One of your personable and bright salespeople looks as if he is headed for trouble. After a bad six-month period, Mark has been put on probation. As Mark's manager, you could either leave him to sink or swim over the next six months, or you could take an active role in trying to help him through positive reinforcement. You decide to try the latter.
What should your aim be in helping Mark? The overall objective is to ensure that his sales for the year are no worse than 5 per cent below quota. However, this is too long-term an objective. By the time it is met, or not, the problem will be solved or Mark will be demoted. It is necessary to break this goal down into smaller facets. In this way, Mark's behavior can be shaped with small movements made on the way to achieving the goal.
Mark's target for the year was USD 150,000. During the first six months he produced USD 70,000 in confirmed bookings, USD 10,000 less than his target for that period. In order to avoid demotion, he must produce more than USD 142,500 (USD 150,000 less 5 per cent) in annual sales. This means that in the next six months, Mark must produce another USD 72,500 to avoid demotion or USD 80,000 to meet the annual goal. The goal of USD 72,500 is an example of negative reinforcement: attempting to induce positive behavior through the avoidance of negative consequences, the demotion. Positive reinforcement, achieving positive behavior through the pursuit of positive consequences, would be working toward meeting or surpassing the annual goal and getting the appropriate commission.
At the moment, it probably would be better initially to go for the avoidance of demotion rather than anything higher. Realizing that this is not as powerful a motivator as the pursuit of a positive, you schedule a meeting with Mark. You express your desire to be of assistance. Together you break down the six-month, twenty-six-week goal of USD 72,500 into mini-goals of USD 12,100 a month and USD 2,789 a week.
At the end of the first week, Mark reports sales of USD 2,500. What do you do? Offering recognition of this subpar performance reinforces his not meeting the goal. The best thing is to keep quiet. By the second week, confirmed sales for the week are USD 2,800. Now what? Reinforce the movement, not the total. The total is still below the two-week target of USD 5,578. Emphasizing the total will freeze the number USD 2,800 in Mark's mind. You want to encourage the movement, however. Reinforce movement to get more movement; reinforce a level to maintain that level. A short note might do the trick: "Glad to see your sales figures are moving up. Keep up the good work!"
By the end of the first month, confirmed sales have risen to USD 12,000. Since Mark has missed the new goal by only USD 100, can we increase expectations to strive for the year-end target of USD 150,000, thereby ensuring all of Mark's commission? Probably not yet. One month of almost making it is not a good enough track record to suggest that the goal should be increased. Better to keep expectations at the same level.
Maintaining the positive feedback when the weekly objective has been achieved, and avoiding negatives when it is not, seems to be working. At the end of three months, confirmed sales are USD 40,000. You send Mark a USD 50 gift certificate for a local store. Another three months just like the last and Mark can make his quota and achieve his full commission. This would be a realistic time to sit down with him and raise the goal to that very thing. The monthly goal now becomes USD 13,334, the weekly objective USD 3,100.
For three weeks now, Mark has been passing his targets. What do you do? This is probably the time to cut back on the reinforcement. If you stop the reinforcement completely, chances are that Mark's results will drop off. The next time the weekly goal is met, make a mental note but do not get in touch with Mark. If it happens again, make note of the two-week target and let him know. In this way Mark does not know after which week the reinforcement, now intermittent, will come. He behaves, however, as if this next one will be the time for praise.
The end of the year is approaching. Mark's year-end confirmed sales are USD 147,500, USD 2,500 less than his quota. In view of his effort during these last six months (Mark's figures of USD 77,500 topped his previous six- month total of USD 70,000) should we waive the annual quota and reward Mark? (After all, think of the effort you also put in.) However, it would be a big mistake to reward Mark. It would reward him for not meeting his annual quota. The effect on the morale of the other salespeople also would be disastrous. But won't Mark be disappointed? Of course he will. Then what should you do? The key is to stress two things. First, that demotion was avoided and his record is clean. More important, focus on the second six months. If Mark can keep on producing at that level, he not only will meet his quota next time but also will get the bonus for surpassing the quota by more than 10 per cent.
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