Pay My Outside Sales Reps How? (part 2)

Yesterday you took a toke off the pipe of “sales compensation alternatives” and I’m certain the high has brought you back for more. There is a reason for my “drug culture” references in these posts and it’s critical that you understand the powerful distinction of my metaphorical style.  People find it hard to quit drugs and alcohol because drugs are fun and enjoyable.  People find it easy to quit a sales job because it’s difficult and frightening.

Make the job enjoyable without loosing its edge

Before you hire a new sales rep, ramp up your current sales team, or develop an outside sales force, realize the commitment of time, money, and energy it will take to attract a real sales expert.  Corporate sales careers are becoming more and more difficult and much less satisfying because these big companies have very little vested interest in meeting the clients/customer’s needs.  This sounds ridiculous but the momentum that corporate giants have simply because of their size substantiates decisions that honor shareholders... not customers. Because Sales Reps are often faced with corporate politics that smack their relationship building efforts across the face, numerous sales experts are actually looking for sales opportunities with small businesses who’s very sustainability rests on their ability to meet the more intimated demands of clients and customers. 

This is the kind of individual you want to hire.  Recognize that sales experts are looking for a six figure opportunity with no cap on their earning potential.  Many will settle for less if they are offered freedom or autonomy to accomplish results with complete and total support from the top down. Take the time to formulate a career opportunity that will not only create wealth but personal and professional independence.  People no longer want to build their lives around their careers, they want to build their careers around their lives.

Before you initiate any recruiting efforts you need to write up a powerful and compelling compensation plan.  To formulate this kind of plan, you need to understand what it is going to take for the new hire to achieve success. Offer performance and qualifying bonuses that pay substantially more when certain levels of sales volume are met and kept.

Create a system of coaching your sales people to achieve these levels of performance and commission. Business has got to stop putting the responsibility of sales failure/success on the shoulders of their newly hired reps. Any sales rep that will accept a starting salary of less than $3000/mo is inexperienced and hasn’t honed the skills of handling rejection. If your current sales people are quitting, it’s because they haven’t experienced enough success to justify the agony of daily rejection.    Can you afford to pay a new rep $3000/mo to till the soil and plant the seeds?  It will take a year to 18 months before you see the harvest. 

Now for a real buzz kill, swallow this little downer, the way you structure the compensation package will determine the systems you need to manage and mentor your new sales associate. We’re talking about more planning and change to your organization and management systems. For instance, managing and leading a salary plus commission sales rep should be about accountability and accomplishing a set number of cold calls, presentations, and closes each day.  You will need to have a system of call reports, meetings and management protocol to execute this rep to success. Whereas a sales professional paid solely on commission will require an entirely different system set.  You’ll need t o create systems that grant them the freedom and independence to meet process and production standards on their own accord, while holding them accountable with clearly defined reward/correct protocol.

The time has come for every professional to realize the degree of negative space that is taken up when a sales rep is hired with the likelihood of failure.  Are you gonna be the kind of “pusher” that offers the “good acid” of opportunity or the “bad acid” of failure?  The obstacles of solidifying and keeping a professional sales department thriving are often too great for the common professional. For the uncommon professional however, they present the kind of “natural high” that only comes with the mind altering substance of challenge.

Pay My Outside Sales Reps How?

Before you know it you are swept away as the chocolate cherry cheesecake touches your tongue and alters your mind.  The experience is so damn gratifying you stop to take it all in... letting each taste bud relish in the moment. Your senses are truly indulged and you know you’re balancing on the brink of sin. The powerful combination of sugar and ecstasy rush to your temples... taking you to a new state of bliss... And you said you’d never “get high” again. 

So how much of the “pie” should you be paying your sales people?  For the sake of profit I hope it’s enough to be mind altering.  The sales professional is definitely an odd individual that is usually money motivated and finds it a little difficult to “fit in” to your culture, especially the culture of a small business.  But ask yourself; doesn’t it take an odd individual to endure an average 14.6 rejections a day?  How much would you expect to get paid to endure day-in and day-out rejection like that? During the start up phase of a sales professional new to your business or industry, relationships have not yet been established. During this time, it’s not uncommon for even a seasoned sales person to hear an average 63 rejections to every one legitimate contract.  Would this make you feel like you are off to a good start for the company that just hired you?

“The landscape of sales is changing so drastically...

...that it’s enough to kill any good buzz.”

I can hear the echoes of delight from your new hire, “Oh my new sales job is great, I haven’t gotten one appointment this week, no one returns my calls, my customers are rude, and I my boss wants immediate results.”

Your sales department is the most complex system within your business and to orchestrate this system with grace and finesse, it seams you need the skills and experience of a “Winning Coach” fused with the patience and insight of a Practicing Psychiatrist. As the bearer of bad news I’m here to tell you, “The landscape of sales is changing so drastically... ...that it’s enough to kill any good buzz.”

COMPENSATION

How many sales people are you going through each year? Do you truly understand what it takes to be successful in sales?  Do you know the most common objection your new sales rep is going to get their first day representing your firm?  Is there is a consistent level of turnover within the sales department?

These frustrations are more indicative of a breakdown or flaw inherent in the structuring of your sales job opportunity than in your hiring choices. You might hire the right person, but your sales model is geared toward failure. Small business owners as well as big business aren’t structuring selling opportunities compelling enough to keep or develop the “BIG FISH”. To achieve success in the changing landscape of sales you need a school of “BIG FISH”. The days of hiring a “ROCK TURNER” to knock on doors and discover interest is over.  Competition is so stiff, that your sales people need a comprehensive program that assists and supports all of their sales efforts while simultaneously communicating the point of difference that your product or service has over the competition. Without this system, your new associate will have challenges in simply landing appointments... and without appointments... comes the powerful feelings of failure. The nature of success in sales today is only accomplished with a system that honors your customer and spans through time.

So what does this system look like? We’ll cover the details in tomorrow’s post but these are the ingredients; Innovative Job Description, Compensation Package, & Success Coaching Management.