But let’s be clear about what I mean. I don’t mean salespeople that are constantly laughing, joking and always smiling. I mean people who enjoy what they are doing day-to-day because of the environment they are working in and the people that they work with. These people will sell more and stay with you longer and there is research that proves it.

The Gallop Organisation has surveyed organisations worldwide for more than 30 years to identify "the core elements that attract and retain productive employees.

They have identified twelve elements or factors that make an organisation a great place to work. Gallop defined a great workplaces as "…those that performed well on four measurable outcomes: employee retention, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability."

Now although their research was based on employees right across organisations, those of us in sales should recognise that this is especially true for our most talented and productive salespeople.

I think this aspect of the research is sufficient evidence for any Sales Manager to be motivated to create a great place to work. If you are not, you are encouraging your most talented salespeople to leave and keeping the under-performers. The most talented, productive salespeople will gravitate towards an organisation that is a great place to work.

So how do you create a great place to work?

The good news is that most of the 12 factors identified by Gallop do not require financial investment. Some of these factors that employees want are:

o To know what is expected of them. This came up as the number one element of a great place to work, and amazingly up to 70% of employees are not clear about what is expected of them.

o To be able to use their talents every day.

o To receive recognition or praise for good work.

o To know that someone at work cares about them as a person.

o To have the opportunity to learn and grow.

o To have their ideas listened to.

Good pay did not rate a mention, and in fact the researchers found people who had opted for less income to remain in a great place to work, as well as people who were very unhappy on high salaries.

Perhaps the most significant finding coming out of this research is that the bulk of the factors that create a great place to work are not provided at the organisational level, but at the work group level.

In other words that means YOU. The sales manager is the key to increasing the productivity and profitability of their sales team.

Sales Managers and Supervisors need to have both good communication skills and relationship building skills to create that great place to work. Your salespeople are not really asking for much. They just want you to let them know what you expect of them and treat them with the same respect that any human being would expect.

The only two factors out of the twelve that can be controlled by management at an organisational level are "having the materials and equipment I need to do my work right", and "working for a company whose mission makes me feel like my work is important".

Another survey conducted by International Survey Research for the University of Chicago, of 17 million people in 40 countries between 1972 and 1986 asked this question:

What is it that you want or need in the workplace to be happy and fulfilled, and be able to perform at your best?

The findings were very similar to the Gallop result with eight primary values that employees identified. They want:

• to be told the truth;
• to be trusted;
• to be given help when they need it;
• management to listen to their ideas;
• to try out new things to improve performance;
• to get credit when it is due;
• to work for an honest ethical organisation they can be proud of;
• an environment where people put the interests of others ahead of their own.

Again pay does not feature in these priorities but obviously to a certain extent it is a given. And once more most of these values are not something that the organisation can change. They are dependent on the values and skills of and the environment created by the manager or supervisor.

Great Workplaces are More Profitable.

There is a growing body of research here in Australia, as well as in America and Europe that has made the connection between employee satisfaction and profitably. The research in Europe has established a direct correlation between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability. In other words, as you increase your salespeople’s satisfaction, customer satisfaction increases and sales and profits increase.

Our own ongoing research using the Strategic Alignment Survey® continues to support the findings of these two major research studies.

So what sort of environment are you creating at your organisation? Do you have happy salespeople working for you? Review what the research shows and try asking some open-ended questions of your own people. You may be surprised at what you learn.

David Flint

David Flint is the General Manager of Integro Learning Company Pty Ltd and a regular writer for Sales Manager Magazine among many other things.

Phone: (02) 9453 4555
Email: dflint@integro.com.au