When it’s time to analyse sales performance goals, many business owners are often intrigued by the thought of doing away with commissions and paying employees a fixed wage. Maybe it’s a rough patch in the market or the idea that salespeople are not keen on jobs where salaries can fluctuate.

But whatever your reasoning may be, sales commissions are a critical element when it comes to devising a strong business plan. Here are three reasons why sales compensations are invaluable for corporate growth:

1. Motivate workers to make more sales

You may expect your employees to be committed to the future of the organisation. While this can be effective, you still can’t hope for workers to always perform at their peak with nothing but company goals to motivate them.

Your employees, like all humans, are certain to have their bad days. This is especially true when it comes to sales and marketing, where workers can face rejection and extreme competition throughout the day.

The stress factor can run high while they continue to make call after call while you figure out how to calculate sales targets based on their performance. A sales commission system can encourage sales representatives to focus on meeting specific sales goals, and enjoy rewards that they can grow and monitor through the business sales commission software.

2. Enhance team performance

A healthy and competitive work environment is essential for sales representatives to work towards the future together as a team. By fostering a competitive workplace that doesn’t clash with the company culture, employees are incentivised to perform their best when working towards achieving common goals.

This means that the sales goals met by each individual worker must come together to form unified targets that contribute to both departmental and overall corporate goals.

3. Analyse and recognise performance

Today’s sales departments are highly competitive environments where employees are happier for the value-based acknowledgement they receive from their peers. By recognising the sales performance of your workers, you pave the way towards better customer service, engagement and productivity. And since strong sales performance management can boost employee performance, it can actually be the difference between a successful and a losing marketing department.

Commission tracking software can play an important part in this, as it can be used to study the output of individual employees and create sales goals for the future.

Once you’ve captured a high-flying sales team, the next challenge is to hang on to them and keep them motivated to grow your business. One of the ways you can do that is by using a cloud-based sales commission software that is easily accessible and which encourages collaborative working as well as rewarding individual talent. 

Foster team spirit

A salesperson who chases individual success without considering the overall impact of their actions jeopardises far more than a few extra pounds in revenue. When sales teams stop working together, they risk undermining the reputation and results of the whole organisation.

A good sales manager knows that collaborative working is essential for building sales in the long-term. Of course, any employee who thrives from earning commission is going to need personal drive and determination and that can sometimes seem incompatible with sharing support and information. But everyone benefits from transparent digital sales compensation software structured to help team members feel safe enough to input their own sales and successes without worrying that their leads might get stolen out from underneath them.

Reward the individual

Individual team members may be encouraged to be secretive if they know that only they will benefit from sales commission. A creative sales compensation structure will combine a personal commission package with team commission rewards.

This type of package encourages all employees to focus on growing sales in a collaborative way rather than be driven solely by their own earnings agendas.

Keep everyone in the loop

No matter how you choose to compensate your salespeople, you need to ensure that they have quick and easy access to real-time sales data including revenue and commission. Using cloud-based software is the ideal solution.

A sales commission dashboard is available to all employees 24 hours a day via their computers, laptops and mobiles. This type of open system links the shop or office to the road. Not only does it pull the whole team together, but it also means that commission for good performance can be tracked and pulled down quickly.

Take care of team working and you stand to boost the achievements of each individual salesperson. The right software can ensure everyone pulls together.

As a sales leader, you always have to find new ways to keep your sales team motivated using incentives and encouragement to boost their morale. Here are five ways to do just that :

Sales commissions

Traditionally, sales commissions have always been effective motivators. Set up a generous sales commission scheme that does not create competition amongst your team members but instead rewards personal efforts as well as the group’s collective achievements.

Nowadays, commissions and sales tracking are made easy by efficient sales commission software, so you don’t have to do any of the tedious math yourself. 

Personalised recognition and rewards

Commissions are usually cash rewards, and often the sales reps feel like they are only being paid rather than being rewarded. Sales commissions alone are not enough to make the team feel appreciated.

Including personalised non-cash rewards as additional compensation go a long way in recognising your team’s efforts. It does not have to be much – coupons, gift cards, tech gadgets, and recreational outings are some examples to give you an idea of cash-less rewards that might interest your staff. The more personalised the reward, the more deserving and special it feels. 

Staff training

Some sales reps may be unsure of themselves, so educate your staff on their value and teach them new ideas on how to increase productivity.

You can prepare training sessions locally for your team or organise the attendance of remote or online seminar events. This adds value to your employees and encourages them to improve on their weaknesses. 

Set sales goals

Break down your annual sales goals and hold every rep accountable to smaller daily, weekly or monthly goals. Some reps may not realise their potential unless they have their sights on a target, and may be selling themselves short by lacking clear objectives.

However, don’t discourage your sales reps with very high sales goals or underestimate their performance with very low ones either; create sales goals that are fair and achievable. 

Exciting team building activities

A sales team is made up of individuals with unique talents, skills and capabilities; you need to bring them together as a unit to work as a team.

Conduct team-building exercises to encourage collaboration and communication among your sales reps. Don’t go for the cliché ‘tell us about yourself’ sit around, these need to be fun and exciting. Go out on a wilderness retreat, try out physical games, trivia, board game tournaments and the like.

The exercise should not elicit embarrassment or personal invasion; instead, focus on bridging gaps between team members by bringing out their collective strengths. 

Get in touch with us and find out more about incentivising your sales team using our sales commission software designed for small and medium-sized businesses.