Sales performance management is always easy when your business only has a couple of sales professionals. Once you scale up though, using manual commission tracking methods or even spreadsheet tracking becomes more problematic. This will be even more tricky over coming years due to the government’s Making Tax Digital initiatives, as you probably won’t be able to evidence or back up your records properly within your digital returns.

Benefits of sales commission software

Sales commission software makes all your tracking far easier, and also gives you the digital footprint that can easily mesh with your HMRC-approved payroll. You won’t need to spend loads of your time on complex financial commissions calculations for your salesforce any longer, as this software handles all kinds of complex commission structures with ease.

It goes without saying that the main reason you pay commission is to grow sales. And, this can be a very real motivational factor for sales teams. Create an even more competitive environment, with your commission structure, when you sign up for sales commission software by:

  • Structuring add-on commissions for consistent top performers in teams.
  • Varying commissions for different products. If you need to push specific items at different times of the year, simply change the settings within your software.
  • Base your commission payments on revenues, sales volumes, or any other metrics and watch your sales force relish the challenges!

Get all the above, and more, when you sign up for sales commission software from Commissionly!

Take time to browse the Commissionly site to learn more ways your business will benefit from top-rated sales commission software from the experts! We’re proud of our high reputation and excellent customer ratings. We offer our clients a customer forum to exchange learning experiences and tips, so you will grow your expertise and benefit from a lot of user advice and support when you register for sales commission software with us. If you’d like to learn more, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us today.

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?

When it comes to setting your team’s sales goals for next year, there are a lot of factors to consider. It is important to remember that this will be a new year, a time for reflection and putting the fresh foot forward for new beginnings. So it is safe to assume that a lot of your team will be making new year’s resolutions.

Capitalise on these when you create sales goals for them. This will help you to make sales goals more relevant to individuals, improve sales performance and increase revenue for the business.

How can you align your staff’s new year’s resolutions to their sales goals?

Ask them what their new year’s resolutions are

As a starting point, ask your team what their new year’s resolutions are. Most of them should have at least one and if not, ask them to come up with one. Get them to write it down on a piece of paper (with their name on it) and give it to their team leader or yourself.

Assess the new year’s resolutions and align them to your sales goals

Next, look at these new year’s resolutions and see how they can be aligned to the business. Some of them will be easier than others. A common resolution (goal) might be to earn more, so you can look at how improving their targets and motivation, will assist them in selling more.

Another could be, to eat more healthily. While you might not think you can integrate this into your planning, you could suggest that staff members eat their lunch in the staff area instead of at their desk. Eating at a desk poses long-term health risks so you can support them in this way. It is important to keep in mind that not all goals you create have to be sales or money-related.

Have a meeting with your staff

The next step would be to speak individually to your staff and give them their new sales goals. Make sure to show them how their personal new year’s resolutions relate to the new sales goals. When they see the link between the two, they are more likely to have increased motivation for both their personal and professional goals.

You can also talk through methods for how staff can improve their general performance by giving an end-of-year final report.

So finally, mixing your staff’s new year’s resolutions with your business goals, when creating sales goals for January will most likely generate positive actions which leads to improved business sales.

If you require some assistance, use Commissionly’s commission software for small to medium business.

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.

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.

When you sit down to develop your staff bonus structures, you often think about how you can create sales goals. However, it isn’t just sales commission that is important for the performance of your staff. There are other bonuses that you can give to help motivate and grow your business.

Offering rewards for responsibilities, other than sales, makes team members think more about their work. They will endeavour to improve their behaviour and perform at a higher standard.

Your compensation software can reward bonuses in the following areas.

Training bonus

Knowledge is power and you can easily add in a training bonus to your compensation software. Staff enjoy the process of learning new skills and research has found that by offering educational opportunities to your staff, you can improve loyalty to your organisation.

Rewards can be given for successfully completing courses as well as an additional bonus for getting a high score in the course. The bonus can be manually added to their monthly pay by a manager.

Customer service award

Attracting a customer and making a sale is one thing, but the next step is to make sure that their expectations are exceeded. Customers who are happy will remain loyal to your business and buy from you time and time again. This makes them a more valuable customer.

If your customers rate your services highly, then your sales team have obviously set the expectations at the right level and should be rewarded. This can be done on a recurring commission basis, or it could be done via a special one-off payment.

Time served bonus

Too many employees are leaving organisations after short periods of employment, sometimes within a year. There’s a high cost to bringing in new employees and could also impact your organisation’s potential sales.

One way to encourage staff to remain with your company is to offer a bonus for time served in your organisation. Good milestones to consider rewarding include one year, two years, three years, five years or even ten years.

Keep in mind that bonuses don’t have to be kept for commissions only. Rewarding staff for a variety of responsibilities can improve morale throughout the organisation and lead to better performance when it comes to sales. Other bonuses can also help increase employee retention which will lower staffing costs and likely increase profits.

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.