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These days businesses are looking increasingly beyond the conventional for ways to extract better performances from their workers. Since sales are so crucial for success, the emphasis falls primarily on sales staff. Bearing in mind 27% of sales staff don’t generate enough income to warrant their positions and 41% don’t reach their targets, that’s entirely understandable.

According to CSO Insights, a group in the United States that studies thousands of sales personnel worldwide every year, 80% of the average company’s total income is generated by only 13% of its sales department. They’re clearly doing something right.

One of the latest research fields is neuroeconomy, which combines psychology, economics and neurosciences to understand how people make decisions. The essence is that too many decisions can exhaust your stamina and drain your ability to remain focused and maintain self-control.

Tim Keys, the programme director for the proactive sales-management course being offered by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business from 15 to 17 August, says more sales can be achieved when buyers’ involuntary behaviour patterns are looked at.

Says Keys: “Neuroeconomy concerns the role a person’s brain plays when decisions are considered, risks are categorised and rewards given – and the interaction between them. When correctly used, neuroeconomy can even help sales managers to appoint the right people and to train and motivate them.”

Sales staff with high emotional intelligence is the answer, not “hunters”. “The salesperson’s most powerful tool in today’s complex world is empathy.” Keys says managers can also use the principles of neuroeconomy to help to motivate their sales teams and put inefficient teams on the winning path.

Another business school – the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) – will be presenting training this month to management executives on how to obtain the best performance from their staff. The USB has asked world-renowned Barrie Zucal, CEO of Global Coaches Network (a pioneer in the field of training leaders), to present SA’s first “Laughter Experience Workshop” on 20 August. Laughter therapy is a scientific leadership tool to help business leaders to improve their management efficiency and reduce their personal stress levels.

Zucal, who has presented management training for 25 years in 45 countries, says good humour can benefit business leaders and their organisations enormously. “We’ve proved that when a company laughs, working relationships, physical and emotional health and creativity all benefit,” she says.

Salome van Coller-Peter, programme manager at the USB’s MPhil degree in management training, says SA’s business leaders mostly consider their work very personal and if there are problems at work that has a significant influence on productivity, efficiency and moral, physical and emotional health. However, positive business leaders create positive staff. 
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