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.
A psychologist from the USA, Abraham Maslow, first devised the term "trans-personal psychology" and was the first to use many humanistic methods of counseling. Maslow's work led him to believe that many apparently obvious motivations for people's behavior are less important than basic personal development.
Based upon his observations and research, Maslow concluded that within the psyche of all human beings, are five levels of increasingly-important chronological desires. He structured his findings into a model which has become known as "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Sales professionals can utilize this information to identify how these basic building blocks of humanity are applicable to their work.
The first and most vital needs to motivate man are physiological needs which include survival, food, water, and shelter. People try to meet their needs in a certain order according to Maslow. A person must meet their physiological needs before attempted to meet the needs of safety, love, and more.
Maslow looks at his first four needs in his hierarchy as deficiency needs. Deficiency needs stop motivating once they are satisfied. However, the final need being self actualization is a need that drives our behavior throughout our entire life. If a business continually gives employees the opportunity to meet this high level need the company should expect its employees to be well motivated.
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.
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