I always find it a little odd when companies use rewards for motivating their sales forces. People are rarely motivated by gaining something. We work hard not to do that - at least not in the traditional sense. Motivating people with "gains" such as bonuses, gifts and trips isn't enough to keep them doing what is best for them...being successful (in whatever manner of compensation they are seeking), having great customers and workplace satisfaction. It only leads to the salesperson working on the wrong thing - selling for selling sake and that's a road to failure.  Oh sure, we believe strongly in having people work on commissions because it provides a way to reward them for working smarter, but when communicating with prospects we insist that our people identify something painful about the prospect's current situation and if they can't find it, move on quickly. We work hard to train them not to be misled by people looking to make things a little better, (a pain indicator, like an occasional cough); no, they need to be confident that one of our software products will relieve a considerable amount of pain. Clearly the levels of pain correspond somewhat to the cost of the "cure" in both time and money, but you might be surprised how often it isn't either one of those things - time or money, that correlate to someone's decision.

We have the utmost respect for someone's decision, because after all it's their time and their money. Our frustration, and I'm sure many of yours, comes into play when you know if you brought the horse to the water he'd drink, but I'm here to tell you he may not. Just like you can't get into the head of why a horse might not drink if you led him to water - it could be that the water is tainted, it could be that the horse isn't as thirsty as you think it should be - it could be a multitude of things. Sometimes you just can't get into the head of humans. People make decisions to buy and implement a new way of doing something for their own reasons, not yours. We aren't all trained psychologists, so it doesn't make sense for us to always try and figure out someone's reasoning, i.e. get into their head, but it is our responsibility to help someone come to a conclusion to buy or implement something new. We have a responsibility to do it in the shortest time possible for everyone's sake.

Here's what you need to know. People like to think for themselves, they will resist anything that's not their idea at first and protect their "system" or current way of doing things at all costs.  Just like in therapeutic sessions, you really have an uphill battle to "sell" people. You need to focus instead on whether or not they are in sufficient need of solving a real problem. If you can't or won't do that, they will continue to settle for a system that keeps them limping along. A salesperson's job is to be disciplined enough to have a process of taking a prospect through sufficient discovery so they and only they can make the right decision for themselves. Note, I didn't say the right decision...I said the right decision for them. You may never learn why they made the decision they did, but you best recognize that it was theirs to make (or their boss's to make, or their employees to make, or their significant others to make) and you need to be good with that. Of course, it's always difficult to go with what you feel is a wrong decision when you sincerely have their best interest at heart.

So like a good doctor trying to help a sick patient who may not be able to describe the symptoms well enough, find the pain, the real acute pain and you can solve the problem. Doing anything else is just a waste of everyone's time.
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