I first began to recognise the need to be able to benchmark sales performance more objectively and more rigorously over twenty five years ago: The motivation to do this was strong because I knew I was wasting thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds on sales skills training programmes which were not providing me with a proper return on my considerable investment. But I needed to prove my theory because without an accurate analysis of my requirements, I would continue to abdicate that responsibility to the training providers, most of whom had only their own interests at heart.

So with this quote from Drucker, “The most effective way to manage change is to create it” firmly in my mind, I set about my task, a task that became a journey, which began in 1981 and is still ongoing.

By taking an analytical approach, I arrived at the following equation:

Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success.

My initial reasoning was this: Attitude is fundamental to any achievement because individuals with the right Attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential Skills, recognise the control that Process brings and have the desire to continually expand their Knowledge.

Skills are the ‘tools of the trade’ and have to be developed on an ongoing basis. They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any identifiable plan for their future requirements.

Process brings organisation, efficiency and control, both for the individual and for management. Effective process provides objective analysis and indicators which can be benchmarked and accurately measured.

Then there is of course a need to build in Knowledge and that must include knowledge of products, industry, market sectors, competitors, business, own company and last but not least, self!

Attitude:

Let’s then begin by looking at Attitude: I was fortunate enough to have discovered the “Hertzberg Theory “- Professor Frederick Hertzberg has promoted a theory of motivation which goes a long way forward from the original theory of “Carrot and Stick”, or indeed its extension ‘The Reward Theory’, still used by many managers and companies to try and exhort greater efforts from their staff.

It stems from two-statements:-

- What makes people happy and motivated at work, is what they do.

- What makes people unhappy and de-motivated at work, is the situation in which they do it.

Hertzberg suggested that managers needed become familiar with three new letters that would become increasingly important in the management of people in the future. The three letters are:- Q.W.L. - standing for ‘The Quality of Work Life’

Managers, who want to motivate their staff, he said, are going to have to improve their Q.W.L

The first set of needs defined by Hertzberg is called Hygiene Needs and deal with a person’s relationship with the environment. They consist of how people are treated at work.

- Do you pay them well?

- Good working conditions?

- Human relations - the nature and quality of their supervision

- Status.

- The nature of the Company’s policies and administration.

They are called Hygiene Factors, because if the factors are right, they prevent people from being dissatisfied in their working environment, so they keep people from being unhappy and that is their function - but they do not motivate.

The other set of needs of people is caused by the fact that they are human beings and therefore, not only do they not want to hurt, so treat them well (Hygiene), but they want to do something. They want to grow and show what they can do. They want to be able to say at the end of the work experience not that they vegetated, but that they are more than they were (know more, can do more and therefore are more) and the only way to measure this is by what they have achieved in that experience.

They are therefore asking these questions:-

- Do I achieve? Am I contributing?

- Am I given increased responsibility?

- Am I advancing and growing?

- Is what I do meaningful and significant? Is its interesting?

- Is my ability recognised?

These are The Motivators. These are the variables that managers can use to motivate people, because people, who want to do something, want to do it - that’s motivation.

So if we want to talk about motivated performance, we have got to talk about -

• Achievement

• Recognition for achievement

• Meaningful and interesting work

• Increased responsibility

• Growth and development