Sales: Commission or no commission??

Looking through old posts i found this one and i'm not sure if nick is still around?
Hi Nick if you are,

I've been thinking of trying to find people who could help boost my sales, but not 100% sure about if it would work for me and if they were on commision would they be too pushy, Which is something i 100% don't want.

So what would they do for me well whatever they could think of that would boost my sales as they should do really.

They could go to networking events i couldn't attend and do PR and join another BNI chapter for Electrical Concepts, i was also thinking of having a stand in a shopping center that they could run at weekends or in B&Q etc. Even if it increases awareness of Electrical Concepts then i'm sure that would be good.

It's not my greatest idea but it's still one i'm thinking about!

take care

Paul

ELECTRICAL CONCEPTS
Commercial & Domestic Installation
**NOT SEEN ON TV**
WWW.electrical-concepts.co.uk
call 01992 700 825

Motivation is an easy one! The hard thing is getting staff to share your sales vision. Your core values if you will. For me motivation is either negative or positive. Sales people should be motivated positively by nature.

Fact. Many people in sales shouldn't be.
Fact. A real sales person will relish the challenge of getting the sale just as much as you do.
Fact. Sales people are entrepeneurs working for you. They need to feel they have value, as well as getting the money in, the rewards shouldn't just be monitary.

You can offer some sales people bonuses, rewards and incentives until you're blue in the face and they won't budge until you threaten with negative motivation like losing pay, job, status. Only then will they get motivated. Negative motivation should be weilded cautiously however as an oppressive workplace will drive staff to other employers or worse to your competitors.

Be aware that the opposite, what i call "donkeys", don't budge when pushed and go slow, and if pushed too hard will be lost to you. These actually tend to be positively motivated staff and nurturing/rewarding words work really well with them. If they share you're vision they can be a better asset than a negatively motivated plodder who does the bare minimum. It's your business. Ok performance should never be good enough.

Ideally you hope to motivate in a positive way but as long as you know they're motivated and working to your vision you're on a winner. Staff turnover/training is such a big sap on company energy/cashflow i think its vital while interviewing to ask some harmless sounding motivation questions and what their response would be.

A good question i ask is " If you were a genie and could grant your own wishes, what would you wish for?" . This way you can see if their vision/values match your companies.

Another good question is to ask "What is your vision/idea of success?". This will show you the rewards they expect and you can strategise around these needs.

Thats my tuppence, hope it helps or is just food for thought
Ricky
"Rock like you mean it"

Great ideas from Ricky above. It is really, really hard getting just the right staff that are going to make your business fly. You need people who are passionate about what you do, and who wants the business to succeed as much as they want success for themselves. I agree with Ricky that bonuses is not the solution to all sales staff problems. I just thought though I should say how I percieved the different bonus systems I have worked with/for/under.
The crappiest one of the lot was what HSBC bank used to offer (they are on a different system now, which I can't comment on): annual bonus, payable with a 4 month delay after the accounting year. This was bad because the general gist of it all was that you had to work for well over a year without ANY recognition, and if you left before the pay out day you lost the whole thing. Basically it was more a system for tying people in, rather than a system that made staff feel rewarded.
Then at my current day job they have three sets of bonuses -
1. a commission based one for sales people where they get extra pay (uncapped) if they meet or exceed their targets.
2. If the sales staff overachieve, an extra percentage is share out amongst all the staff (sales, admin, support, warehouse) as a quarterly company bonus.
3. Then they have the really quite peculiar one that is awarded to some none-sales staff for just doing their job. Basically in lieu of a payrise. So not very motivational.
I do think that the company bonus idea is a good one, because it does raise morale and the feeling that we are all working for to acheive the same thing. So quite a nice idea. It does actually motivate the sales staff as well, as they feel good about increasing everyones pay, whilst still getting their top whack.

Anna
Moderator, flyingstartups.com

Well Im a Salesman by profession.

I have worked at every level and have been on just about every sales course that exists.

Good Salespeople are an unusual creature.

I say good because there are alot of "salepeople" who dont sell they manage accounts which is a great skill in its self and you maybe need to be clear what its is you want in the short term and the long term from these people.

Expereinced salespeople often have NO allegiance to their employers this is because salespeople get sacked far easier than any other employee.

Most people go into sales because of the money and the Car.

Most people stay in Sales because of their ego and they cant find anything else which will pay them as well without selling.

Really good Salespeople are fundamentally Insecure people who get constant affirmation of their worth by people buying things from them.

My advise would be if you need a salesperson whilst you are small the VERY BEST person is YOU the business owner.

Secondly when you do employ people to fulfill this role you wont be asking people to do something you wont do yourself and you already understand the challenges.

Before you reply but I cant sell, Selling is not a Black Art or secretive skill its actually very simple.
Understand your product and how it benefits your market (You should already understand this as its why you went into business in the first place?)
Then Listen to your customers Great Salespeople are GREAT listeners and NOT great talkers.
Then apply why your product apply to what you have heard from your prospective client.

The Very best way to ensure your salespeople represent you the way you wish is to run a quarterly Customer satisfaction Survey.
Pay them a Bonus Based upon this.
Its also VERY powerfull PR with your customers.

Hope that helps if you need anything clarified get in touch

Cheers
James
BlackFish Solutions
james [dot] moss [at] BlackFishSolutions [dot] com

The brief Answer is you have to pay Comission.

The amount and how you pay it or what you call it is just packaging.