Employing the right people for your sales team is important. You need to have someone who can offer the revenue to justify their compensation. And when someone doesn’t meet their agreed-upon sales performance goals, there will come a time when that staff member should be let go.

But how long do you retain that member of staff for? You can’t just keep on setting sales goals for them (that they don’t match) or spend months having the team carry that person. This won’t help your team’s morale.

Terminating contracts sooner

The Harvard Business School did a survey, comparing the best performing sales teams against the worst performing sales teams. They found that the best-performing companies would often terminate a staff member’s contract sooner if they failed to meet sales performance goals.

According to the survey, 18% of the sales organisations that were considered to be high-performers terminated the employment of sales people if they underperformed in one quarter. This is compared to just 5% of the sales organisations that were underperforming.

The survey found that 73% of best performing sales teams, terminated the contracts of underperforming employees within one year. In comparison, underperforming sales teams terminated just 52% of their underperforming employee’s contracts.

Interestingly, it also found that for some underperforming companies (12%) it took more than two years for poor performing staff to have their contracts terminated.

What the Harvard Business Review survey demonstrates, is that poor performers shouldn’t be working in your organisation for too long.

Terminating the correct contract

However, to ensure that you’re not removing the wrong people, you need to consider how you monitor sales performance.

For this, your organisation needs to have software to help set sales goals and monitor performance. Without this, team leaders and managers are in the dark on the actual performance of the salespeople in their employment. Measurement software was critical to two-thirds of the best performing sales teams in the survey.

You should also set sales goals that are realistic but are be too ‘soft’ on your sales teams. The above survey found that 75% of the best performing sales teams would raise annual goals by more than 10%.

Use sales-monitoring software

So what this all means is that you need to ensure that your sales people are performing to a standard that is good for all. By monitoring their sales performance, you can be sure that you’re employing a team that is contributing to the business. If they don’t perform over a protracted length of time, they should leave the organisation or move to another non-sales team.

This process can be supported by monitoring software that can tell you when salespeople are meeting their set sales performance goals. Commissionly can help you, so get in contact with us.

The talent you employ in your organisation is what drives your sales team’s success. Talent and underperformance are integrally linked. Without hiring the right people, you can expect to have a higher level of staff turnover and lower retention.

According to statistics, the average UK turnover rate (across all industries) is about 15%. However, sales teams can expect to have a turnover rate of 31%, more than double the average. There are a few reasons why employees might leave their sales position:

– Better sales commission at other organisations.
– Poor performance at their current job.
– Conflicts with management.

The problem is that recruitment can be costly financially and also to the efficacy of the team. It can cost near the equivalent of a year-and-half of the employee’s wages to replace an employee and get the new team member to full productivity.

So, for a £20,000 employee, the cost to replace them could be £30,000. If you have 10 people in your sales team, then replacing them at a rate of 31% could be a bill of, at least, £90,000 a year.

Employ the right people

Importantly, you need to look at employing the right people. Higher staff turnover is often because there is a mismatch between the business’ and the employee’s goals or values. A mismatch leads to a disillusioned staff member who won’t perform at their best.

Improve staff retention

It’s not all doom-and-gloom though. There are ways to improve staff retention. One such way is setting sales performance goals that are simultaneously realistic and challenging. This gives salespeople, who are traditionally very competitive, a reason to keep on pushing to meet sales targets.

You should also look at offering a sales commission that is fair to the salesperson for the work it takes to close a deal. If an employee thinks that the work isn’t worth the pay, they will likely look to move to another company, which will make them less enthusiastic about pushing sales for you.

All of these mean that staff retention is an important metric that needs to be monitored. Too many staff leaving your business will cost you significantly, which will severely impact your profits. And without the right sales commission software helping you to set sales goals and monitor performance, then your task will be harder.

While sales teams are often the major focus for compensation software, they aren’t the only ones who could use this technology to increase motivation. There are many industries and jobs where compensation could be awarded for high performance.

Here are three industries that can implement compensation software for ‘front-line staff’.

1. Retail

Retail staff, or any staff in the customer service industry, can be rewarded for their actions and this can motivate them to be more productive on the shop floor and sell more at the tills. There are many ways you can set sales goals for your retail staff. For instance, you can reward them for the most revenue generated (daily or weekly), the number of impulse buys they convert or the number of items sold in the store.

Compensation can be entered manually into the software, or there can be predefined goals that can be given to staff. This could apply to staff on the shop floor or those working at the check-out counters.

2. Leisure

Staff that work in spas, hotels or other leisure outlets can also be rewarded. An example could be in a gym; the staff can have set sales targets for signing up new members or renewals, etc.

3. Trades

Tradespeople are highly-skilled service providers (plumbers, electricians, etc.). Unfortunately, service-based businesses often have once-off jobs and this means the income is very unpredictable. In such a business you need to develop a stronger, passive income.

This is where all-inclusive deals can come in handy, where customers can pay a monthly fee for a set amount of work per year (like unlimited labour or free safety tests). These deals are great because they allow you to have a long-term, passive income that allows you to better predict revenues and plan more accurately.
And for customers, it’s a convenience. You could reward those providing your service when they sign up a new customer to your business. You can also set sale goals and reward them according to those.

Long-term sales don’t even need to be the key focus. You could reward staff on the number of event or day tickets they sell during a specific period.

A traditional sales team, that works in an office or even those that go door-to-door aren’t the only people who can benefit from compensation software. There are numerous other industries that can benefit too.

Your business can benefit too. Just ask Commissionly. We make it simple for you to set up and use and you won’t regret it.

Allowing input into the process of setting sales goals and targets helps build a sense of ownership within a team. Your aim is to unlock your team’s creativity, however, it’s also a process that can demotivate if not conducted in the right way.

So here are the best ways to unlock the team’s potential:

Hold an ‘ideas’ meeting

Bringing a team together, and inviting them to be creative, is an excellent way of developing ownership. Once invested in an idea, an effective team can even help manage its achievement. How? By encouraging each other throughout the process. They can chivvy along as necessary, and congratulate good performance.

Of course, even an ideas meeting needs a structure, but these are wide parameters to encourage effective thinking. Any gathering designed simply to agree what a manager or leader wants to do is not an ideas meeting!

Gather ideas without assessing them

• ‘Oh, that won’t work.’
• ‘No we tried that a while back, 2007 I think it was, and it didn’t work then.’
• ‘Customers won’t buy that; trust me I know.’

We’ve all heard them, idea-demolishing phrases. Often, they are offered as a quick reply, but they tend to kill creativity. Sometimes the speaker is genuinely trying to be helpful. Either way, the effect is a reduced offering of further ideas, as team members will not want to have their suggestions squashed.

So, as a starting point, the key is to gather ideas without comment, using a whiteboard, screen or the like. Let participants know that this is not the time to comment on ideas. Any idea is welcomed – even if later discarded.

Collating and editing ideas

After the gathering process is complete (be sure to keep it short) then the process moves on. Where different ideas might work in harmony they can be brought together. Now is the time to assess the ideas, but in a controlled way. For larger teams, one sub-group may be given a few minutes to think of the benefits. Another might be asked to recognise drawbacks and how they might be overcome. All of these responses can then be brought together into an agreed goal and action plan.

Managing sales goal achievement

With the goals set, managers and leaders need to keep a focus on progress. Here at Commissionly, we provide intelligent help in the motivation of your sales team, in order to achieve the set goals and earn rewards. We’d love you to talk to us about your specific requirements. So feel free to get in touch.

People go to work for one primary reason. To earn money. For most, the wage or salary they receive is known in advance. It can be a regular, standard weekly or monthly payment. But sometimes it can be based on the number of jobs or tasks completed. Alternatively, some people get paid an hourly rate rather.

It’s different for sales personnel, however. Some are paid on a commission-only basis. Others receive a modest, regular wage that is supplemented by commission or compensation. This is when a certain amount of greyness can creep into the situation.

It’s not something that employers or employees like to entertain. So, a transparent sales compensation management system is the answer.

Sales compensation management software that reports in real-time

If all sales compensation is at one flat rate, it makes it easier to calculate how much is due. However, even in this instance, there is room for some ambiguity. For example, what date is a sale recorded on the system? Does it fall into one pay period or another? There is room for confusion, and this should be avoided wherever possible.

The solution is to install a cutting-edge sales compensation management program. To begin with, such software provides one place where are all sales and commissions are recorded. No more scraps of paper or sales reports that can get permanently lost or temporarily misplaced.

The best sales compensation software reports in real-time. Furthermore, it should be able to integrate seamlessly with relevant systems such as CRM and accounting software.

Increase loyalty through transparency

Imagine having a sales compensation management program that allows instant access to both sales management and staff. Besides dashboards for managers, you can have private dashboards for sales reps. Everyone can see exactly what the current position is in an instant. This sort of transparency is important. It gives sales personnel confidence in their employers thereby increasing employee loyalty.

Empower sales personnel with access to their compensation progress

Above all, calculations are automatic. You can introduce different levels of compensation for various products and product ranges. Accordingly, you will be able to use this to promote sales where you need them. Sales personnel will also be able to check-in and see where the best incentives lie. This puts them more in control of achieving their compensation targets.

Talk to Commissionly for more information

This type of sales compensation management software is available right now. It is easy to install and can be up and running in no time. It will bring complete transparency to the compensation playing field. For more information, call us today or visit our website.

Sales commission software is a great way to motivate and incentivise your sales team. But can it benefit your business?

Let’s take a look at the top 4 industries that utilise this means of employee performance tracking:

1. Financial services

Whether your team sells merchant payment services or helps others to better invest their money, sales commission software can reward those reps who go the extra mile in discovering the best opportunities for their clients. It can also integrate with existing cloud bookkeeping services such as QuickBooks and Xero. And if you work with referral bodies and agents on varying sales splits, sales commission software helps reduce error.

2. Tech industry

Offer solutions and services in the tech industry? Log conversions and manage targets for multi-tiered package and software scenarios easily with commission software. From ‘Software as a Service’ to cloud storage and cybersecurity products, a gamified sales team is the perfect means to convert leads.

3. Digital services

Track the performance of account managers or departments selling PPC, online advertising or SEO services. Integrate reps’ performance with your CRM, set targets in line with the latest data analytics and adjust them based on experience. It can even be adjusted whether your commission structure is recurring or varied.

4. Medical sales

Medical practices are keener than ever to use their budget wisely, and sales reps are having to work harder to make those (all-important) conversions. Sales commission software enables reps to see their targets and track their own performance. Sales commission software can also be based on multiple currency conversions for those that sell at home or globally.

Sales commission tracking software is a great option for any business looking to improve their sales conversions. Whatever you sell, maximise your team’s potential with Commissionly today.

Building a sales performance management strategy could sound intimidating and like a lot of pressure if you’re unsure of what to do. You don’t want to come across as overbearing or pushy – but you also don’t want to seem floundering or lackadaisical. However, ensuring that you find the right balance is easier than you expect.

Here’s how you can manage the sales performances of your employees effectively.

1. Assert your goals from the get-go

From the beginning, be clear with your employees on what your expectations are, regarding their sales performances. What is their daily target sales quota? How long do you expect them to spend with each client? What should their priorities be? Laying all of this out on the table means your employees know what you want. This means that it’s easier for you to track inconsistencies because an expected timeline and/or goals has/have been established.

2. Remember to schedule events and goals

So often, people rely solely on their memory. This can backfire quickly because the human brain is not as effective at retaining information as, say, a piece of intuitive management software. Keeping track of your to-do list means that you can reflect upon each one as and after it’s passed, meaning you can manage performances and outcomes with ease.

3. Be a leader – not just a boss

If you want to truly understand why an employee is falling behind in their sales performance targets, often the best stance is not to be intimidating. Instead, try adopting more of a mentor figure. Ask them why they think they’re failing, what you can do to help. This will build a rapport in the office, and help your employees feel more at ease. When they feel like this, they’re likely to be more confident and perform better.

4. Use Commissionly

Commissionly is a flexible, advanced platform that will help you keep track of, and manage, all your sales performance targets. Not only this, but you can use Commissionly to send out questionnaires to your employees and clients in an unintrusive manner, gleaning results quickly and effectively. Commissionly can be tailored to the individual needs of your SME, growing with you as your business grows.

The norm in business is for companies to pay their employees a basic wage. This is then built on with performance-related bonuses depending on how the employee has been performing. However, with the emergence of the gig economy, this is changing. Employees are taking jobs that pay by the task rather than hourly, which can be a great way to make sure your workforce is effective.

Workers are starting to prefer these jobs for a few reasons.

Wanting to earn as much money as possible

Firstly, employees are more likely to give their all if they know they’ll be rewarded for it. Why would a worker put in as much effort as possible if they’d be earning the same at the end of the week?

Hourly or salaried workers have less reason to push themselves. On the other hand, commission workers need to work with more focus, for the extra income. Essentially, they can earn themselves a bonus by pushing themselves as hard as they can.

As earnings are in their own hands, employees find themselves striving to do more since they directly see the benefit.

Using commission alongside salary

Whilst a workforce based on commission can be effective, combining it with a salary can bring added benefits.

When employees who receive a commission only, often feel under pressure and stressed about hitting targets. A salaried worker, on the other hand, can feel financially secure and not need to worry about completing a set amount of tasks.

Employees can instead be offered a salary with commissions as a bonus. This not only makes sure the worker feels happy and secure. Additionally, workers can have the incentive provided by a commission. In this case, they’re not only working hard for a living, but they can see the benefit they gain by getting that extra sale.

If you’re interested in a system of sales-based rewards, Commissionly can help to fulfil your business potential. Commissionly provides real-time sales data to encourage and challenge your team to achieve. The commission management software can help you to forecast and plan your finances, organising your business for the foreseeable future.

Get in touch at Commissionly for a quote, and our friendly expert team will assist you in setting up the right tracking system for you.

Sales commission software is an invaluable tool for both businesses and individuals. It helps business owners to calculate, with ease, how much they owe their sales personnel. But the right commission tracking software can do so much more. It can also be used to incentivise a sales team.

There are many opportunities for salespeople who rely on earning a commission. However, they must know where they stand at all times. After all, for many, it determines what food they will be putting on their plates. It also means being able to pay bills on time. In short, their commission is their lifeblood.

Sales commission software sets and measures markers

For some salespeople, sales commission software allows them to concentrate their efforts on earning a liveable income. For others, it represents a marker. However, to the ambitious salesperson, that marker is not a goal. It is something to be bettered each time around. It is an incentive to raise the bar – to sell more.

Real-time reporting

To work well as an incentive tool, sales commission software must report in real-time. It means that salesmen and women can see where they are at earnings-wise, at any point in time. It gives them the spur they need to achieve their target income.

Comprehensive flexibility

But there is something else too that good sales commission software needs. It needs to be comprehensibly flexible. Most people like challenges. Provided of course they are achievable. This in itself makes them a great incentive as non-achievable challenges actually disincentivize employees.

Target setting

The best commission calculation software must have a user-friendly interface and be easily programmable. From the company point of view, it makes target setting a cinch. It enables attractive commissions to be set on certain categories of products.

This has two advantages:

  1. The first is that it concentrates sales efforts on product categories that need it. Therefore, businesses remain in close control of their targets.
  2. The second is for the sales staff. Moving targets around through commission biasing creates new challenges. Challenges motivate the sales team, giving them the determination and will to achieve.

Satisfying both ends of the spectrum

If you’re looking for the best sales commission platform to increase sales and motivate your salesforce, try Commissionly. It achieves the best results at both ends of the spectrum.

Commissions can be a major part of small to medium enterprises (SMEs). They are a highly effective way of making sure that employees are always doing their best for the company since their pay is directly linked to sales. However, to manage commission payments effectively, specific software is required. To run your company most efficiently you need to make sure this software is a perfect fit for your business.

Here are the features for the perfect commission software for small to medium enterprises:

Sales splits

For any company where more than one person is involved in any sale, sales splits are important. Without this feature, commissions would inevitably go to the person who finalised the sale. However, a sale can be more complicated than that and requires more specifics to properly manage commissions. Multiple team members will probably have engaged with potential clients in order to get to the point of them making a purchase. So only rewarding one person can often be unfair and will have a negative on the motivation of the team. With sales splits, different employees can earn different shares of the commission, so everyone gets paid what they are due.

Manager overrides

If your SME has multiple branches, manager overrides can be necessary. Since each manager is responsible for their own team, they should be rewarded when that team does well. The best commission software will account for this and allow managers to receive a share of their teams’ sales. The best managers will earn more, and everyone will be encouraged to get the team to do better since it’s in everyone’s best interest.

Dashboard & reporting

The best commission software for SMEs will need to account for a company’s need for in-depth financial information. Smaller companies are always looking for room to grow.

In-depth reporting means that SMEs can look for areas of strength or weakness in their company and adjust accordingly, rewarding those that are doing well whilst spotting any issues. Tools to analyse business performance are always important, and good commission software should provide this.

Ultimately, one commissioning software guarantees all of this and more. With Commissionly, your small to medium business can ensure that everyone is fairly paid whilst providing the resources to grow. If you believe your company needs commissioning software like this, contact us, book a demo or start the free trial. Our reliable team of experts can advise on the right package for you, and make sure that your small to medium business can thrive.