match the individual needs of the customer, making prudent decisions on how to spend time, and investing time in learning new skills.” According to the professor, the benefits of working smarter are great- est if your company sells a broad product line, if your products have many features and options, if custom- ers need a great deal of information before making buying decisions, or if salespeople need to understand a wide range of selling approaches. Today this definition applies to more sales organizations than ever before.
ATTRIBUTION THEORY IN SALES
How can you tell if your salespeople are working smart or just working hard? As a starting point, the professor recommends applying a psychological concept known as “attribution theory.” Attribution theory suggests that people assign reasons for past successes and failures, and the nature of these reasons motivates subsequent behavior. In one attribution study involving more than 1,000 salespeople, the professor discovered a key difference between salespeople who work smart and those who merely work hard. “We found that, when salespeople
felt that lost sales were due to poor strategies, they were motivated to work smarter,” he says. “They were motivated to use different approaches with their customers in the future as well as to vary their selling approach across customers. However, strategy attributions did not affect the motiva- tion of salespeople to work harder. They did not see a change in strategy as requiring greater effort. “In contrast, when salespeople felt
that lost sales were due to insufficient effort, they were motivated to work harder. They worked more hours each day and were more intense during the time they worked. Interestingly, these effort attributions actually reduced the motivation to work smarter. This means effort attributions caused salespeople to push themselves more
‘‘
...salespeople are motivated to work smarter when they believe that poor strategies, in contrast to a lack of effort, are responsible for their failures.
in the same direction – doing the same thing over again. Thus, sales- people are motivated to work smarter when they believe that poor strate- gies, in contrast to a lack of effort, are responsible for their failures.” These results make sense intui-
tively. When salespeople feel they have failed because they didn’t try hard enough or weren’t persistent enough, they will step up their efforts in the future. Similarly, when they feel they’ve failed because of technique – not asking the right questions or not doing enough research into their prospects’ needs – they will look for ways to improve their skills.
GOAL ORIENTATION While attribution theory helps explain salespeople’s motivation to improve, it does not represent the only factor affecting the working smart vs. work- ing hard equation. According to the professor, per- haps equally important is the person’s goal orientation. He defines the two major goal orientations that influence behavior in achievement situations – such as professional sales – as “per- formance orientation” and “learn- ing orientation.” Salespeople with a performance orientation tend to focus on winning other people’s approval. They assume their skills and abilities are fixed and consider an increase in overall effort the best way to improve performance. In contrast, learning- oriented salespeople are motivated to improve their skills and abilities. They seek out complex social interactions as opportunities to improve skills and they change social interactions in response to feedback. “You probably see both types of people around you,” the professor
says. “There are those of us who spend much of our mental energies trying to demonstrate to others that we are smart and on top of every- thing. These people are very much performance oriented. And then there are others who are very happily and busily absorbing information – some- times even at the cost of not knowing what to do with their newly acquired knowledge.”
Unsurprisingly, his research dem- onstrates that salespeople’s learning orientation motivates them to work smart and can, under certain condi- tions, stimulate them to work hard as well. A performance orientation will also generate hard work, but not smart work.
“Salespeople with the performance orientation believe they already know all about their jobs,” the profes- sor says, “and that the only way to improve their performance is to work harder. They seek to make more calls, see prospects more often, and be more persistent.”
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS The professor makes a point not to place a value judgment on either a performance or a learning orientation. One is not necessarily better than the other; however, a salesperson with a learning orientation will be more likely to adapt to changes in the product line, customers, or the marketplace. These individuals view failure as an opportunity to learn more. In contrast, salespeople with a performance ori- entation are more likely to view failure as a wake-up call for increased effort – at times with disastrous results. He refers to this condition as “learned helplessness.”
“‘Learned helplessness’ is when SELLING POWER MAY/JUNE 2021 | 41 © 2021 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
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