---
title: "Is Performance Managed or Motivated?"
description: "Someone asked me whether performance is achieved through management or motivation. This is an interesting question worth discussing. The answer is that both are indispensable, but the key is knowing when to use each: use management where possible, and use motivation where management cannot measure."
author: "刘昭"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-07-04"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-performance-managed-or-motivated-5c816744/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-performance-managed-or-motivated-5c816744.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ILoataOIoinIb0qPvmqTAA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%9A%E7%BB%A9%E6%98%AF%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86%E5%87%BA%E6%9D%A5%E7%9A%84-%E8%BF%98%E6%98%AF%E6%BF%80%E5%8A%B1%E5%87%BA%E6%9D%A5%E7%9A%84-5c816744.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-performance-managed-or-motivated-5c816744/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Is Performance Managed or Motivated?

> Someone asked me whether performance is achieved through management or motivation. This is an interesting question worth discussing. The answer is that both are indispensable, but the key is knowing when to use each: use management where possible, and use motivation where management cannot measure.

Someone asked me, is performance achieved through management or motivation? This question is very interesting, so let's discuss it.
First, imagine what an enterprise would be like if it had only management but no motivation. There's no need to imagine; in fact, before 1986, sales nationwide had no motivation. It wasn't until a company called Fool's Melon Seeds, initiated by the famous entrepreneur Nian Guangjiu, took the lead in launching "prize sales" nationwide. At that time, the first prize was a Shanghai-brand car, and within three months, they achieved a profit of 1 million yuan. Now, it's almost universally accepted that sales have commissions and bonuses. Whether the pre-1986 sales methods were better or the current ones are better is not worth discussing. With motivation, salespeople's drive is stimulated! Positions with only management and no motivation are like ordinary workers on a production line; just calculate wages by working hours.
Now imagine an enterprise with only motivation and no management. The sales director says, "Go out and do business; if you make sales, you get commissions!" In the most extreme case, salespeople wouldn't even have a basic salary. What does such an enterprise remind you of? That's right, "pyramid schemes." I won't elaborate on the evils of pyramid schemes here; we can discuss that later.
A sales director will inevitably realize that relying solely on motivation is not enough. At least, there should be a system for motivation, such as what the basic sales task is, what the threshold for commissions is, what the cap is, and whether different stages have different ratios. This behavior is adding a bit of "management" on top of motivation.
At this point, the basic answer is already clear: both "motivation" and "management" are indispensable.
So, to what extent should we motivate, and to what extent should we manage? That is the real question we need to discuss.
If a sales director throws this question to salespeople, most would answer that the more motivation, the better, and the less management, the better. But is that true? I can only say that this reflects human nature: people are willing to take initiative but are unwilling to accept passive management. However, for the enterprise, this may not be the optimal management approach, meaning it is not the optimal performance management method.
Why? Because not everyone has the ability to self-manage. According to expert statistical analysis, we can roughly divide people into three categories: the first category: 10% of people know how to self-manage; the second category: 80% of people need to be managed; the third category: the remaining 10% are management-ineffective: they neither know how to self-manage nor accept others' management. Looking at society, if everyone had self-management ability, why would we need criminal law? Criminal law is established to punish those who don't know how to manage themselves. Looking at the family, as parents, do you need to manage your children? The answer is also yes; you don't want your children to go astray.
McCormack once said a famous quote: "Management is a kind of serious love." At Mengniu, there is an OEC assessment board outside every department. This display board is only 1 meter in size, providing comprehensive control over everyone, every day, and every matter. From leaders to employees, everyone is assessed. "Plan beforehand, control during, check afterward, evaluate after completion" is posted below the assessment board. This is the management method favored by Mengniu's chairman, Niu Gensheng, which he learned from Zhang Ruimin of Haier.
To what extent should motivation be? Salespeople all hope that the greater the motivation, the better. But sales directors know that the boss's bonus is limited. Why is it limited? Because the salespeople's bonuses are also a cost to the company; if too much is given, the company's profit becomes thin. Using limited bonuses to stimulate salespeople's fighting spirit as much as possible is the key task of the sales director!
So when should we manage, and when should we motivate?
My view: "Where management can be used, don't use motivation; where management cannot be used, then motivation can be used!"
Simply put, if a sales behavior can be constrained by management means, then there is no need to use motivation. For example, in telemarketing, the number of calls that need to be made per day can certainly be confirmed through management. For instance, if you make more than 100 calls, you've completed the task; if fewer than 100, it's not acceptable. It's easy to calculate and simple to implement, so there's no need to use motivation. Another example: in the consumer goods industry, the number of stores a salesperson visits each day can also be confirmed through management. For instance, if salesperson A's territory has 80 stores, they must visit all of them within a week, and each visit must be no less than 15 minutes. Tools like Waiqin 365 can clearly track this without any falsification, so there's no need to use motivation. Also, for example, a large equipment manufacturer requires salespeople to invite a certain section chief of the client out for a meal within a week. This behavior and result can also be simply confirmed, so no motivation is needed.
So, what behaviors cannot be measured by management? For example, for telemarketing, whether a call leads to a deal is hard to measure. For consumer goods salespeople, how to get distributors to stock more goods is also hard to measure. For large equipment manufacturers, how to get clients to decide to purchase the company's products at a higher price is still hard to measure. For these hard-to-measure indicators, management alone cannot ensure implementation, so motivation methods are needed to assist. And everyone can observe that these indicators are often linked to the final "performance," which is why "motivation" is usually connected with "performance."
In the early stages of an enterprise, the content that management can implement on salespeople is relatively small. As the enterprise matures, various sales methods will be consolidated and fixed, and at that time, the content that management can specifically implement on salespeople will increase. That is, the larger the enterprise, the more it relies on management. In contrast, in traditional industries, management can do more, while in technology-innovative industries, management can do less.
For a company's sales director, a very important job is to sort out the sales methods applicable to the company, form management systems, implement management, and do process supervision. Be as detailed as possible; details determine success or failure. After refining the system, execution follows. Whether a company's sales team has combat effectiveness depends on whether the team's execution is strong, that is, how well the management system is implemented. The 365 sales management method we advocate emphasizes the implementation of the system, forming a closed-loop management of system execution. It not only requires employees to execute without error but also requires middle management to supervise without error. The 365 sales management method emphasizes that good processes lead to good results.
Some sales directors say that if they manage too strictly, salespeople will say they are bad. This understanding is a fatal mistake. First, the boss needs a leader who can contribute to the company's performance, not a leader praised by employees. Positioning yourself as a leader that everyone says is good is wrong. If you only want to be a good leader, you will care about whether others speak ill of you, which will tie your hands and feet, making you lack decisiveness in doing things.
Second, only when the company is doing well and performance is up will employees' jobs be more stable and their income rise steadily. That is truly good for employees, not just hearing a few nice words and praises.
Among enterprise management methods, there is a relatively important tool called 360-degree assessment, which means subordinates can also assess leaders. However, for leaders in sales positions, this tool is often not used, or when HR departments use it, they may ignore salespeople's evaluations of leaders and pay more attention to other departments' evaluations of sales leaders.
In fact, to manage a sales team well, someone will definitely speak ill of you, unless you only give bonuses and do no management. Additionally, acting impartially will affect the potential interests of some people, and they will definitely say bad things about you.
Some clients have told us that we shouldn't manage sales too strictly; if we do, everyone will leave, and no one will work. If you also think this way, then reading this article is right.
As we all know, the team with the strongest execution is the military. The strictest management is also the military. During school military training, we are required to fold quilts into tofu blocks. In fact, this seems meaningless, but it is only to train soldiers' discipline and obedience.
Since military management is so strict and harsh, why do people still join the army? Why can the military train such iron discipline? Because all soldiers know that if the army lacks discipline and people are lax, then once in battle, combat effectiveness will be very weak, the probability of defeat will increase, and the probability of their own death will also increase. Under the support of such a big belief, soldiers obey.
So it's simple: strict management is not a problem. People can only enjoy blessings but cannot endure suffering? Actually, people can endure suffering. The problem is whether there is a belief to support the team's strict management. In other words, is there a way to make employees feel that strict management is helpful to everyone and the company?
For soldiers, the most shameful thing is losing a battle. For sales, what is the most shameful thing? It's not getting orders! I have recruited many salespeople, and most of them left voluntarily when their performance was so poor that they couldn't bear to look at it. As a sales manager, it's also painful at that time because you couldn't effectively help that salesperson improve, get orders, and fulfill their mission.
We once conducted a market survey asking salespeople what the best sales director they had ever seen was like. Many salespeople's answers eventually depicted such a sales director: fierce, scolding without mercy; decisive, if you don't complete the work assigned, you'll be scolded badly; loyal, fighting for bonuses in front of the boss.
Obviously, salespeople do not reject leaders who adopt strict management, because such leaders' purpose in strict management is to improve the quality, ability, and integrity of the sales team, ultimately making everyone a high-quality salesperson who can earn money!
So, all sales directors need to pay attention: it's not a problem to manage salespeople strictly, but it is a problem if you don't tell salespeople why you manage strictly and what help strict management will bring to everyone.
Here I introduce a concept called SFE (Sales Force Effectiveness), which is the core of Waiqin 365. Currently, Waiqin 365, as the most common sales force management system, is widely used in the consumer goods industry. Its purpose is to help sales directors manage salespeople's behavior and ensure the effectiveness of sales behaviors. The specific information it focuses on includes:
1. The average number of sales visits per salesperson per day;
2. Whether different levels of customers are visited by salespeople at different frequencies;
3. The average time spent per visit;
4. The average number of orders obtained per visit;
This information will ultimately lead to conclusions about the average sales force cost spent on each customer, and given these costs, what is the profit from these customers? It also conducts vertical comparisons, such as which salesperson is the most efficient and why.
If your enterprise has indeed experienced overly strict management and a large number of employee departures, then at this time, the sales director needs to stop and do a careful analysis of the reasons for employee departures:
1. "Management is too strict; I used to be able to slack off, but now I can't. How tiring this job is!"
If this is the case, congratulations, you have eliminated people who didn't belong to this team.
2. "Being managed so strictly feels like distrust in me. Since the company doesn't trust me, there's no need for me to stay."
If this is the case, you need to be alert. Tell salespeople why strict management is adopted and why such strict management is beneficial to everyone.
3. "Management is so strict, but the pay is so little."
Please note that the key here is that the pay is too little. Theoretically, the stricter the management, the higher the basic compensation should be, just as special forces have much better food and treatment than ordinary troops. In addition, the sales director also needs to tell salespeople that the performance improvement brought by strict management will indirectly increase commission income!
Some people also put forward the view that sales is a creative position, so it requires a very relaxed environment to help salespeople perform, and excessive management should not be imposed. This view is also somewhat reasonable, especially in specific environments, that is, in specific industries. For example, technology enterprises, innovative enterprises, internet enterprises, etc. Because in such enterprises, the business model is not only not static but often changes, and situations like "planting willows unintentionally creating shade" often occur. Therefore, if senior talents make innovative contributions, it will greatly help the enterprise. In such industries, not only sales positions but also R&D, marketing, and even administrative positions require innovative thinking and are not suitable for overly strict management.
If your enterprise does not belong to these industries, then please try to seek benefits from management, because management is a kind of serious love.
Reply with the following keywords to search and read related professional articles:
Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Slow Sales, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Trade Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing Deals, Market Visit Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Cross-region Sales, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, Sales Novice, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Franchise Recruitment, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Assessment, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Stock Pressure, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Debriefing Report.
Reply with number 1 to enter the library category browsing;


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671