Business Leadership Speakers For Your Sales Team
There is perhaps no greater investment than one made for your workforce. The ability to unlock the potential of the people that work for you has a greater ROI than any technological upgrade or cost savings program. This is especially the case for your sales force. As a result, consultants and think tanks invest large amounts of time researching the best way to motivate salespeople — in many ways, sales motivation is the holy grail of revenue growth and productivity. Articles are published every year, each one claiming to have found the answer to what really motivates salespeople.
What Really Motivates Your Sales Force
In 2012, two authors from the Harvard Business School published an article entitled Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works. For these researchers the answer was segmentation, and to a larger extent, commission structure. According to the article, there are three groups: core performers, laggards and stars. Laggards are your bottom 10% in terms of performance, stars are your top 10% and core performers are the 80% in between. Each group is motivated by a different set of incentives incorporated into the compensation structure. Prizes work best for core performers. Quarterly (as opposed to annual) bonuses are best for laggards, and an unlimited commission structure is the best motivation for stars.
In April of 2015, a professor, also from the Harvard Business School, published an article titled How to Really Motivate Salespeople. The professor came to the conclusion that “ratcheting (raising a salesperson’s annual quota if he or she exceeded it the previous year) dampens motivation”. Like the previous authors, this professor also suggests that it’s important to pay attention to the timing of bonuses.
Why You Should Really Hire Keynote Speakers To Motivate Your Sales Force
Aside from being good entertainment, motivational speakers can supercharge your sales force. They have the unique ability to produce results for your entire sales team, regardless of segmentation or performance level. An effective motivational speaker has the power to reinvigorate the jaded ‘stars’, offer a reboot to the ‘laggards’, and turn the most senior core performers into agents of change — all in one sitting. While a motivational speaker isn’t a direct increase to compensation, employees still feel rewarded and appreciated. What’s more, the effect is instantaneous — there’s no implementation or integration involved.
Four Business Leadership Speakers That Will Motivate Your Team
Steve Wozniak – Better known as “The Woz”, Steve Wozniak has been a Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades. As co-founder of Apple Comptuter and inventor of the Apple II computer, Wozniak has revolutionized the personal compter industry. He helped to build the largest company in the US stock market with a net worth of half a trillion dollars. His leadership and creativity has made him successful in is various business and philanthrhropic ventures. Steve Wozniak is a talented business speaker and shares his lessons of Apple to show that evolution is achieved from the ground up.
Robert B. Zoellick – Robert B. Zoellick is one of the world’s most distinguished authorities on the global economy, international finance, and foreign policy. He is currently the non-excutive chairman of AllianceBernstein and is also a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and international affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Zoellick was president of the World Bank Corp from 2007-2012 and served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary of State, as well as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff. He is unrivaled in his depth and breadth of what makes global economies tic and how best to operate in an increasingly global market, making him a powerful business speaker.
Carly Fiorina – Leader extraordinaire known for building HP into the largest technology company in the world, Carly Fiorina became one of America’s most visible and influential corporate leaders and one of the world’s most distinguished business innovators. Fiorina started her career filing and answering phones as a secretary in a 9-person real estate firm and over the years, moved up to become the first woman to lead a Fourtune 50 business and allow HP to survive the worst technology recession in 25 years. She is a passionate speaker, advocating for conservative policies that advance economic growth, entrepreneurship, innovation, and effective leadership.
Gary Locke – Ambassador Gary Locke is one of the world’s foremost authorities on U.S.-China relations in addition to global innovation and business growth. Drawing on his vast experiences as U.S. Ambassador to China, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and two-term Governor of Washington, Locke provides audiences with keen insights on how to grow an organization’s global presence in China, despite the complex and multifaceted differences between the two cultures.
At Worldwide Speakers Group, we are proud to represent these and other world class keynote speakers in business. WWSG’s exclusive speakers can offer your sales force an experience with the capacity to inspire and motivate everyone. Compensation is important, but the real goal is keeping your employees happy and we have the best speakers to help you do it.
Contact us to host any of these thought leaders for a speaking engagement.