Motivating Employees

I found an interesting series of articles written by Paul Lavesque, who has written a book with the title of Motivation.

In this series of articles, on Entrepreneur.com, he talks about how cynical many workers are, and he makes the point that most of us need to feel like part of something important in order to be motivated. He believes that making the owner of the business rich is not exactly the inspiration that drives most workers. And he stresses that people will work very hard for a cause, and businesses that emphasize the importance of satisfying the customer’s needs usually have very motivated employees.

I have previously written about treating people as individuals with particular needs that we can fulfill, rather than as dollar signs; and I loved that these articles speak to that aspect of business. Many businesses have tunnel vision that leads straight to the bottom line, without much regard for the customer. That is seldom a great motivator for employees.

There are countless books and seminars on how to upsell. We are told that we need to increase our sales by pushing additional products or services to the client once he appears at our door. If he comes in to buy a toaster, sell him an egg poacher. Sell him on the great American breakfast experience. Just sell him! That will be great for the business bottom line. But does the client even like poached eggs? Or is it one more appliance to clutter his kitchen?

As a sales person, would you feel very motivated when selling clients products they don’t need, and may not particularly want? Wouldn’t it be much more satisfying if you could find out how he plans to use that toaster, and then guide him to the best model for his needs? Even if it turned out to be less expensive!

How do you want the customer to see your business and your employees? Will he believe that he can come to you and your workers to have a problem solved? Or will he think twice before walking through you door ever again? When you enlist your employees in the cause of truly helping your clients, you are more likely to keep them happy, and to keep your customers happy as well.