Lead and traffic generation is still the top marketing challenge companies face. If you want to win this and all the other challenges, however, you need to look inside your organization first rather than outside. In other words, look at your employees first — are they happy or not — instead of focusing too much on your customers.

The logic behind this is simple: what’s inside will always manifest outside, no matter how hidden it seems to be. That means if your marketing campaign seems to be failing, it could either be your strategy or your team that has a problem. If it is your strategy, you can go back to the game board and create a new one. If it is your team, you have to identify what the root cause is.

Get a Clue from Maslow

There are several reasons why employees are demotivated. To give you a good headstart in identifying these causes, let’s turn to Maslow and his ‘Theory of Human Motivation’.

According to him, human beings have five motivational factors:

• Physiological — food, clothing, shelter
• Safety — good health and well-being, job security
• Love — family, friends
• Esteem — respect and confidence received from other people
• Self-actualization — the freedom to create and think

If your company can meet these needs, you have gained a motivated and happy employee. Consequently, that sunny disposition is infectious and can spread to other people —in which case, your customers.

Eradicate and Motivate

That above insight is a game changer, but you might still be scratching your head on how to address each need. Below are some practical suggestions on how you can eradicate the bad vibes out of your organization and motivate your employees to become the best team players you could ever have.

Physiological Needs

Satisfying this first level of needs — food, clothing, shelter — all boils down to how you pay your employees. Rewarding and praising them after meeting a goal or doing a job well are also good motivators on this level. Rewards can come in the form of gift coupons, free meals, or a surprise gift. Such things can give your employees something to look forward to, even adding an element of excitement to meet their goals.

Safety

Training your employees on a regular basis — either to teach them a new skill or to refresh what they know — adds to their sense of security. It sends a message that the company is growing and want them to grow with the company.

Aside from that, you also need to provide them with the right tools so they can serve your customers better and do their job well. For example, your live chat team support can make lead generation and conversion much easier  if they have an instant messaging tool like Xeno which has features that will aid them in doing this.

This level is not just about making them feel secure but looking after their health and well-being. Therefore, you have to make sure that you do not overwork your team. No one likes extra work. You have to distribute the workload among the team members equally. Furthermore, make sure that each task is appropriately delegated to the right person.

Love

Providing a culture of teamwork and cooperation with a healthy dose of competition is beneficial for your company. Your employees can easily adopt this culture if they see the higher tier of management practicing this consistently in all their dealings.

Esteem

Author, speaker, and management expert, Ken Blanchard said: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

Both positive and negative feedback plays a vital role in boosting the morale of your employees. Positive feedback, where employees get recognition for their excellent performance, automatically motivates a person.

Negative feedback, on the other hand, gives them insight on which areas of their performance they need to develop more. Providing negative feedback can be quite tricky because most of the time, it really does sound negative and can crush a person’s self-esteem.

Negative feedback doesn’t have to be negative. You can do this by being specific about what the employee needs to work on. You can further make it more positive by offering to help him overcome that challenge. You can also ask him what solution he has in mind to solve that before you provide your own.

Self Actualization

Every human being has the innate desire to create, think, and realize their goals freely. That’s because those things give us the feeling that we are in control of our destiny.

Allowing your employees to express their minds and show both of their strengths and weaknesses without fear of negative consequences will help develop their self-actualization. Giving them the freedom to grow in your company — meaning less micromanaging — and rewarding them accordingly definitely increases their sense of belonging.

How’s Your “Home”?

Using the points we raised into consideration, try to stop for a while and assess your “home.” Is it in good order? Are your employees satisfied and motivated? What areas do you need to work on? Once you fix your “home,” everything will flow naturally.