SalesHQ

Sales Tips >> Browse Articles >> Sales Stories

Sales Tips >> Browse Articles >> Sales Tips

Crush The Tomato!

2. They could visualize the metaphor. When I spoke with the kids, I didn’t toss out meaningless, trite expressions. “Win one for the Gipper” would not have worked with these kids. The tomato was a metaphor that created an image in their minds. I probably could have use a piñata and had the same effect. In either case, a picture was created in their mind that they could replicate.

3. They had a focus for their energy. As you can imagine, many of the fathers were bellowing at the kids; “Lift your elbow!” “Turn your foot.” “Move your hands.” None of those worked, just like yelling at workers to work harder doesn’t yield productivity improvement. The “crush the tomato” expression gave them one thing on which to focus. We just wanted them to swing the bat as hard as they could without directly telling them to do it. We wanted them to swing the bat because they wanted to, not because they were told to do it.

These same three ingredients can be used as a motivation recipe in the workplace.

Pick a specific area of the business in which you desire an improvement in the results the sales team is producing.

Create a fun program to inspire the team and create awareness of the issue.

Develop visuals to promote the program.

One of the most rote sales functions is prospecting. Sales people, fundamentally, despise it, but every sales person needs to do it to be successful. Sales managers have an opportunity to reduce this pain and make the exercise fun. For example, create a team prospecting time where everyone makes calls at the same time. Have prizes for, not only the best results, but also the funniest story about a prospecting experience. Every sales person has one of those, if not a bunch of them.

Years ago, I managed a lead creation channel that was underperforming. Yelling at the partners was not a prudent strategy. So, to get them up to snuff, I created a mock, fantasy football league where the channel partners played against one another each week. Points were awarded for different lead types and standings were kept for the season, and more importantly shared amongst the channel partners. They quickly forgot about lead generation and became focused on winning the championship. Needless to say, very quickly, we were drowning in qualified leads.

Leadership, at its core, is about motivating a team to perform at levels they never dreamed possible. You see it in sports every day. The team that wins the championship isn’t necessarily as skilled as the others, but they are driven to achieve. Get creative and inspire your team to crush the tomato!

Learn more about succeeding in sales from this upcoming webinar hosted by expert Alen Majer

---