Management strategy performance

You have worked as a sales representative for the last three years, and your boss has just quit. You have been asked to take over as manager of your region, and you are going to accept for two reasons. First, you would like to move up and try something different and more challenging. Second, you have been very disappointed with the way your prior manager ran your sales group. He was not a good people manager and he did very little to motivate the sales representatives. More specifically, he let the low performers slide by, while the top performers (which you feel you are) did not seem to be recognized for their contributions. The situation was not horrible; he was not abusive or hostile in any way. But you know the group has some talented people and could do much better–if only they had a motivational spark.  So how would you proceed in this situation? Where would you start? What types of things would you do to enhance motivation? What would be the biggest obstacles to getting this group energized? Would there be any predictable traps to avoid? 
Provide your explanations and definitions in detail and be precise. Comment on your findings. Provide references for content when necessary. Provide your work in detail and explain in your own words. Support your statements with peer-reviewed in-text citation(s) and reference(s).