Check out the webinar slides to find ways to better motivate your channel sellers, inspire long-term loyalty and drive sustained growth with a modern strategy. Read the full webinar recap here: https://maritzmotivation.com/resources/sales-motivation-strategy-drive-growth/

1. Welcome!
The webinar will start soon.

2. Rethinking
Sales Motivation
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Barry Kirk
VP of Strategic Services
Dawn Schillinger
Sales Motivation Strategist

3. We’re currently in a market driven by
Cautious Commerce.

4. © Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Cautious Commerce is affecting everyone’s buying
and selling decisions.
Buyers and sellers are operating in
a state of anxiety
driven by
uncertainty for the future
and a lack of reliable data points
to inform decision-making.

5. • How do we adjust messaging to ensure we
don’t sound insensitive to customers?
• Which customer segments do we focus on to
stay viable as a business?
• Which practices adopted during COVID-19
will become permanent?
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Cautious Commerce is affecting everyone’s buying
and selling decisions.

6. But even without the virus, we were
already in an unprecedented period
for businesses.

7. The workforce is evolving dramatically.
• Our understanding of people and motivation
has expanded as behavioral science has
become more practiced in the business world.
• Millennials and Generation Z bring diversity in
ethnicity, identity and attitude.
• Sales has not been immune to these major
shifts in the modern workforce.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
1994 2011 2019
SHIFTING GENERATIONS
GENERATIONS
Pew Research, U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics
Traditionalists
Boomers
Generation X
Millennials
Generation Z

8. The demand for data-driven insights has exploded along with
increased expectation to show your work.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
• Buyers are doing their own
research by tapping into massive
sources of data to drive decision-
making.
• New sales leadership has an
appetite for data and insights to
inform future decisions.
• Neither understand how to use or
make sense of the data at their
fingertips.
of all enterprise data
is never analyzed.
60-73%
2016 Forrester Study

9. And what is expected of salespeople has become significantly
more complex.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Revenue models were relatively
straightforward.
BEFORE NOW
Organizations focused on
transactional sales and
ramping up volume to drive
growth.
Salespeople were urged to
close the deal and move to
the next client.
Companies are seeking
additional forms of revenue –
data, subscriptions and
services.
Sales organizations are
shifting from transactional to
consultative selling.
Salespeople are asked to
develop different skills to adapt
to business-level changes.

10. In this evolving marketplace, an incentive program is still the first
& best tool to engage your sales force.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
You don’t have the levers of
compensation, benefits and culture
that direct sales organizations can
use to nudge behavior.
For channels sales,
that’s even more critical.
6:1 return or better can be
achieved by a well-designed and
executed incentive strategy.
Sales incentives drive
behavior.

11. REALITY CHECK:
On average, channel sales reps
are in 5 different incentive
programs.
Maritz Channel Study

12. © Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
If your sales incentive
program was
underperforming its
real potential…
If the data sitting in
your program had
untapped insights
that could improve
your businesses…
If a salesperson had
significantly more
potential to sell than
they’re giving you
now…
…would you know ? …would you know ? …would you know ?

13. Sales incentives today are
misaligned to the evolution.

14. Prevailing assumptions about salespeople are too reductive.
Our understanding of people and their motivations has grown dramatically,
especially in the employee space, but sales incentives have not kept up.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
This is not optimal:
Assuming greed creates
greed within salesforce.
Reduces all of selling to a
final sale.

15. Too many incentive programs are Design by Default.
Sales incentives are powerful tools to change behavior and solve problems,
but 64%* of organizations are doing it alone. The complexity and risk involved
makes it too easy to revert to old efforts.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
*Incentive Research Foundation
This is not optimal:
Program designs are
repetitive and outdated.
Leaders put too much
dependence on rules
structures.

16. This is not optimal:
Risk crowding out your
channel’s intrinsic
motivation.
“Incentive Dissonance”
harms your sales
partners.
Incentives are deployed without a strategy.
Incentive programs are often the first and most persuasive reason for a channel
sales partner to connect with a brand. But, a brand’s incentive program is always in
competition with the partner’s internal sales incentives and competitor programs.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.

17. How do I get untangled?

18. © Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Untangling means shifting design from default to
intention.
• Repeating the same program with
nominal changes – little to add to the
salesperson’s value prop – year over year
• Running the same promotions or
contests with slightly different themes
• Treating your salesforce as a largely
homogenous audience
DESIGNING ON DEFAULT
• Balancing immediate demands with
strategic success
• Seeking relationships with
salespeople as much as sales behavior
• Creating a personalized experience
for a salesperson you’re invested in
DESIGNING WITH
INTENTION

19. 5 Critical
Components
to Creating Sales
Motivation
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
z
z
z
SALES
PEOPLE
BEHAVIOR
z

20. 1.
It starts with understanding your
salespeople as people.

21. EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
HIGH COMMITMENT
LOW COMMITMENT
Effectively moving
human behavior
starts with asking:
1. What will
motivate them?
2. How deeply
committed
are they to
my experience?
“I’m here for the reward
or tangible benefits.”
“I’m here because it’s meaningful
and its part of my identity.”
“I’m here to avoid consequences
or a lack of drive to go elsewhere.”
”I’m here because it’s meaningful,
but I’m not giving my all.”

22. EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
HIGH COMMITMENT
LOW COMMITMENT
Salespeople
are people.
If you want to
change their
behavior,
you need to
ask these same
questions.
“I’m here for the commissions
or incentives.”
“I’m here because I need
to pay my bills.
”I’m here because I appreciate
your products, but I’m not really
that driven.
“I’m here because selling
your products
is part of my identity.”

23. POLL:
Which best describes the
mindset of your channel
salespeople?

24. EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
HIGH COMMITMENT
LOW COMMITMENT
Salespeople
are people.
If you want to
change their
behavior,
you need to
ask these same
questions.

25. EXTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
HIGH COMMITMENT
LOW COMMITMENT
“I’m here for the commissions
or incentives.”
“I’m here because selling
your products
is part of my identity.”
“I’m here because I need
to pay my bills.
What motivators
and level of
commitment are
you activating
within your
channel
salespeople?
”I’m here because I appreciate
your products, but I’m not really
that driven.

26. 2.
Identify the behavior you are going
to ask from your salespeople.

27. The behavior your strategy includes must be more
complex than just sales.
Presale
Activities
Skill
Development
On-Going Success
GOAL: SALES
There’s so much happening to
ensure that a sale is a success.
Putting the goal at the final sale,
however, does not show people
how to be successful.

28. 3.
Create a strategy that focuses
on experience, not outcome.

29. Maximize the investment of sales motivation strategy
with an experience.
Balance extrinsic
motivation with
other drivers of
behavior.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Use the reward
to build the
experience.
Personalize the
experience for
your sales
people.

30. 4.
Do more than data reporting.

31. Use your data to predict outcomes and refine
approaches.
Reporting is table stakes. In-flight
analysis and adjustment is a necessity.
But data should be used throughout a
strategy to predict outcomes and track
performance to improve the next
prediction.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.

32. 5.
Look beyond the bottom line
to measure success.

33. Ultimately, success means aligning your strategy to
achieve one critical outcome: RELATIONSHIPS.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
Helping you build stronger
relationships between your
salespeople and your brand.
Helping your salespeople
build stronger relationships
with their customers.
The most successful sales motivation strategy is
working when it’s:

34. z
5 Critical Components
to Creating Sales Motivation
1. Salespeople are people – start with
them.
2. Balance the behavior your organization
needs with the best fit for your
salespeople.
3. If your incentive is the experience, you
don’t have an experience.
4. Strategy without prediction will be short-
lived.
5. Relationships are the ultimate measure
of success.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.
z
z
z
SALES
PEOPLE
BEHAVIOR

35. Let’s answer some
questions.
© Maritz Motivation Inc. Proprietary and confidential.

36. Thank you!
MotivationMarketing@maritz.com