Future Pacing

Had a thoroughly enjoyable meeting in the sunshine in the back garden of one of my customers Friday afternoon. Luckily we had silence as his kids were hooked to the live feeds of Big Brother inside. We were discussing motivating sales people who claim they’re highly money-orientated, yet their actions belie such statements. Mainly as they don’t seem to care about missing commissions. Paul said he always used ‘future pacing’ and in a live situation he wanted everyone to sell a particular product, and if they did, they could earn an extra £50 each time. Might not sound much, but fifty quid every time a specific product is sold adds up and could pay for a holiday in its entirety.

His future pacing was simply, “what y’gonna spend the money on?” And made sure he got them thinking about positive undertones to the commission up for grabs and initiative in general.

I used this technique once myself as a rep, selling software that should have added squillions in new sales for people, I often joked about ‘buying that yacht in Monte Carlo or paying for the missus’ must-have extension to the house’ and it seemed to jolly buyers along a touch.