Do You Have Fire in Your Belly?

A story about a manager at United Parcel Service is worth remembering. On December 24 a regional manager at a UPS depot teamed that a large shipment of Christmas presents had been directed to the wrong part of the country. There was no one to call at headquarters; everyone had gone home for the holiday. On his own authority, this manager diverted two of the company’s 727s and rented a fast freight train to get the Christmas presents where they belonged. He was hungry, he had fire in the belly.

The existence of a “fire in the belly” is well documented in psychological literature. But where do you get hungry salespeople? Useful aggressiveness and high motivation seem to be provoked largely from two sources: background and current environmental conditions. The first source, background, is more permanent and probably cannot be modified easily. The other, social environment, is less permanent yet manageable. Regarding background, biographies of many immigrants to this country show that the reason so many became successful entrepreneurs was that their desire to succeed was fueled by the memory of the alternatives in the “old country.” They all developed long-term hunger.

Since it is not considered good personnel policy to recommend freshly landed immigrants for sales jobs or good training policy to starve people into action, we need to develop four basic environmental conditions that develop that hunger for achievement.

1. A belief that effort, performance and reward are related. This low-level requirement is not present in very many sales or marketing departments. Informal “lunchroom” conversations with salespeople would convince the observer that effort often is punished, performance leads only to demands for more performance, and rewards are dispensed in a way so that most salespeople fail to comprehend the connection between what they do and what they get.

2. An atmosphere in which goals are clear and the individual can matter in their attainment.

This is a precondition that was not met in many of the marketing groups I observed. Many sales managers seemed to encourage group behavior, discourage accountability and act as if the individual’s goals did not have a significant impact on the organization. What these managers overlook is that individual responsibility and accountability for performance are the twin drives that keep hunger alive within the sales team. Or as one astute sales manager tells it: “Salespeople respect what the sales manager inspects.”

3. The presence of other hungry people. The best place to open a shoe store is next to another shoe store. The best place to develop a hungry salesperson is next to another hungry salesperson. One good strategy is to “seed” the sales team with one highly placed hustler. He or she will highlight the relationship between commitment and reward, between initiative and success. The hustler will “stir the pot” and the resulting aroma will increase the appetites of the rest. This strategy works best in conjunction with

4. Tough leaders who tolerate, encourage and reward hungry salespeople.

There is nothing so conducive to getting hungry yourself as learning that hungry others are “helping” you with your job. Indeed, much of the impetus from the highly touted “managing by walking around” philosophy comes from the effects of a highly motivated general manager’s poking his or her nose into others’ areas of responsibility.

I remember my own experience on the Harvard Business School faculty. Every so often Theodore Levitt, my immediate superior, would appear in my office, usually uninvited, and simply plop himself down to chat. I always found this annoying because at the Business School we seldom “chat,” at least without an appointment and an agenda. Ted would go on in a seemingly random fashion for 10 to 20 minutes while I grew more and more impatient to get back to the work I was trying to get done. Of course, one doesn’t throw the boss out but listens politely. Just when the frustration was near its peak, Levitt would suddenly stop whatever bit of arcane thought he was currently sharing and look directly at me. His question: “What have you done today that’s important to important people in important companies?” Then, not waiting for an answer, he would simply say, “Have a good day,” and leave. The effect, of course, was stunning. With one stroke Levitt reminded me of the meaning of my work and the purpose of my strivings. Ted’s simple sentence was a powerful statement of our shared identity and a simple dose of good management.

Orson Welles wrote, directed and played the role of Mike in an unforgettable barroom scene in the classic movie, “Lady from Shanghai.” The dialogue from that scene points out that a “tough guy” is nothing more than ” a guy with an edge.” The same can be said about a good leader. In the scene a man seated at a table where Mike is drinking says:

“Mike is quite a hero, quite a tough guy.”

Welles as Mike: “‘Mister, there ain’t no such thing.”

Man: “No such thing as a tough guy?”

Welles: “What makes a tough guy?”

Man: “I don’t know.”

Welles: “A guy with an edge. What makes him sing better than me? (points at the jukebox) Something in here. (points at throat) What makes it loud? A microphone. That’s his edge. A gun or a knife, a nightstick or a razor, something the other guy ain’t got, yeah, a little extra reach on a punch, a set of brass knuckles, a stripe on a sleeve, a badge that says “cop, ” or a rock in your hand, or a bankroll in your pocket, that’s an edge brother. Without an edge, there ain’t no tough guy.” To paraphrase Orson Welles: Fire in your belly – that’s your selling edge.

Thomas V. Bonoma, professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, is nationally known for his writings on industrial marketing. He is the author of the book The Marketing Edge (published by Free Press, New York) from which this article was adapted. Tom has appeared on 60 Minutes, he consults regularly with top marketing executives of Fortune 500 companies and conducts workshops on effective sales and marketing principles.