What motivates a seller? A quick look at what can motivate you to do stuff - like talk to people, promote services

1. What motivates a seller?

2. What is Motivation?
Before tackling the question I thought I
would look at the meaning first of
'Motivation'
Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains
goal-oriented behaviours. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is
getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain
knowledge'
So to be motivated you are going to do something. You are being pushed
to do it, either by a need - ' I need to get a glass of water, I really thirsty'
or a want - ' I really want to read that new book by Dan Brown, it's looks
really good'

3. Extrinsic Vs. Intrinsic
Different types of motivation are frequently described as being either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic
motivations are those that arise from outside of the individual and often involve rewards such as trophies,
money, social recognition or praise. Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within the individual, such
as doing a complicated cross-word puzzle purely for the personal gratification of solving a problem
With this research - it suggests the way to find out how to
motivate someone is to find out why they are doing it.
Is the person wanting to getting money at the end, a big
shiny gold star telling everyone they are the best or is the
person just doing it, knowing that they have done it,
completed it, ticked that box, and they are satisfied with
that…
Then does it determine what the person is doing, if you are
going to be satisfied just ticking a box, will it be as satisfying
if that journey was an easy one, or the only way you would be
motivated to completed it, was that it was a struggle, used
your brain, an effort so when you finished, you felt like you
accomplished something.

4. So what motivates you?
There are a number of different views as to what can motivates you. Unfortunately these theories do
not all reach the same conclusions
Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1917) put forward the idea that workers are
motivated mainly by pay.
This briefly was that people or workers don't like working, so they need to be
watched at all times. Tasks should be broken down into smaller achievable
chunks and be given the right tools and training to complete one task at the
best of there ability. Workers were then paid according to the amount of small
tasks they completed over a set period of time 'piece-rate pay'
The work you worked and tasks you completed the more you got paid.

5. So what motivates you?
Mayo
Elton Mayo (1880 – 1949) believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better
motivated by having their social needs met whilst at work (something that Taylor ignored). He introduced
the Human Relation School of thought, which focused on managers taking more of an interest in the
workers, treating them as people who have worthwhile opinions and realising that workers enjoy interacting
together.
From this Mayo concluded that workers are best motivated by:
Better communication between managers and workers
Greater manager involvement in employees working lives
Working in groups or teams.
Taylor's theory had depended on workers working alone, however he the
results, his method was taken on by Henry Ford, ford motors and is the
basis of production lines up and the country and it works, however looking
at Mayo research also, his method to motivate seemed to work also, why?
This is something I will look into a little further

6. So what motivates you?
Maslow
Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) along with Frederick Herzberg (1923-) introduced the Neo-Human Relations
School in the 1950’s, which focused on the psychological needs of employees. Maslow put forward a theory
that there are five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled at work.

7. So what motivates you?
Maslow research suggested an order to motivation. Your basic human need would come first, eat, drink and
shelter. So if you didn't have any you would be motivated to get a job, any job to earn money so you could
eat, drink and have somewhere warm to stay. However if you already had a job, that was permanent, enough
money to live a comfortable life style the next thing on the agenda would be a sense of achievement,
bellowing, a job that fulfils you not only pays the bills.
So why is it, if you give people money to achieve a set goal, or target they
don't hit it. With all the research money should be the most important
factor, so why isn't it?

8. The surprising truth
Dan Pink
RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivate us.
He explains that you would think that the more you earn in as incentive the more you do
– however it explains that this is not the case… for certain tasks which is very
important
‘For simple straight forward tasks – money works- e.g you get this you get money. Like
Taylor suggests – however the more complicated that task money doesn’t factor. Pinks
research says that if you give someone enough pay so they don’t think about money
they can concentrate on the job at hand.
Pinks also says that when profit gets in the way of the motives and all its about is the
money/profit then ‘bad things happen’ From that I take –
What motivates sellers?
Being a seller means you are just thinking about profit money.. you are not thinking
about the business and what you can contribute. Due the complexity of selling in many
financial institution talking to customer/compliance/AQ/ the more money you through at
the person to be motivated the worse they will perform.

9. Lets cover all bases
So who do you really motivate someone?
Dan Pinks research suggests:
Autonomy - self direction
Mastery - learning to be better
Motivate how to master their job and the business .Let the learner
to be in charge and see how they can develop. Let them know
where to find the information. People like to get better at
something, as long as they are in charge.
Give them the path
Give them opportunity to complete this at there pace
But how do you show them that they have achieved something?

10. Dibb dibb, dob, dob
Do we all remember the girls guides, the scouts and brownies? What do they all have in common, badges. All
had to do certain tasks to earn badges to put on there band that they wore proudly round there neck at
every meeting. They had to clearly demonstrate to there leader they completed the actions needed to gain
that badge e.g. sewing badge, show a button they sewed on themselves
Richard Wyles research 'Badges if honour' shows that badges aren't
just for the brownies, its leaking into the work place at great speed.
'Open badges are a disruptive innovation, a new idea taking root at the
edges of. Market and which can shakes up the status quo, eventually
displacing or transforming the established way of doing things'

11. How to motivate a seller?
Conclusion
o Split up the tasks into easy manageable chunks.
o Have the learner working on there own to achieved those tasks as well as working with others
Manager has to support this development.
o Let the learner go at there pace, showing them the start and the finish line to every project to
complete that task.
o Show them their achievements – a badge for every task completed
o Let the learner have the ability to show off there badges and to be proud of them.

12. Sources of Information
http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm
What Is Motivation?
By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide
http://www.tutor2u.net/business/gcse/people_motivation_theories.htm
Theories of Motivation
Author: Jim Riley Last updated: Sunday 23 September, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Dan Pink
RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivate us.
Richard Wyles ‘Badges of Honour’ published on June issue of e
Learning Age,