Tag Archives: Commission

How Do You Incentivize Salespeople to Sell? Five Points

Situation: Many companies have challenges creating effective incentives for sales people to sell. The CEO of one company asked others around the table what their experience has been creating effective incentives to maximize the efforts of their salespeople. How do you incentivize salespeople to sell?
Advice from the CEOs:
• The three fundamental sales compensation strategies are commission only, salary only, and base salary plus commission. The group discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
• Commission only. This system is good in the sense that it incentivizes the salesperson to earn as much as possible. Some highly successful sales organizations give new salespeople a “runway” of, for example, a year with a modest salary to establish themselves. Once they have reached the end of the runway, provided that they have proven that they can sell, they shift to commission only. Once on commission they must sell to eat. The down sides are that a high percentage of “rookie” sales reps many do not succeed, and even successful reps may not to be dedicated to the company. Both latter groups may be on the lookout for a more suitable option for themselves or a better deal.
• Salary Only. Unlike commission-based sales, this option may not provide much incentive to excel. It may foster complacency.
• Base salary plus commission. Generally, this system is the one favored by many companies. It gives the salesperson some degree of stability while they are developing their accounts yet motivates them to “break the bank.”
• The best sales systems allow and encourage their salespeople to make a lot of money. In some of these companies salespeople are among the most highly paid people in the company. This boosts both retention and success.

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Do-it-Yourself Marketing or CRM – Which is Right for You? Five Points

Situation: A CEO is looking at customer relations management (CRM) systems. To date their marketing and sales has been in-house, but he wants to investigate alternatives. What CRM systems are available and what is the experience of others with these systems? Is do-it-yourself marketing advisable or should he work with a CRM system? Is do-it-yourself marketing or CRM right for you?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Marketing, whether Do-it-Yourself or working with a CRM system, must always be in line with the company’s brand and customer set.
    • The solution selected and implemented should never confuse or dilute the brand.
  • There are many CRM systems. Check out https://www.top10.com/crm for comparisons.
    • Good systems will track both prospects and sales.
    • Some can also help to create newsletters and other marketing materials.
  • Use your resources wisely.
    • Use clubs, affiliations or organizations to target the company’s market.
  • Before securing a firm or individual to design or refresh your web presence, first know your brand and what you want to communicate. This helps to identify the right resource.
  • Resources for free or low cost marketing:
    • Focus on and work with distributors.
    • Sell through key client audiences and pay them a commission on sales gained.
    • Give key client audiences a reward that will appeal to them.
    • Serve PDFs through your web site to deliver content in your preferred, branded format.

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What Is Your Bonus Plan This Year? Four Thoughts

Situation: A CEO is thinking about the end of the year and bonus plans for his company. It has been a difficult year between remote work and workplace COVID restrictions for those on-site. Recent moves by public and large private employers to mandate vaccination has some employees worried. The latest inflation reports are also of concern to many employees. The CEO wants to retain as many staff as possible. What is your bonus plan this year?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The CEO queued up a suggestion of a bonus in the 8% to 18% range depending upon performance on top of 10% 401K contribution. Several others agreed.
  • One CEO said that in a good year they award a 6% 401K match plus a bonus range of 10 -18% for non-commission personnel. They don’t offer bonuses for commissioned salespeople. Support staff get an 8-10% bonus.
  • Another CEO suggested that the CEOs plan was possibly over generous with a 10% 401K contribution. Given the current economy many employees may prefer cash.
  • This has been an exceedingly difficult year for most businesses with myriad challenges. As the economy reopens it will be as critical to hold on to high performing employees as it is bringing back previously laid-off employees or attracting new employees. Think in terms of recognition for those who have helped the business work throughout the year in additional to bonuses.

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How Do You Build Teamwork Across Account Teams? Four Observations

Situation: A CEO is concerned that there is a lack of teamwork across the company’s account teams. Often, they compete with each other rather than sharing knowledge and information. While some competition is good, too much can stifle growth. How do you build teamwork across account teams?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It looks like the company needs to change its account management culture. There is a need to review the entire operation and rethink how the account teams interact with each other.
    • Schedule meetings with the full account staff – attendance required – describe the concern and encourage teams to share ideas and resources.
    • The commission structure drives performance. Tie financial incentives to collaboration. Reward the teams on collaborative efforts disproportionately to individual team effort – Y% commission for individual team effort vs. 1.5 x Y% commission for collaborative effort.
    • Increase monitoring of revenue and client acquisition – for the full group as opposed to individual account teams.
  • To keep a manageable level of competition among teams, group them into “leagues.” The leagues compete against each other for production and financial rewards. Encourage them to develop social interaction to build the league spirit.
    • A twist on this is temporary “leagues.” Shift team and league groupings from time to time to share best practices and resources. Measure the results. Track and reward the best league performance over time.
    • Be sensitive to the possibility that individuals may respond differently to league vs. individual team incentives. Those who respond more positively to the league concept can become the collectors and disseminators of best practices among the teams. This creates a status incentive to complement the financial incentives.
  • Consider the peer-programming model from the software industry. In this model, two people are occasionally teamed with one as lead and one as back-up. Let them learn from each other for a period and then return to normal operation. The same can be done with teams.
  • Does the company really have a problem? If the corporate competition leaves at 5:00PM but the company’s staff are working weekends to produce, maybe things are OK!

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How Do You Boost Your Sales and Marketing? Four Points

Situation: A CEO’s company has built an admirable suite of products. The next step in company growth is to create a more structured marketing pipeline. They have experienced salespeople, but these people have come to the end of their rolodexes. A new approach is needed. How do you boost your sales and marketing?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Create a profile of the ideal customer. This is the customer who can create the greatest leverage using the company’s suite of product. Aim for the top management of this customer.
  • Incentivize the sales reps to target high value accounts. To create targeting incentives, graduate the commission base.
    • Set initial commission based on the size of the customer.
    • Differentiate commission by product – pay the highest commission for highest gross profit products or the company’s highest priority products.
  • Salespeople need to be able to close sales by themselves.
    • Currently, salespeople are acting as lead generators and are counting on the CEO to close the sale.
    • Create a different set of expectations, including thresholds to limit the CEO’s direct involvement in the sales process – for example, limit CEO involvement to accounts with a revenue value over $500K.
    • Train the salespeople to communicate the value proposition for initial conversations as they qualify a new client. Create a set of resources to assist them along the way.
  • Is it a good idea to pay ongoing commissions forever?
    • Another CEO used to do this but has moved to X% for the first period/project and X/2% on follow-on-periods/projects. This keeps them hungry for new customers who will pay the higher commissions.
    • Don’t create a perpetual annuity – the way insurance brokers are paid. Reduce commissions on existing accounts so that they decline over time – keep salespeople focused on bringing in new accounts to maintain their income levels.
    • Decide on an acceptable level of total compensation for salespeople. Plan the commission structure to allow them to reach this level, but they have to keep selling to maintain this level. Keep them hungry.

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How Do You Manage Family in a Business? Three Approaches

Situation: The CEO of a family-owned business finds it difficult to hold family-member managers accountable. They are responsible for significant portions of the business; however, family dynamics make it hard to supervise them. How do you communicate that their responsibilities affect both the business and the family? How to you manage family in a business?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The first issue: Why have they not been asked for accountability to date? If you don’t ask for accountability, then don’t expect them to take this on by themselves.
  • Assign one family member responsibility for developing the marketing and sales strategy for the company.
    • Change the compensation from salary to salary plus commission. Over a 6-month period, reduce the base salary to half of what this individual currently earns and tie the rest to success increasing sales.
    • Assign this person responsibility for analyzing the markets that you serve. Are there areas that the company has not tapped into yet? What can you do to make your web site up more effective at driving sales? How can you use exclusivity on select products to your advantage?
  • When was the last time that the principals of the business met to figure out what to do?
    • Set the stage: we have split the business into two divisions and have separated the financials. This gives us more flexibility as we develop the business.
    • Show them the trends of each business.
    • Show them that if the current trend continues the business will be unsustainable in X years.
    • Facilitate a discussion that will start to generate solutions.
    • If the others do not respond:
      • Tell them that you appreciate their attendance at today’s meeting.
      • Tell them that you will meet in another two days as a team. Until then you expect them to think things over and to come ready to share their ideas.
    • Do not hold the meeting in your office or conference room. Secure an off-site neutral location with a white board.
    • If you are uncomfortable facilitating this meeting hire an outside facilitator. Ask for the input of the others in selecting a facilitator and follow their recommendation. If you work with a facilitator, start with your own dilemmas to set the tone.

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How Do You Evaluate an Acquisition Opportunity? Four Issues

Situation: A company is considering purchasing a line from another company to complement its existing product line. They would split commissions with the current owner, and gain an additional employee with knowledge of the products to be acquired. The purchase would add to the company’s offering, as well as rights to additional products. The CEO sees this as a low risk move. How do you evaluate an acquisition opportunity?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • In evaluating a commission split opportunity, will the commissions that you would receive exceed the cost of both the additional employee which you will add, plus the support that it will require to maintain the new business? Do the new commissions cover the anticipated costs, plus a reasonable profit?
  • Have you vetted the numbers to demonstrate that this purchase provides a suitable return on investment vs. other potential investments that you could make? Is the marginal revenue that you will receive greater than the marginal cost that you will bear? Is the ROI of the new line greater than your cost of capital? If not, what can you do to improve the return?
  • Looking at your current operations, do you have your existing shop in order? Have you calculated the metrics that will allow you to understand, where you’ve been, where you are, and which provide a clear vision of where you want to go? If not, the question is whether you are ready to take on another line.
  • The bottom line question is – how do you know that this acquisition is the best use of your funds?

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How Do You Develop a Sales Organization? Four Points

Situation: A small company’s business is increasing and they need to build a sales organization. To date all sales have been conducted by the founder CEO and a single employee salesperson. Should they build inside or outside sales first? Are there trigger points at which one or both should be increased? How do you develop a sales organization?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Right now you have first mover advantage in your market space. You have a unique offering and no existing competition. The immediate objective is to maximize early market share. Borrow if necessary to ramp sales. There is no trigger point.
  • Hire an outside salesperson now. You want an individual who is knowledgeable about your market and who has a large set of contacts. Make at least 50% of this individual’s compensation variable (commissions) to start and escalate the percentage of variable compensation as sales grow. Hire at current market rates.
  • Supplement your existing marketing with an investment in social media marketing and SEO (search engine optimization). Don’t try to do this yourself on the cheap – hire a pro. Invest in Pay-Per-Click to push your visibility.
  • To sell this plan to your existing salesperson and the rest of the team, it’s time for a Come to Jesus talk.
    • Make a strong business case for your program.
    • The trade-off is either invest now to rapidly build sales or become insignificant.
    • Once you’ve made your pitch and received consent, let the plan work before you ask for more.

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How Do You Establish Accountability for Results? Four Ideas

Situation: A CEO has difficulty gaining realistic projections from sales – projections for which they will be accountable. For example, the VP of Sales promises X but delivers Y – a result substantially below X. What methods have you have used to get realistic assessments and commitments from sales executives? How do you establish accountability for results?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Shift the issue from their accountability to your own accountability to the company.
    • In order to ship to the projected sales targets, we will need to scale up production to X level, hire Y personnel, and invest in Z inventory. If we miss the target by 20% here’s the impact on our financial performance for the next period. Are we comfortable, as a company, with this exposure, or should we adjust our plan to reduce the exposure.
    • This makes it easier for the sales executive, for the good of the company, to reduce the projection if they are not confident that they will make it.
  • Do you need to examine your commission structure as well as bonuses for sales executives? Consider scaling commissions to make sure that the sales team hits their targets. Make them hungry by offering lower commissions for lower targets, but increasing total commissions for meeting and exceeding targets.
    • Have the sales team project their sales. If the projected level meets company objectives and they meet them they make X%. However, if they fall short they make successively smaller fractions of X% depending upon how much they fall short.
  • Currently, the ratio between new and repeat sales is 20% / 80%.
    • To focus the sales team on new sales, reduce commissions on repeat sales, and increase commissions on new or increased sales and/or accounts.
  • Good sales people are competitive and often respond to pride. Give them in incentive – hit the sales target and get trip to Las Vegas with your spouse or guest.

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How Do You Sell Both Standard and Custom Products? Six Ideas

Situation: A company is rapidly ramping sales of standard products. However, the rep network that sells the company’s products has had more difficulty selling higher dollar / higher margin custom products. How do you sell both standard and custom products?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Make the custom products look more like spec products with adaptability. Create a grid that allows the customer to easily spec the specific product that they need and quickly determine the price of the product. This price can be overestimated at first blush, or scaled depending on the number of units wanted. Consider using a laptop or PDA spreadsheet.
  • Consider the combination specialist / generalist approach that companies have used successfully for highly technical sales. Put a significantly higher commission on the higher price / margin custom product, and have your own “specialist” reps do joint calls with the distributor reps who have relationships with the customer. With the incentive of higher commissions, a percentage of the distributor reps will take the initiative to learn from your inside reps how to sell the custom product to boost their sales and commission income.
  • For your distributor reps, separate and optimize lead generation and deal closing from a compensation standpoint to encourage both.
  • Reps with consultative sales experience, for example selling intangibles such as insurance, may be the best candidates to sell your custom offering.
  • Offer quarterly training of your reps and distributors to encourage them to sell the custom products.
  • Consider telemarketing. Support your telemarketers with a well-prepared script to assist them in qualifying prospects and setting appointments for your own reps.

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