If you think sales people are motivated by money, think again. SalesMax is one of our highly validated and reliable assessments for selecting consultative sales persons. It is a unique psychometric test in the assessment arena because it not only measures sales personality (the most important measure), but also sales knowledge and sales motivations. It’s the latter measure I wish to address in this article.
From years of observing SalesMax reports I have always been puzzled why the motivation of money is not a key sales driver. Last week the team at Assess Systems dived into the SalesMax database and crunched the numbers from the motivations scale. The results were in line with my casual observations. Of the eight motivators measured, the extent to which one is motivated by financial rewards, such as money and material possessions, ranks number five on the list.
Before expanding on possible reasons, lets look at what the motivation scale in SalesMax measures.
- Recognition/attention – values recognition for work well done; enjoys being the centre of attention
- Control – prefers positions of leadership with control, likes being in charge
- Money – motivated by financial rewards, such as money and material possessions
- Freedom – values personal freedom to make decisions and function independently
- Developing expertise – values becoming an expert in developing skills in their chosen field
- Affiliation – motivated by interactions with other people. Enjoys helping and dealing with people
- Security/stability – motivated by stability and security of life and their career
- Achievement – motivated by overcoming successful challenges: enjoys challenges for their own sake
The SalesMax motivation scale provides insight into the relative strengths or importance of each motivator to the candidate. This is indicated as a percentage of the times the candidate selected this particular motivator over the other possible motivators presented.
Now to our results
In rank order, these are the scale scores (as a percentage) prospective sales persons chose one motivator over the rest. Scores have been rounded:
- Achievement = 50%
- Developing expertise = 20%
- Affiliation = 8%
- Security = 7%
- Money = 7%
- Freedom = 4%
- Control = 2%
- Recognition = 1%
Although we did not go to the extent of grouping scores by sales types, we did do this by clients. In all cases the Achievement scale came out a clear winner.
However, the Money scale did have variations depending on the sales process and method of remuneration, identified by client type. For example, where the sales process involved selling a consumable item on a retainer/commission basis the Money scale score was 19%; on the other hand, if the processing was more service oriented, or consultative, the score was 2%. Despite this obvious difference, I remain quite surprised that the Money scale still rates low.
One of our clients did make the comment that there may be some management of self-impression going on here; the candidates did not want to be perceived as money hungry. I made the counter comment that this may work against them, in that a potential employer may feel that if the person had no drive to earn good money then their sales drive could be equally lethargic, particularly if remuneration was commission oriented.
Another explanation could be the cart before the horse approach, that is being driven by the recognition and attention for a job well done will naturally result in increased earnings. What are your thoughts?
