Motivating salespeople: what really works

Chris,

What caliber of sales people do you have? How are they Paid? Commission Only or Base plus Commission or Hourly/Salary?

If it's commission only you have to cater to the EGO of a Super Star. I have always been extremely prejudiced on performance, and then reward accordingly along those lines. Big time rewards for hitting Big Time goals and milestones.

One of the biggest challenges companies have in the sales game, they expect everyone to play and operate under the same rules, that doesn't work. 15% of your staff will do 85% of the work or more. Invest your time into the 15% and reward them accordingly.

Our staff is 100% commission only, they love it and we toss out huge rewards to each individual based on milestone hits. Not a stone we set but rather one we set together with the salesperson that's tough but achievable and reward accordingly.

Turn over another $300,000 this quarter how about a $20,000 dollar Piaget watch.... or a All expense vacation with $5,000 spending cash. Stuff like that.

Robert

Hi Chris,

I thought I'd toss a few things out there from experience. At the main company (my favorite) where I used to work they'd mix things up from time to time, but not ALL the time.

When you first establish an employee/employer relationship you agree to certain things. Regular work hours, a minimum amount of calls or presentations per day, an hourly wage, commission, whichever's greater or both and more. If you deviate from that too much I think employee's become unmotivated when they don't have a regular spiff or contest going on.

That being said, you could offer different things on each day of the week. They could be spiffs for things as follows:

*A "Get out of jail free" card = a free unexcused day off card without penalty.

*Limited time bonuses for hitting a target sales goal. These can be cash, paid time off, prizes and more.

*Regular bonuses for those individuals that hit a target sales goal. The cream always rises to the top and should be compensated for it. (Note: Don't be afraid to offer unique bonuses to top performers in private as well)

*Reduced prices on a product or service for a limited time without reducing their commission.

*Team goals. Sell a certain amount over a shift and receive a pizza party on Friday, early release that day or both.

*We used to have spiffs where we'd get free breakfast or lunch if we sold a certain amount during a "set". We'd work in 2 hour sets.

Get creative. Don't run the same things all the time or the newness will wear off. Mix it up, be creative and try to offer a fun environment that people look forward to working in.

On the other side of the coin, don't be afraid to let people go that consistently under perform, especially if they have a bad attitude.

HTH

Joe

Are they working out of the same office, or spread out across the country?

If they are working out of the same office, sales contests, competitions, Quotas, they all work. You need bonuses too, but competition and recognition are what fuels the fire.

If they won't ever meet each other? monetary bonuses, I would think.

As a change in the compensation plan -> Commission is the best motivational element. That and individual feedback.

Achievement
Recognition
Reward
Security

In that order, always have been and always will be.

You need a scheme that covers all of those motivating factors.

Thank you all for your responses.

Yes, I agree with all of you.

I´m biased here I have to say, my company is on the sales productivity and employee motivation arena. Will not mention it´s name as I don´t want to spam you with it.

Yes, agree with the common feeling that context is crucial to understand the best way to go.

BrashImpact 15% top dogs doing 85% of the sales? ouch! I´ve seen more a 20% to 40% ratio.
Spiffs have worked well for us, specially when the reward has a high perceived value for the sales associate.
Sales competition and Contests => they´ve worked well, hands down

midasman09 agree, progressive commissions always work, also accelerators and setting no cap limits

helisell what do you mean with Achievement? I´d appreciate if you elaborate a bit.

Thanks again for all comments!

A good percentage of the recurring income each month (~20%)

Fully paid holidays, expense claims, unlimited sick days, working from home, no micro-management, relaxed time management, complete acceptance on a personal level, allowing the sales person to come up with their own creative solutions, a tiny amount of mischief and a resolute belief in the person that they are capable of achieving great things.

If you create a high self-esteem environment people will rise to meet your expectations. If you want to be mr.tough guy and micro manage you will only end up with drones. The best salespeople treat their work seriously and like it's their own business, which is why you either see them working in small companies or at the helm of their own venture.

If you have a fair compensation plan there should be no motivating required and if you find yourself having to think of ways of motivating a sales person or force then there's something wrong in one of two places.

Either it's the company or the type of salespeople the company has hired. If its the latter, start working on replacing the sales team. If it's the company then you need to look at making policy changes.

It shouldn't ever be about the money as a motivating factor because if you make it about the money they'll easily be swayed by the next "better" offer that comes along.


What it is about is finding the people who LOVE to sell and find it a challenge, who find it a rush to "get the deal". These are the types who are always motivated to sell.

The association between salary and job satisfaction is not clear at all.

Food for though: Does Money Really Affect Motivation? A Review of the Research - Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic - Harvard Business Review

Compensation probably the biggest motivator....but I'll submit that the most direct path to more compensation is....to simply sell more stuff.

Outside sales is a tough racket. Its a hard thing to do, its scary, its inconsistent, there are a lot of unknown factors at play every day.

Put systems and tools in place that make what they do easier. Make them personally better at what they do with continuous training and practice sessions. When a salesman gets to a point where he can confidently direct any conversation the way he wants it to go, then there becomes no hesitation or no internal obstacles to doing the hard work. When he believes in his product with conviction and knows it so well that he can adapt it to work with any solution...rarely are nuanced opportunities lost in conversation.

The result is more contacts per day, more leads, bigger sales funnel growth, more closed sales per week...all of which lead to ....more compensation...the big motivator.

Sales people are the backbone of any product industry. So, motivate the salespeople is an important factor via some incentives, compensation after any hazard etc.