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Podcast: Selfish vs Greedy

Apr 12, 2021 6:45:00 AM

TreeandMoney

 

Symptoms:

Julie felt conflicted as she listened to the other members of the sales team talk about how they were going to spend the big commissions everyone was earning this quarter. The sales managers created a program that paid bonus dollars to everyone’s comp plan if they sold the base products and three or more add-ons to at least 50% of their customers for this quarter. The payoffs added potentially 50% to the average commission for anyone that made the extra effort. Julie was not troubled by the amount of money on the table, but she was troubled by the way a few of the top producers were willing to take advantage of some of their customers to qualify for the extra pay. It seemed to Julie that these people were crossing the line, and to her that was greedy and perhaps unethical. Of course, she wanted the extra money, but Julie felt like life was good and that the incentive was nice, but not all that motivating.

Diagnosis:

Like many people Julie was raised with some scripts about money, being content and satisfied, or even grateful for what she had made of herself and the life she could afford. Who has not heard that money is the root of all evil or that good things come to those who wait? Julie could not quiet the subconscious voice of her parents telling her to share, not get too big for her britches and that good things come to those who wait. In her mind Julie thought that chasing the almighty dollar was a trait that made people unattractive and, in most cases, greed came to mind when her teammates got all hyped up with the spiff program opportunity. Julie would work hard, but she had no intentions of letting a desire to just make more money get the worst of her.

Prescription:

Greed, or the desire to do whatever it takes to make money is not good in any situation. When people will use unethical or immoral behavior to get more money, they have crossed the line. That type of behavior typically ends up causing problems despite the immediate gains and rewards someone may realize. On the other hand, being selfish as a sales producer can be important to keeping motivation high and maintaining strong commitment. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be successful and enjoying the rewards of success earned through hard work and delivering value to the client or customer. By setting personal goals and doing what it takes to achieve those goals is often what sets the best salespeople from the average producers that just cannot seem to get over an earnings hump. Being selfish in the context of wanting to be more successful than you have been before and living a more comfortable life that you currently enjoy is in no way the same as being greedy. There is no crime in being able to say yes to more things tomorrow than you could yesterday. Julie needs to set some gutsy, stretch goals and believe she can and will be worthy of that success.

Critical Thinking:

Have you had to reframe your thoughts and scripting about "wanting it all" or "being greedy"? Are there any situations where you could have had a big windfall, but you would have had to "do what it takes" and maybe that wasn't the best for your client? 

 

The Drill:
Final Thought for the Morning:

"Greed is not a financial issue. It's a heart issue."  Andy Stanley
SELFISH isn't a dirty word. Fit your own oxygen mask first so you're able to help someone else

Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week

LAST WEEK: Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.

THIS WEEK: Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash