Demotivation of a sales team.....

We trained the Sales Department of a major tech company, and here was the problem:
The CEO of that company had set objectives that seemed impossible for the salespeople to attain.
According to the team members, they were too high! Though they had done fine in the past, they
felt discouraged, pressured, and their productivity suffered. The sales Manager called us to
intervene.

Let's point out one thing before we start. According to neuroscience studies, objectives should be
neither too high nor too low. If they are too low, they are not motivating enough. If they are too
high, they can be demotivating. The correct objective puts us in a flow and results in increased
productivity!

So in the situation we were asked to intervene, how could we remotivate the salespeople?

We resorted to one of our concepts: Don't Take the Finger for the Moon. What is our true objective
in life? Is it to earn a lot of money? To be successful? To be recognized? No, all these are simply
means or vehicles. Our true objective behind all this is to feel good and promote happiness.

So we told the salespeople to forget about the objective fixed by the top management. Since this
objective made the salespeople feel stressed and discouraged and impeded them from acting and
being efficient, what was it worth?

We proposed another objective instead: to feel good daily and set up a few small plans each day and
act on them.

Immediately, their stress level dropped. They became enthusiastic. They did not have to perform to
reach impossible heights anymore. They just had to decide on some actions each day and do them.
They were happy when they got a rendezvous with a prospect. Whatever the results, they were
joyful.

And what happened? Their motivation skyrocketed! Not only did they reach the objectives they
thought impossible to attain, but they exceeded them!

Why? Simply because they did not take the Finger for the Moon.

This action led them to success and rebuilt their confidence in themselves and in what they were
doing - thus having an impact on their personal development as well.