Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Don’t Fire Them; Fire Them Up!

Many years ago now, I read a book titled Don’t Fire Them, Fire Them Up: Motivate Yourself and Your Team by Frank Pacetta, who was a Xerox executive at the time. As the title states, the book was all about getting people fired up so that they would be great salespeople. That idea has stuck with me; I still think about it today when I see the way some companies treat their salespeople.

Some leaders blame their salespeople for lack of sales when their own product is lousy and late. They accuse them of being “too much on the customer’s side,” as if there ever could be such a thing. Other executives lead the charge when it comes to scolding the sales team for not bringing in sales in a “timely fashion,” meaning even monthly buckets that will avoid the peaks and valleys of business that tend to mess with management’s neat ideas on production control.

I’ve often written about a company owner who insisted on coming in the last hour of a three-day, $25,000 annual sales meeting and berating his sales team. He would tear them from proverbial limb to limb about what a bunch of bums they were, and if they did not shape up, they would all be shipping out soon. Then, he would verbally kick their butts out of the door and back to their territories to do a great job for him this year, for a change.

In the end, he was right because the entire sales team left for greener (and friendlier) pastures as soon as they could pull it off. Once they did that, the idiot owner was more convinced than ever that salespeople were “all disloyal bums” and was glad they were all gone. He closed his business a few years later.

If you take nothing else away from these humble scribblings of an old sales guy, please remember this simple-but-true lesson: The way your salespeople act and perform will be directly proportional to how you treat them. Treat your sales team as a band of winners, and they will win; they will go into the world with the clear-eyed confidence of true warriors who can, and will, conquer the world (or at least your marketplace). Just like a sports team, a sales team has to be led, encouraged, motivated, and most of all, inspired. If you are willing to do that, you will never have a problem with your sales team again.

From one of my favorite little books (I love books!), Minute Motivators for Leaders by Stan Toler, here are 10 great characteristics of true leaders. Please take these to heart and use them every day not just with your sales team, but with all of your employees.

1. Leaders Accentuate the Positive

They focus on the good things, including the good attributes of their own people, and grow them.

2. Leaders Put Actions to Their Ideas

They not only talk the game but also walk it, showing the way to everyone—especially those they are leading.

3. Leaders Are Servants

They believe that management is an inverted pyramid with them at the bottom, supporting all of those who report to them, eliminating any obstacles to their ultimate success.

4. Leaders Empower and Release the Team

They are not afraid to encourage their employees to perform at a high level. They love hiring people who are smarter than them knowing that the better the team, the better the company will be.

5. Leaders Reward Excellence

They make sure that a person who does a great job is recognized both privately and publicly.

6. Leaders Really Care About People

This is a very important characteristic of leaders. To be a great leader, they have to genuinely like and care about people. They must have true empathy for what people face every day and try to support them to make every day a success both for their employees, and in turn, the company.

7. Leaders Value Team Diversity

They understand that the more diverse a team is, the better it will be.

8. Leaders Focus on the Mission

They need to be mission-focused at all times because they need to keep their team mission-focused as well.

9. Leaders Become Acquainted With the Team

They have to know everyone on their team and understand that the people who work for them are not numbers. They also have to understand how each team member functions as an individual, including what it takes to motivate them.

10. Leaders Love People

Yes, this goes with the job. They might not like everyone, but they love them with the care, commitment, and investment that will make each member of the team, and the team as a whole, great.

Conclusion

Once again, think about these 10 characteristics and make them part of your everyday work, and even your own existence, and you will be a better person and leader.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.