a five tier model which explains human needs in the order in which they take precedence.
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.
Furthermore, Maslow considers the four primary needs in his hierarchy "deficiency needs," which eliminate the supply of motivation once each is fulfilled. On the other hand, the hierarchy's final need - self-actualization - is a "being" or "growth" needs that influences behavior during the duration of a person's life. Consequently, if a business continues to give its employees opportunities to meet the importance of 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.
