Don’t crash and burn out!
8th July 2025 | Dr Ram Raghavan
Latest Insights into wellbeing, motivation and sales performance.
Sales performance is not just a function of skills and strategy; the wellbeing and motivation of salespeople profoundly influence it. Recent research and thought leadership converge on a clear message: sales teams thrive when their psychological needs are met, their stress is managed, and they feel motivated beyond just hitting a number. Below, we present current insights from business experts, academic studies, neuroscience, and even AI innovations to understand how wellbeing and motivation intersect to drive sales success.
Advice to leaders is to adopt a more holistic, human-centric approach to growth, treating employee wellbeing as a key input to performance, not an afterthought.
Healthy, happy salespeople tend to sell more, and stay longer. A Harvard Business Review piece on sustainable growth emphasises that “when people feel healthy and engaged, their work performance improves… and they’re better motivated to impact change” (linkedin.com). In other words, an engaged, cared-for salesperson is far less likely to check out or seek an exit mentally. People leave people and not organisations.
A recent study found that sales professionals who genuinely enjoyed their work were 83% less likely to be jobhunted and nearly four times more likely to be highly motivated than those who didn’t want their jobs (m.facebook.com). This highlights how wellbeing (feeling happy in one’s role) directly correlates with retention and motivation.
By contrast, a toxic or neglectful work culture pushes talent away. Deloitte’s 2024 Workplace Wellbeing survey notes that organisations with poor support see higher burnout and turnover, undermining growth (hbr.orglinkedin.com). Indeed, an HBR article by Jenn Lim and Jen Fisher warns that a “growth-at- all-costs” mentality – focusing on targets while neglecting people – often backfires, leading to burnout and mass exodus of talent (linkedin.com).
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