MOTIVATION
state of mind – and not just a belief system. It is part of an executable set of steps that eliminates the need for perfection and ensures that managers and salespeople will reach their com- mitments.”
Bridges feels there are “hopers,” “doers,” and “hopeful doers.” “My dad told me that there are hopers and doers in life – and the hopers, who are passive, stand by hoping that things will work out, while the doers actually go out and take action,” says Bridges. “But I also think that there are ‘hopeful doers,’ who have hope, which fosters desire and results in ac- tion and success.”
A Hope and a Plan WILLIAM F. KENDY
Hope is a tough concept to define. As a passive noun, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, hope means, “a positive expectation and desire for something to happen.” As an active verb, its defini- tion is, “to intend, if possible, to do something.”
“Hope is about how leaders use hope to make things happen,” says one leadership consultant. “To outra- geously successful people, hope is more than a state of mind; it is a belief system – a plan for getting to a desired future. It is a methodology that can be learned.” Lawrence Knight, chief operating
officer at a large manufacturer of packaged food products, and Kyle Bridges, a field sales manager for a fundraising company, agree with the
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consultant. Knight, who has more than 20 years of experience in sales management for other manufactur- ers, defines himself as a pragmatic guy and believes that the key to hope is all in the execution. “It’s all about executing and planning for improve- ment,” says Knight. “Every time you use the word ‘plan,’ you’ve come out of the conceptual part and entered into the analytical/executional area. It’s important to help salespeople understand that hope is more than a
Bridges feels the key to sales managers creating a hopeful sales en- vironment is honesty, responsiveness, and making it easy. “Selling is hard enough with rejection, long hours, and dealing with difficult people in tough situations, so it’s important to create a consistent place of trust, a safe haven, for salespeople,” says Bridges. “It’s important to have struc- ture, to have a plan in place, to do everything in your power to properly execute that plan, and to support your people in action…and to have hope that your plan, strategy, and execution will work.”
Knight has identified six key areas for managers to consider. The first is commitment. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a salesperson – with one week on the job right out of college – or a sea- soned professional, the very first thing they have to do is commit themselves to succeed and achieve the plan,” says Knight. “Don’t hire fatalists. Hire people who are willing to make a commitment and hit their targets no matter what it takes.” Knight’s second key area is for managers to deploy or empower the employee sales plan. This targets all levels of the organization. “The plan – whether it is based on annual, month- ly, or weekly parameters – has to be deployed from the general manager to the sales leader to the channel directors to regional sales managers and to the salespeople…anyone who
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