Eureka Moments: Epiphanies of a Serial Reward Seeker
I’ve just completed my third week as a BDM, working for a company that specialises in helping clients achieve desired outcomes by changing employee and customer behaviour…yay for me (and hopefully yay for them too).
I’m a career salesperson; love the thrill of the chase and the joy of winning. 15 years on since I fell into my first sales role and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Not many other jobs would pander to my proclivity for being rewarded for performance the way that being a salesperson does and now I have a role where I get to convince other people that rewards pave the road to success, my cup brimmeth over.
First things first though. I need to learn about the philosophy and mechanics of what makes a successful incentive programme. The previous 15 years have been spent at the receiving end so, basically, sell lots of technology and make lots of commission dollars which will then lead to buying the next cool toy that will complete my existence and bring me joy…till the next toy gets on the radar that is. Yup, you guessed it. Consumerism has me firmly in its grasp but we’ll save that one for another day….
Here’s the startling discovery that I’ve made after just a week of learning: Cash is not king! Shock, horror, gasp! This is challenging the very foundation that my entire career has been based on. Or is it?
Time for some background: the blame for me being a salesperson can be placed squarely at my Dad’s doorstep. Yup, I went there! In all seriousness, year 1 (class 1 if you went to Primary School in Fiji like I did) he told me that if I topped my class he’d give me the Mickey Mouse watch that 5 year old me had been lusting after. He even showed me said watch to prove that it did actually exist and told me that he would keep it safe. Clever Daddy!
That was it, I was hooked. Reward negotiations at the start of the school year became a father daughter tradition. I mean, what else was I going to grow up to be?? I was trained to be a salesperson from when I was pint sized. Top of class equals reward. Top of sales ladder equals most commission. At least that’s what I thought till last week.
On reflection, I realise that whilst I was motivated to a degree by money, what I wanted more was the respect and kudos that came with being at the top. I also realise that even though I’ve had a few 5 figure commission cheques that made for brief woohoo moments, they were, indeed, brief. Lost all too soon to the mundaneness of reducing the mortgage or some such. In fact, I’m struggling to remember the deals that I closed for those cheques.
I do, however, remember the Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo that I got as my company car when I won that cornerstone client that my then employer had been chasing for 6 years (even remember where I was when I got the call from the client). I remember that I worked really hard to get that car. The sales target per BDM was 250 units and I delivered just over 1200 units that year and that employer is fondly remembered as a great employer, even to this day.
Moral of the story: Cash may be king but non cash rewards are the Aces of the incentives world.
