When it comes to hitting your sales targets, you’re dependent on your sales team doing their best job. It’s easy to overlook the sales manager during particularly busy times of the year – such as Christmas – when everyone seems to be pulling their weight in equal measure. However, any good boss knows that it’s the sales manager that is intrinsic to the success of their business during critical sales times, and how happy they are is ultimately the measure for how happy your workforce is.

So, how can manager overrides make the difference not just to your sales manager, but to your entire team?

Motivation

If the sales manager is recognised as the driving force of their sales team, they’ll have the confidence in higher management to keep the rest of the sales team motivated. By utilising a manager override system, you don’t need to be concerned as to whether you’re suitably compensating your sales manager or not – they’ll know it, expect it and have more faith in your business in turn.

Ambition

Moving beyond day-to-day selling motivation, having a culture of ambition within your office is key to your company’s success. If the sales team see that the sales manager is happier, as a result of dependable manager overrides on commissions, they’ll feel more driven to aim for a managerial role themselves. This creates a friendly sense of competition and emotional investment in the business long-term.

Organisation

Your employees can only be as structured as you are. By setting up a manager override system, they’ll see your commitment to ensuring the smooth operation of the business. This can only improve company morale, as it’s far easier to be committed to a business that is devoted to prioritising the organisation of sales team pay.

What Commissionly offers

At Commissionly, we’ve set up a manager override system that makes incorporating them into a commission plan as simple as possible. It’s the first step for improving employee happiness on every level, and keeping your sales manager consistently happy to boot – something that can’t go amiss this festive season! Why not contact us today to find out more?

The commission is an integral part of any sales department in an organisation. As the sales department is paramount to the success of a company, the commission is vital to the life of the sales department. Therefore, sales commission schemes determine how well the department will perform.

Here are the qualities of the most effective sales commission schemes.

The commission agreement

The sales commission agreement identifies how to compensate salespeople for their services. It highlights the terms of employment for sales personnel as well as the association between the employer and employee. The sales commission agreement is an essential aspect of a sales commission scheme because it allows the employee to know what they are signing up for, in advance. It lists the commission, duties, and other compensation the staff member should expect after the job.

The commission structure

This aspect of a sales commission scheme points out the amount of money a company is capable of paying its sales team. The sales structure and the performance of an organisation determine how it will compensate its sales workforce. Sometimes it may be suitable to offer commissions as the primary compensation for the salespeople, while at other times a basic salary combined with a commission will do better.

An effective structure

An effective commission structure motivates the sales team and ensures that each salesperson is compensated fairly for their effort.

Such a structure:

• Avoids capping commissions or setting limits to how much salespeople can make
• Is simple, straightforward, and not structured to take advantage of the salespeople
• Is designed for optimum understanding

The sales manager

Sales commission schemes are only as effective as the individual behind them. Different commission schemes are available, each with its own merits and demerits. They include any of the following; a salary-plus-commission scheme, commission-only scheme, gross-margin-commission scheme, tiered-commission scheme, commission-draw scheme, or base-rate-only scheme.

The sales manager should be familiar with as many of them as possible to determine the one that best suits his or her company, or in order to sell a particular product.

It is vital that a company be careful when selecting a sales manager since he or she plays a fundamental role in determining the company’s future through its sales team.

The bottom line is that well-thought-out and executed sales commission schemes are the difference between success and failure in companies. Effective commission schemes incorporate a good commission agreement, a thorough and strategic commission structure, and have a professional sales manager behind them.

Most managers think they know how to set sales targets and quotas, but did you know that the formula should change depending upon the time of year that you are in? Buying habits change throughout the year, and when it comes to Christmas, more people are likely to spend money.

Knowing this, managers should adjust their sales goals at Christmas. Setting individual targets for each employee can help to maximise their motivation and performance.

But how do you know what types of goals to set?

Jump on Christmas sales

If you know that sales usually increase by 15% over the Christmas period, then it’s a fair assumption that your individual performance targets for employees can increase by 15% too. In order to understand such fluctuations, requires looking at the sales data over the past five years, to get an accurate value. Looking at sales data for the previous year will produce less accurate information to work from. It’s also worth comparing data across the whole industry. So take a look at this BBC article as a starting point!

Do something different this year

Are you doing anything different this year to boost sales? For instance, a boxing day sale or a Christmas promotion. These possibilities need to be taken into account. Do some research as to whether other businesses promotions have increased their sales. If there is a trend, then consider incorporating this into your sales goals.

Remember that many stores are likely to experience increased footfall over the Christmas period too, so this may give you a sales boost. Consider your conversion rate, and use this to estimate how many customers you can encourage to buy.

Focus on employees

Remember that employees are likely to be in a different mental space during the Christmas season. Staff who love Christmas can easily get their customers into the festive spirit. These are the best people to have on shift. Other sales team members may be feeling under pressure because they have families that rely on them. So it is important to consider their needs over the holiday time. An employee that is stressed by things going on at home will be less productive.

After having considered all of these, you may realise that you require a more accurate and metric-driven plan. If this is the case, then you need Commissionly! Our easy to use system allows real-time information to be used to calculate sales goals, targets and performance management, all which can help your business thrive. For more information, take a look at Commissionly today!

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, however, for businesses it can be rather slow. Some leads are thinking more about the end of the year than they are of the next year. This can be a hard time for sales teams as they struggle to find leads willing to be closed. Which inevitably leads to a slump in sales, that can prevent you and your teams reaching business goals.

That is unless you find other ways to motivate your team. And with a Christmas theme, you can do just that.

Having a few festive fun ideas in your commission structure is a great way to keep things fresh in the office. It can act as an additional motivator, talking point and builds team cohesion. So, here are a few festive commission ideas that you can use to motivate your team.

Secret Santa commissions

Set specific sales performance goals that reward team members with a special Secret Santa commission. This is an envelope that contains a secret bonus that is unknown until the winning team member opens it. The surprise could be anything from a £10 shopping voucher to a two-hour Christmas shopping lunchtime session.

If you can make them fun, then you are more likely to get buy-in from the team and possibly even a few laughs.

The Christmas jingle

Festive commissions don’t have to only be financially motivated. Instead, you could offer team members the choice of the next few songs to be played in the office when they meet set sales goals. Music can be a great motivator and many Christmas tunes are jolly and have an uplifting presence about them.

Visualise the month’s sales performance management

Sometimes people need visual cues to get them motivated during the winter months.

You can do this through some very simple drawings. Have a line that represents a journey on a wall, at one end put Santa’s grotto and at the other put a house. Everyone has a picture of Santa that can be moved across the wall.

Now you can either move the Santa as the days progress and add presents into their sleigh drawing to represent the sales. Either way is good to represent a story of their sales, and add a little festive fun at the same time.

Imagination is your only barrier

Christmas is a great time to add a little festivity into your commissions. By adding bonuses to the financial ones you already offer, you can motivate your team and add a little joy into the office.

What is also good, is that the options above can be customised to fit any holiday time. Santa across the wall could become a plane going on holiday!

The sales commission dashboard is fast becoming the most popular way to track and analyse sales. The benefits this little tool can bring to your business far outweigh the time it takes to implement. More importantly, when using a sales dashboard, teams report better workflow and a more knowledgeable approach to sales.

Will it work for you? The following are the most impactful benefits that come with using a sales commission dashboard.

On the spot analysis

Analysis is a great way to move your sales strategy forward. It is essential to a good business plan. Whether you are a team leader or a CEO, you will come to rely on it when decision-making. But analysis usually takes time, creating a gap in the flow between the data and your company’s reaction. This gap costs you profit: sales dip and your commission staff drag their feet. A sales commission dashboard solves this problem. Because it offers real-time analysis of commission, sales and staff performance, your company’s reaction to changing sales will be lightning-fast and the best it’s ever been.

Comprehensive management

Performance management is key to a sales company running on commission. Sales data can vary wildly between staff, with down-turns quickly snowballing. Therefore, it is key that you keep tabs on how your sales team is performing. The sales commission dashboard is an excellent way to compare the sales contributions of individual staff. It allows you to react quickly to a dip in sales performance and buoys up your sales data. More than this, it allows you to respond to high sales performances quickly, which is encouraging for sales teams. This results in a virtuous circle of positive competition, and better sales.

Optimising your forecasting data

Forecasting is ever-present in every sales meeting. The sales commission dashboard is an easy way to sift data, move analysis forward, and present a persuasive set of forecasts to the team. It is necessary in providing an easy guide to future sales techniques, and in setting meaningful goals for your team.

Every sales team has the same general goal – sell more.

Consistent monitoring of sales performance is the simplest way of checking that you’re on track to achieving constant positive performance. But it is important to note that setting the right goals will empower your team, keep the budget on track, and grow your profits. While setting the wrong goals can quickly derail necessary progress.

So how can you set sales goals the right way? What kind of benefits can you expect? Let’s take a look at how to set goals that will truly grow your business.

Break down your sales goals

Bigger goals can always be broken down into smaller tasks. This makes it easier to stay on target. First, calculate your annual or monthly sales goal. Use this amount to work backwards, to create smaller targets for each week. Seasonal differences and other predictable fluctuations should be taken into account. This includes the time it takes to train a new employee, or a reasonable amount of time to “ramp up” to new targets to maintain productivity and motivation.

Working backwards from your target also helps you look at what activities are involved to reach your goals. For example, if on average you need to speak to 10 leads for each sale, that determines both a skill benchmark (converting 1 out of 10 calls) and a booking benchmark (at least 10 a day to make 1 sale).

Set sales goals the SMART way

You’ve probably heard of SMART goals, but are you implementing them? This popular acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. When you’re determining how to set sales goals, SMART is an essential strategy to implement. SMART goals, especially when staff are able to see how they tie directly into their commission, make a team easier to manage.

You should be cognizant of common mistakes when setting sales goals too. Being clear on the targets and tasks required will set your sales team and business, up for success.

To help you reach your goals, Commissionly’s straightforward solution to commissions makes it easy to manage and motivate your sales force. Learn more about how you could use Commissionly to reduce the time spent managing your team, increase productivity, and spot key insights to strategically plan for your future.

It happens to everyone at some point, no matter how you create sales goals, there is a period when sales performance drops. When this happens, there can be a loss of morale, which can further hamper efforts to recover performance and return to winning ways. In the long term, this can seriously affect the business’ profitability.

So, how can you help a team (member) recover from a sales performance slump? Here are some solutions.

1. Understand why the sales performance slump happened

The first thing that you need to do is understand why there has been a sales performance drop. It could be due to frequent illnesses recently or taking a holiday, or something that is related to industry performance. Sales commission software should be able to identify trends and/or changes in sales performance.

Other factors may be the addition of a new sales process and staff have struggled to close prospective clients. This is often the case when new processes are implemented, as staff take time to align their work behaviour to the new processes.

2. Resolve issues

Once you’ve found the reasons for the sales slump you can take action to resolve the issue. If, for instance, you’ve noticed that a staff member has taken a lot of time off because of illness, then you can look for ways to assist them in getting them back to work.

Or, if there is a problem with a new sales process that is hindering the close of sales, you can look at ways to improve said sales process.

3. Create sales goals to inspire people to improve

The next step is to inspire your staff when you create sales goals for the next sales period. You should always create sales goals that slightly increase the performance from the bad sales period. For instance, if they sold only once in that period, then increase it to two in the next period.

It is important that you don’t increase your expectations too much. This can be a stressor for staff and could continue the trend of poor results. Instead, smaller, sustainable (but higher) sales goal can result in happier staff who will perform better.

So when a team, or just one person, suffers from a sales performance drop, you need to act to ensure that they recover. This is done through careful management, analysis and taking time to create sales goals that will help teams grow in confidence to recover.

Commissionly is a leading sales commission software service that can assist you. If you want to find out more information about how we can help you to reward your staff, contact us now.

An effective salesforce requires staff to be working at their optimum capacity. A team that is not always reaching sales performance goals, is likely due to increased stress levels. Recent research has shown that about 28% of staff are leaving their roles in the sales team every year. Just under half of those people are leaving due to stress.

Stress has a significant part to play in how productive we are. And some experts have suggested that introducing better stress management will allow companies to achieve increased sales. So, how exactly does stress impact productivity?

Demotivated

When sales staff are stressed, they are less eager to meet targets and less likely to achieve the sales performance goals that have been discussed or set for them. This is for both individual and team targets. Obviously, the knock-on effect is not only on the team but the business as well.

Less resilient

Those suffering from stress are also likely to have lower levels of resilience. What this means is, when they are met with a ‘no’ from a prospective client or even an employer, they will not be likely to be persistent in pursuing that client in order to close a deal.

Lowered communication skills

Those who are under stress are harder to communicate with. They may appear unapproachable and may be unwilling to reach out to contacts inside the office. Good communication skills are an important part of selling and so lacking in this area, due to stress, is a big deal and can completely undermine the efforts of the salesperson to meet their sales performance goals.

How to reduce stress in the sales environment

It is important to note that some levels of stress are useful. However, there needs to be a level of control over the impact of stressors. If staff feel too pressured, they’re going to struggle, and this will lessen their performance – not enhance it. This may require, finding ways to ensure that staff can have opportunities to de-stress.

It isn’t helpful that most sales staff work longer, more unsociable hours. However, there are great ways to encourage activities within the office that can help staff to unwind. For instance, have a games room or a corner where staff can do light exercises or engage in social games like darts, pool or table tennis. Those who exercise are often found to have lower levels of stress and higher levels of productivity. Increased productivity will only benefit the organisation.

If you want to increase sales in your business, consider booking a demo with Commissionly. We offer some of the best software to help your staff meet sales performance goals and help managers keep track of bonus payments.

Large sales companies spend a lot of time each month calculating their commissions manually. Small businesses are not exempt from this laborious and inefficient task, as the manual computation of commissions is subject to errors and low levels of transparency.

Commission management software is an essential component of sales planning that makes the process of tracking commissions less complicated. Sales managers will, therefore, spend less time disbursing commission to their sales representatives.

Below are some advantages of the commission management software.

Boosting employee performance

Managing commissions using commission management software can have a direct motivation on the sales of the team. The software allows each person access to monitor their earned commission, from their devices at any time.

An efficient commission management system indicates all deals that have been closed, making the commission calculation process transparent. This will be a motivating factor to sales team members to improve sales, in order to earn more than previously earned.

Enhancing the accuracy of commission payments

Inaccuracies generated by outdated methods of calculating commission and compensation are a primary cause of financial losses in companies.

The use of accurate software ensures real-time access to data. This increases the efficiency and accuracy in the process of calculating and paying out commissions. Companies that have employed this software are more likely to pay commissions within two weeks from a sale being made.

Saving time with automation

Automation of the sales representative payrolls, including their commissions, saves the sales manager the headache of manual calculation. The staff can also freely focus on making more sales without having to, regularly calculate their commissions. The automation will save time, which will be of great advantage to the organisation as the number of sales per representative increases .

The payment of commissions causes fluctuations in the monthly wage payments. This makes an efficient management system, to ensure the cash flow is kept constant, a crucial requirement. An accurate and easy-to-use commission management software will ensure this process is smooth and automated, minimising errors and ensuring the sales representatives are paid timeously.

For more insights, such as the steps of establishing a successful sales compensation strategy, feel free to browse through our website.

Some businesses don’t offer their employees individual sales-based targets. Instead, they create sales goals based on a team’s performance. When the team reaches the goal, they all get rewarded. But if the team fails, no-one gets any compensation.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to this strategy. What are these and can you benefit from that strategy? Or should you stick to creating sales goals based on the individual’s performance?

Teams can work better together

When you set team goals, you are building a working culture which is more integrated. This allows your team to work off each other’s strengths and weaknesses more naturally. It also improves your team’s level of engagement and general morale. Businesses that employ this strategy notice that it can improve productivity.

Team goals also allow for larger rewards that salespeople can work towards. This can result in a bigger sense of accomplishment when goals have been achieved. Plus, team members will find that achieving those goals means more to them.

Added to this, goals for a team creates more flexibility as there are more paths to success. Staff aren’t micromanaged and so can choose who completes what parts of the sales process, based on their expertise, strengths and other aspects. The more paths there are to succeed, the higher the chance the team will do well, which gives an overall morale boost.

Team goals have the potential to reduce sales success

There are some aspects of a team-based sales goal that aren’t positive.

There is the possibility that at times some team members may not pull their weight and others could feel that their hard work is benefiting those who are less conscientious. This can cause friction within the team and conflict might arise. And if one person isn’t contributing to the team, it poses the possibility of reduced success.

Compensation management can be a challenge, especially when you have new members of staff starting, or staff leaving the organisation. Or, you could have issues if a team member has been ill or on holiday during the target period. If they contributed to just part of the month do they get the full reward or part of the reward? It can be hard to know how much of their participation has contributed to the success of the team. After all, not all contributions are accurate.

Also, setting individual goals, rather than team goals, gives the team members no excuses and greater accountability for their own performance. Due to the fact that it creates a competitive environment that can push staff productivity which can reach higher sales goals.

So while some businesses create sales goals based on team performance, it is not a strategy that ensures success for all businesses. In fact, most businesses will probably find that individually set sales goals would be better, with some form of additional minor team goals.