Meaning of Motivation

Motivation is goal-directed behavior, underlying which are certain needs or desires. The term “needs” suggests a lack of something that reaching the goal could satisfy, while the term “desires” suggests positive ardor and strength of feeling. The complex of needs and desires stemming from within, individuals leads them to act so as to satisfy these needs and desires.

Specifically, as applied to sales personnel, motivation is the amount of effort the salesperson desires to expend on the activities associated with the sales job, such as calling on potential accounts, planning sales presentations, and filling out reports. Expending effort on each activity making up the sales job leads to some level of achievement on one or more dimensions of job performance-total sales volume, profitability, and sales to new accounts, quota attainment, and the like.

Who wants what from motivation?

The person

• Health & well-being, safety/order, social affiliation/ acceptance, recognition & rewards (extrinsic/intrinsic, stimulus & incentive Feelings of self worth/value, command of destiny, realization of personal aspirations/ expectations Equity Power Affiliation

The employer

• Trusted, reliable employees who give their all,
• Ability to construe employee motivation needs & drives + relate to: effort, economic efficiency, performance, retention, loyalty & commitment, membership culture, empowerment, obligation-duty, participation & contribution, work design, better teams.

To most people motivation suggests the level or amount of energy directed by someone toward a single task or goal .In business, motivation is used as a synonym for productivity. A sales person is motivated if job performance exceeds the level expected by the firm.

Motivation is a term originally derived from the latin word mover which means to ‘move ‘but has been expanded to include the various factors by which human behaviour is activated. In any discussion about the motivation of sales- people, the following questions need to be answered:

• What affects salesperson’s behaviour ?
• What influences the intensity of behaviour ?
• What directs the person’s behaviour?
• How is the behavior maintained over time?

A sales manager seeks to influence salespeople to do certain activities, to work hard to reach activity goals and to do so over the long haul and not occasionally.