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Motivation Plan

1 1.0 Introduction

Digi-World is an Australian based company specializing in selling digital products for the home environment. Vanessa, David and Ben are part of the sales team who are responsible for launching the company's new 'Digi-Board' product within their allocated territories. This plan will help identify strategies a sales manager can use to motivate this team to perform at their best. To begin, Vroom's expectancy and Herzberg's dual factor theories will be consulted that link how important motivation is for salespeople due to the nature of the sales industry. From this, a discussion will take place on what factors motivate a salesperson to perform well in the sales role and a company overview will be provided including a brief marketing mix for the new Digi-Board product. Finally, using the seven elements of the motivation mix, specific strategies on how to individually motivate Vanessa, David and Ben will be discussed.

2.0 The Importance of Motivation for Salespeople Outside salespeople are subject to constant stress due to the performance driven nature of the industry they work in (Gabler & Hill, 2015). Particularly for those working on a straight commission income, facing regular rejection from clients together with the constant pressure to make a sale and the uncertainty of when the next pay check will arrive all contribute to a stressful working environment (Kemp, Borders & Ricks, 2013). It is therefore critical that salespeople feel well supported in their jobs to help minimize the effects of stress and burnout (Kemp et al., 2013). For a sales manager, knowing how to motivate a sales team can be difficult as what motivates one individual may be different from another and therefore a 'one size fits all' motivation plan would be ineffective (Ali & Ahmed, 2009). It is the responsibility of sales managers to identify strategies to motivate each team member individually and to implement a plan to achieve this. To guide them, a number of theories including Vroom's expectancy theory and Herzberg's dual factor theory have tried to explain human behavior in relation to motivation and will be the basis for the following discussion.

2.1 Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory Vroom's expectancy theory is based on the premise that three factors; expectancy, instrumentality and valence play a key role in motivation (Nasri & Charfeddine, 2012). Page 2 When applying this to a sales setting, salespeople are likely to exert higher levels of effort into a task if they believe this will result in an improved sales performance (expectancy) (Lopez, Hopkins & Raymond, 2006). This may include participating in activities that do not result in an immediate sale including gathering information on clients and competitors. To ensure motivation is optimal, sales managers should focus on increasing expectancy by setting attainable performance goals (Lopez et al., 2006). Instrumentality exists when a salespeople believes that by meeting performance expectations they will be adequately rewarded (Locke & Latham, 2004). A good sales manager needs to identify when a salesperson's performance is excelling and ensure it is rewarded. Finally, valence occurs when the reward received is valued by the individual (Locke & Latham, 2004). This is where it is critical a sales manager is aware how each individual team member is motivated.

2.2. Frederick Herzberg Dual-Factor Theory In Herzberg's dual factor theory, work factors are divided into those that strongly contribute to job satisfaction (motivation factors) and those that are not strong contributors to job satisfaction but are needed to avoid job dissatisfaction (hygiene factors) (Nasri & Charfeddine, 2012). Under this theory, sales managers concentrate more effort on motivation factors in order to increase team member's level of job satisfaction (Nasri & Charfeddine, 2012). This may include recognizing employee contributions to the company and providing opportunities for internal promotion. To maximize motivation, sales managers should eliminate factors of dissatisfaction (Shipley & Kiely, 1986) which may include spending time fixing poor company policies or ensuring wages are competitive in the industry.

3.0 The Link between Motivation and Job Performance There are a number of factors that may determine what motivates a salesperson to perform well in the sales role some of which are outlined in Figure 1 below. Due to word limitations, only leadership style and job design will be discussed. Figure 1: The link between motivation and performance

The type of leadership style a sales manager adopts is closely linked to Rensis Likert's theory of organisational motivation which is based on four separate management styles; exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative and participative (Likert, 1977). Salespeople are more likely to be motivated to perform well in their job, if their sales manager adopts a participative leadership style (Likert, 1977). When they do this, it allows employees to feel they are truly valued as they have been consulted in the decision-making process and have had the opportunity to provide their own input supporting a two-way communication channel. Job design can also motivate a salesperson to perform well in the sales role. The job diagnostic model by Hackman and Oldham depicted in Figure 2 includes five core job dimensions including skill variety, task identity, task significance, job autonomy and job feedback that elicit psychological states in salespeople (Tyagi, 1985). When a salesperson experiences these dimensions, internal work motivation, work performance and general job satisfaction is improved (Tyagi, 1985). Figure 2: The job design model (Tyagi, 1985)

4.0 Company Profile Digi-World is an Australian based company with approximately 1200 staff employed in headquarters based in Melbourne, Victoria. With a focus on selling products that help plan and organised one's busy life in a digital format, Digi-World is set to release one of their most revolutionary products 'Digi-Board' to help increase sales after a slight decline in the past six months.

4.1 Product Overview and Marketing Mix The day's of writing manual shopping lists, using calendars that only offer limited space and using the fridge as a communication wall are over. Designed to be placed in a central location in the home, the Digi-Board is one communication board for all members of the family. Information could range from meal plans for the week, weekly chore lists or a daily topic to be discussed over family dinner. A brief marketing mix is included below. Table 1: Marketing mix for Digi-Board

4.2 My Experience in Sales I began my sales career working in the electrical department at Harvey Norman for three years however I resigned after working for a manager who was reluctant to provide me with any training so I could advance further within the company. Upon moving to Melbourne, I landed a sales position at Digi-World in the first six months of the company start-up. After three years, I was promoted to sales manager after consistently achieving top results within my team. I have now been a sales manager for eight months and have recently been assigned responsibility for a new team.

4.3 Territory Design According to Adam's Equity Theory, sales managers should take care when assigning territories to their teams to ensure no inequity exists. This means designing territories in a way that no individual salesperson is disadvantaged and that equal opportunity exists for everyone to achieve good results (Summers & DeNisi, 1990). Importantly, territories that are equal in size will not eliminate inequity. If a territory for a salesperson includes a key account it should be smaller than those that do not so no team member holds an unfair advantage (Gabler & Hill, 2015). A breakdown of the territories for each member is depicted in Table 2 below. Table 2: Territory design

Present Sales Culture Previous six months After a steady decline in sales, the CEO has warned there would be sanctions for those sales managers who did not increase their team's monthly sales turnover by 20%. This has caused Page 6 some to set unrealistic targets for their teams, expecting them to work up to 20 hours overtime a week otherwise face being terminated. The pressure has caused some salespeople to take indefinite leave after reaching a state of emotional exhaustion which is particularly common in salespeople due to the high demands of the job (Shepherd, Tashchian & Ridnour, 2011). Overall, the organisational culture is at an all-time low and staff are beginning to develop negative attitudes towards the company. Most recent month Recently, the CEO has resigned after it was alleged he fraudulently used thousands of company dollars for his own personal use. A new CEO has started and her open door policy already has staff optimistic about the future. One of her first priorities is to address the poor sales culture of the company which she knows can influence salespeople's behaviour (Treven, Muleg & Lynn, 2008). She has instructed sales managers ensure value congruity exists in the workplace by reducing the gap between individual's own personal values and the values held by the organisation to reduce the risk of role conflict and role ambiguity existing (Barnes, Jackson, Hull & Kumar, 2006). Speaking at her first sales meeting, she has announced that a new sales culture will be emphasised through a variety of rituals, ceremonies, stories and symbols (Futrell, 2001) all of which will be discussed further within the motivation program.

5.0 Motivational Program A motivation plan for Vanessa, David and Ben taking into consideration the information provided in appendix 1 will now be provided. Based on the seven components of the sales motivational mix, a summary of the plan is outlined in Table 3 below. Table 3: Seven components of the sales motivational mix

5.1 Sales Culture According to Futrell (2001), sales culture refers to "a set of key values, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, customs and other habits shared or acquired as a member of the sales group" (p. 276). It can influence how individuals perceive and interpret a situation directly affecting the behaviour and motivation of salespeople (Mirabela & Madela, 2013). Sales managers can use a combination of rituals, ceremonies, stories and symbols as outlined in Figure 3 to instil a strong sales culture (Futrell, 2001). Figure 3: Sales culture Using Geert Hofstede's cultural dimension framework, recommendations will now be made on how to use sales culture to improve the motivation levels of Vanessa, David and Ben. Ceremonies and Rituals National Sales Meetings Sales Newsletters Monthly Sales Meetings Stories Using stories as part of the orientation of news sales staff Guest Speakers Testimonials on Website Symbols Sales Achievement Awards Open Planned offices Special Plaques given on merit

5.1.1 Vanessa Vanessa is a 42 year old female originally from China. The Chinese culture according to Hofstedes framework, is depicted in Figure 4 below. In collective countries like China, people emphasise group needs over the needs of the individual and often there are expected norms of behaviour for different situations (Treven et al., 2008). Therefore a sales manager presenting Vanessa with an individual award for performance is not likely to motivate her. Instead, sales goals and targets and reward and recognition should be of a team nature (Fan & Zigang, 2013). 5.1.2 David David is a 36 year old male from Australia. The Australian culture according to Hofstedes framework is depicted in Figure 5 below. Figure 5: Australian culture according to Hofstede's cultural framework Australia has a highly individualistic culture meaning people prefer to act as individuals rather than members of a group (Nguyen, Chen, Chen & Yu, 2014). In the workplace, staff tend to use their initiative and not rely on superiors for instruction and recognition is based on evidence of what has been achieved (ITIM International, 2017b). Therefore David would best (ITIM International, 2017a) Figure 4: Chinese culture according to Hofstede's cultural framework (ITIM International, 2017b)

be motivated by individual assignments where he has the opportunity to receive personalised awards. Being the most experienced team member, he may also enjoy discussing his career in sales at training days for new recruits. 5.1.3 Ben Ben is a 25 year old male raised in the USA. As can be seen in Figure 6, American culture scores low in terms of power distance which is the degree to which society accepts that power in an organisation is distributed unequally (ITIM International, 2017c). This means in the workplace Ben is likely to question authority and will not respond well to an autocratic manager (Murphy, 1999). To best motivate Ben, a direct and participative communication and meeting style should be adopted (World Business Culture, 2016). In addition, due to his outgoing personality, when not on the road he would be best placed in an open planned office where interaction with co-workers is promoted to avoid the feeling of loneliness that is common among salespeople (Gabler & Hill, 2015). Figure 6: American culture according to Hofstede's cultural framework 5.2 Basic Compensation Satisfaction with pay is considered a key motivator as it can influence salespeople's attitudes and performance in the workplace (Cooke, 1999). Winer (1982) believes a combination salary plan including salary, commission and fringe benefits is the most motivating for salespeople and for that reason will be introduced for each team member. To attract and (ITIM International, 2017c) Page 10 retain the best sales staff, salaries will be offered at a higher rate than competitors (Madhani, 2015) and bonuses will be included. 5.2.1 Vanessa At 42 years old, Vanessa is considered in the establishment stage of the career life cycle. In this stage, she may experience a career plateau where productivity levels decrease due to a lack of motivation (Madhani, 2014). A good strategy for Vanessa if this occurs is to offer a higher base pay for successfully achieving sales targets. In addition to ensure money stays a motivating factor for her, the amount of commission she receives annually will increase by 5% per year of employment with the company (Cooke, 1999). Her pay will be structured as follows: 5.2.2 David Being with the company now for five years, David is in the exploration stage of the career life cycle where it is common salespeople feel they will not be adequately rewarded for performance, linking to Vroom's expectancy theory and lack of instrumentality (Madhini, 2014). To address this, David's motivational levels can be increased by the sales manager thoroughly communicating the compensation plans to him so there is no doubt in his mind what he will receive when performance targets are met (Madhani, 2014). David's pay will be structured as follows:

5.2.3 Ben At 25 years old, Ben is in the early stages of his career. During this stage a commission only plan would be too unstable and it is likely he would prefer a regular income as he may have big financial commitments after buying a house or car (Lopez et al., 2006). To motivate Ben, a compensation plan which includes both a salary and commission will be offered. As salespeople in the early stages of their career generally have the lowest levels of performance in the sales career (Madhani, 2014), Ben should find this pay structure works best for him. Ben's pay will be structured as follows: 5.3 Special Financial Incentives The compensation plan in addition to salary and commission can include financial incentives such as bonuses and sales contests. Bonuses are usually productivity based where a financial incentive is offered to those who meet performance quotas (Futrell, 2001). A 'one off' bonus may also be given as a way to thank staff for their commitment to an organisation. Sales contests are a way for managers to motivate staff to strive for better performance results. The reward may be financial or non-financial but must be perceived by everyone to be fair by giving everyone an equal opportunity to win despite their level of experience (Gopalakrishna, Garrett, Mantrala & Sridhar, 2016). A breakdown of what sales contests and bonuses will be offered is outlined in Table 4.

5.3.1 Vanessa As Vanessa is more motivated by team based activities rather than those based on her individual performance, a team based contest will be introduced. This would involve Vanessa, David and Ben working together in competition with another team from a different district. This would be beneficial for the company as team based contests have shown to outperform individual contests when team members get along well (Chen & Lim, 2017).

5.3.2 David As David have five years' experience with the company and is responsible for three key accounts he is likely to find sales contests particularly motivating. This is because he will enter contests full of confidence in his ability to reach quotas even though they are higher than his co-workers due to his experience. His confidence will motivate him to better manage the sales cycle and is likely to result in higher turnover for him throughout the contest (Gopalakrishna et al., 2016).

5.3.3 Ben Perceived unfairness is a major reason that sales contests fail (Moncrief, Hart, Roertson & Kurtz, 1988). Ben will be motivated with the suggested bonus/sales contest breakdown below as it takes into consideration the fact that he has only worked at the company for nine months. As such, his quotas are lower compared to other co-workers as he is currently only responsible for one key account. In time as he gains experience and control more territories, his quotas will increase to ensure fairness to Vanessa and David and to avoid them feeling like he is being given too much of a helping hand.

Table 4: Bonus and sales contest breakdown

5.4 Non-Financial Rewards Seen as the most common form of non-financial rewards, recognition is the formal or informal acknowledgment of the effort and business result achieved by an individual or group that supports the organisations goals and objectives (Hansen, Smith & Hansen, 2002). For recognition to have a motivating effect on employees there must be an equal opportunity for all staff to receive recognition and the criteria should be clearly communicated amongst staff (Limaye & Sharma, 2016). Other forms of non-financial rewards may include opportunities for promotion, challenging work assignment and options for a better work life balance.

5.4.1 Vanessa At 42 years old, Vanessa could be seen as part of the mature workforce. As such, she is likely to be motivated by those rewards that allow her to enjoy a good work life balance. To motivate her, flexible working arrangements including the option to work part time, to work from home or to have more flexible leave arrangements will be provided (Adisa, Mordi & Osabutey, 2017). In addition, the mature workforce are likely to respond to intrinsic rewards such as a pat on the back for a job well done therefore her manager should focus on recognising her efforts in a sincere and timely manner (Kauffman, 2001). 5.4.2 David As David is part of the Generation Y cohort he will respond well to managers who provide frequent praise and recognition in a greater variety of forms (Suleman & Nelson, 2011). His sales manager will write a thank you letter, handing out an award and recognising his contributions at monthly sales meetings, acknowledging his successes in staff bulletin and verbally praising him in team meetings. 5.4.3 Ben Ben is an outgoing salesman and the youngest in the team. When examining David McClelland's three needs theory, it can be concluded that Ben has a high need for power and that power is what motivates him. A sales manager can use this to their advantage to motivate Ben by providing the opportunity for him to act in the sales manager's role where necessary or by matching him with a new employee and giving him the responsibility to be their mentor. He's the youngest and most inexperienced, so this may be a bit premature 5.5 Sales Training Just as individuals are motivated in different ways, the way in which they learn best may also be different. Thorough training is not only important for new sales team members but also for experienced team members to ensure their selling techniques are up to date. Good training will be provided in multiple ways including through interactive multimedia, electronic performance support systems, role-playing, on the job-training and sales meetings (Futrell, 2001). Some of these training methods will be used to motivate the sales team in addition to some further suggestions that will be explored.

5.5.1 Vanessa As Vanessa has a more reserved personality, in addition to the regular ongoing training she will receive through the methods mentioned above, she would be an ideal candidate to take part in the pre-testing stage of new training materials. For example, when new interactive multimedia training is created, Vanessa would be able to test it and provide feedback to sales managers before it goes live to new recruits. Her honest feedback could be a source of value to sales managers and the organisation. 5.5.2 David As David is the most experienced in the sales team the opportunity will be given for Vanessa and Ben to spend one day per month working with David out in the field. Not only will this provide an opportunity for team members to socialise, but Vanessa and Ben may learn from David's experiences and selling techniques. David will likely feel a sense of entitlement and be motivated by this new responsibility. 5.5.3 Ben As Ben is the most recent person to participate in the training for new staff members, he is an ideal person to provide feedback to the sales manager on how training could be improved moving forward. In addition, to motivate Ben he will also be given the opportunity to participate in future training days by presenting to new recruits. The public speaking is likely to suit Ben because of his sociable personality and this responsibility will provide him with more job variety relieving him from the boredom he may feel from the monotony of his day to day work life. 5.6 Leadership A sales manager can uses their leadership skills to effectively lead a team by promoting a positive attitude among team members, presenting clear goals, by praising and providing guidance to salespeople where necessary and by maintaining an open communication policy (Hu, Yang & Islam, 2010). Salespeople can respond to different leadership styles therefore to get the most out of each team member, a situational leadership style depicted in Table 5, will be adopted. This involves a sales manager changing their leadership style depending on the developmental level of each team member.

Page 16 Table 5: Breakdown of the situational leadership style 5.6.1 Vanessa When looking back at Hofstede's cultural framework in comparison to David and Ben, Vanessa scores highly in regards of power distance. This means in the workforce she is likely to follow rules and not question authority. With this in mind a telling leadership style would motivate Vanessa best. She is likely to enjoy structure in her work life and is happy to come to work each day and have her manager explain what her responsibilities will be. At times, this may even include the sales manager providing a demonstration on how to do something she has not previously done before. 5.6.2 David Due to David's experience level, a 'delegating' leadership style may be best adopted by the sales manager. This would involve the sales manager having complete faith in David to complete tasks or special assignments with little to no direction required. David will find the freedom to do this without supervision rewarding and he will be motivated to complete them to the highest of standards. 5.6.3 Ben

Due to Ben only being with the company for nine months, a combination of telling and selling leadership styles will best motivate him. There still may be things that Ben has not learnt yet about sales such as how to prepare a sales presentation that will require an explanation from his sales manager. In addition, the sales manager may adopt a selling leadership style when persuading Ben on the benefits of participating in additional job training.

5.7 Performance Evaluation A well thought out performance evaluation system gives a sales manager the opportunity to evaluate a salesperson's performance over a set period of time (Futrell, 2001). It can act as a motivator by providing a way of linking compensation to performance (Huffman & Cain, 2000) as well as a formal environment in which recognition of salespersons achievements can be given. In addition feedback on performance can be provided and recommendations for future training and career development opportunities can be made. If an evaluation system is designed poorly it can undermine employee motivation and may contribute to role ambiguity and job dissatisfaction (Huffman & Cain, 2000).

5.7.1 Vanessa Vanessa finds performance evaluations motivating as it provides her with a sense of personal value. She appreciates that her sales manager takes the time to sit down with her and discuss all areas of her performance making her feel important and valued member of the team. She is particularly motivated by any constructive feedback provided. If there is an opportunity discussed for improvement she was unaware of, she is motivated by knowing what it is so a discussion can be had on how to improve it.

5.7.2 David During previous performance evaluations David has made it clear his intentions to become a sales manager himself one day. A performance evaluation will therefore be motivating for David as it provides an opportunity to discuss with his sales manager his career development including how he is currently performing and what he needs to achieve in the future to be considered for a promotion. By providing clear objectives for David, he is likely to walk away feeling optimistic about his future prospects at the company.

5.7.3 Ben Being the newest employee, Ben holds responsibility over the smallest number of key accounts. Therefore for Ben to find the evaluation system motivating, the sales manager needs to take this into consideration when discussing performance results and rewards. If this occurs, he is likely to view the performance evaluation more favourably as it will be seen to be fair and useful. As a sales manager, a discussion could also be had with Ben about territory design and the possibility of increasing his workload to include additional key accounts in the future.

6.0 Conclusion The responsibility of motivating a team is difficult in that everybody is motivated by different factors, some intrinsic and some extrinsic. Motivation for performance comes from within one's self. It is the responsibility of the sales manager to elicit drive and effort in salespeople by providing an environment in which they can succeed. This motivational plan has examined the seven components of the motivation mix in relation to three members of the sales team at Digi-World; Vanessa, David and Ben and has provided strategies on how to individually motivate each team member to perform at their optimal level within the sales role.