Progress Principle: Nothing quite motivates like the feeling of making progress, even if that progress is entirely illusory. Several years ago, the Journal of Marketing Research published a celebrated study that found customers will buy coffee more quickly when they are given a ‘Buy 12, get 1 free card’ with the first two stamps already filled in than they will when given a ‘Buy 10, get 1 free’ card, and yet the offer is identical. When it comes to the targets you set for staff, could you do something similar? Give them the first $25,000 toward their annual sales goal for “free” and see if that feeling of momentum doesn’t spur them to shift into a higher gear at work.
