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If you're paying your sales
reps straight commission, you're using an obsolete formula.
If you're paying your sales reps a straight salary, you're also using an obsolete
formula.
Both of those formulas are vestiges of an earlier, simpler time. You may be like
thousands of other distributors who are using compensation plans that served them
well in the past. In the last few years, however, a number of changes in the economic
environment have combined to render some of those compensation plans ineffective.
There was a time when your market was growing relatively rapidly. You wanted your
salespeople to get as much of that business as they could, with little concern
about where it came from. For all but a few distribution industries, that has
changed. Even though the last couple of years have been good for many distributors,
most will admit to a general uneasiness about the demand for their products. Markets
are leveling off, and customers are much more conservative then they used to be.
Factor in changes in the dynamics of the marketplace caused by things like the
growing power of the mass marketers, and you have several trends that translate
to a perceived softness in the market.
Competition is growing. Alternate forms of distribution are becoming stronger
and more pervasive. Some industries are seeing telemarketing/catalog companies
make inroads. In an attempt to grow, distributors in neighboring geographical
areas may be expanding into yours, creating additional competition. And many industries
are seeing distributors who previously distributed other items take on product
lines which compete with you. Add all this to the equation, and you have a world
which is far more competitive and complex then it was.
Another, often overlooked significant change, that has tremendous implications
for sales force compensation, is the growing sophistication of sales force software.
This gives you the ability to easily measure performance more and more precisely.
For example, a few years ago you could probably easily measure sales and gross
profits per territory. Anything much beyond that may have been very difficult
to get at.
Now, however, many distributors have the ability to easily measure things like
gross profits per line of billing, profitability per customer, profitability per
product line, and sales costs as a percentage of gross profit per territory.
This increase in information sophistication should be viewed as an opportunity
for increases in sales productivity. With this newly acquired ability to measure
the results of sales behavior more finely comes the corresponding ability to reward
sales behavior more precisely.
All of these relatively recent changes combine to create a climate where smart
distributors should take a close look at their current compensation plan to decide
if it really is meeting their needs.
There are a number of potential benefits to doing so.
1. Increase productivity
-- and therefore the bottom line. Pressures on margins are not going to
go away. It's likely that you'll be averaging a couple points less a few years
from now than you do today. If you're going to survive, much less prosper, in
that kind of an environment, you'll need to become more productive, to do more
with less margin.
Until recently, you have probably reacted to the need to become more productive
by concentrating on internal costs. You've reduced your inventory, streamlined
the warehouse, and are probably on your third generation of computer software.
But all this time that you've focused internally, you've kept hands off the
sales force. It is, in all likelihood, costing you the same percentage of gross
profit today that it did a few years ago.
Yet, the sales force is probably the single largest cost to your company. Look
at your P&L statement. Isn't sales force compensation the largest single
line item? If you're like most distributors, your sales force costs range around
25 - 35% of gross profit. Doesn't it make sense to at least investigate the
potential of changing the compensation plan to make that group more productive?
A couple points change in the relative cost of your sales force, and therefore
an improvement in its productivity, will drop directly to your bottom line.
2. Implement corporate strategy. As business becomes more complex and
more competitive, the smartest companies are working harder at creating effective
strategies. The days of "Go out and sell a lot" are over. Yet most sales compensation
programs work against effective corporate strategy because they encourage the
sales people to do what is easiest ( sell the easiest item to sell, to the people
who most like them) rather than what is in the best interests of the company.
One of the most common complaints I hear is from frustrated CEOs and sales managers
who want to build closer working relationships with certain manufacturers, but
who can't get their salespeople to perform adequately on those lines.
It's often a classic case of the salespeople doing what the compensation program
rewards them for (easiest sales) and not what is in the strategic plan.
Every sales compensation decision encourages and discourages certain behavior.
For example, a straight commission plan encourages the quickest, easiest sales.
But, it discourages strategic behavior that has a longer-term payoff -- like
acquiring new customers or emphasizing certain strategic product lines.
Straight salary, on the other hand, encourages loyalty, steadiness and attention
to service. However, straight salary discourages individual initiative.
If you want to manage your company strategically, you'll need to ask yourself
if your compensation program directly supports your corporate strategy by encouraging
the right kind of behavior. If not, it's time to review it.
3. Free sales managers to become more effective. Different sales force
compensation plans require different types and amounts of attention from sales
management. You need to make sure that your plan is using your sales management
in its most effective way.
For example, commissioned reps not only require less management than salaried
reps, they require a different kind of management. If your compensation program
is primarily commission, you, or your sales manger(s) must be more adept at
participative, "influencing" type of management. If your plan is heavily weighted
in favor of salary, your sales management will spend considerably more time
reading call reports, expense reports, and managing political maneuvering on
the part of your reps. When your salespeople know that their salary or bonus
is dependent on management's judgment, they'll spend a significant portion of
their time politically maneuvering for a more favorable evaluation.
The typical manager may be able to handle 6 - 8 reps who are salaried, and twice
that many if they are commissioned. So, one of the variables going into your
compensation program has to do with your use of your sales management -- whether
that's you or someone else. Since sales management is often one of the highest
paid positions in your company, it's a worthwhile exercise to ask yourself if
you're making effective use of that resource. Your sales force compensation
plan can do more than any other decision to free your sales management up to
be more effective.
4. Attract and retain the right kind of salespeople. One of the most
powerful tools you have to attract and retain the right kind of salespeople
is your compensation program. Potential salespeople will measure themselves
against the compensation formula, and make a decision as to whether or not they
can perform adequately under it. Those who don't think they can do it will take
themselves out of consideration. They, therefore, make your selection process
easier by self-selecting themselves out. Those who see themselves performing
under your compensation plan will stay in the interview process.
I have found that, over time, salespeople gravitate to that compensation situation
in which they feel most comfortable. For example, you will rarely have a security-minded
salesperson last forever in a straight commissioned position. And you won't
see an aggressive money-motivated closer stick around for years in a salaried
situation.
Your plan, then, becomes a tool to retain the kind of salespeople you want.
Self Analysis Here's
a self-evaluation tool to help you analyze whether or not you should be revising
your sales compensation plan. Simply answer yes or no, and then compare your answers
to the list below.
1. Has it been three years
or more since you last made significant changes in your plan?
2. Does your sales force cost you more than 25% of gross profit?
3. If 25% or less, are you growing at a rate with which you're satisfied?
4. Has the percentage of sales force cost compared to gross profit (the number
from question two, above) been declining over the last few years?
5. Are you facing more competition today then a few years ago?
6. Assuming you have a strategic plan, do you specifically and significantly
reward salespeople in a way that directly supports your strategic goals?
7. Have you been frustrated in the inability of your sales force to support
commitments you've made to some of your vendors?
8. Are you concerned that you may not be utilizing your sales management to
its best use?
9. Do you believe you may not have the right kind of salespeople to see your
company successfully into the 21st century?
10. Are you having a difficult time hiring salespeople who become profitable
to the company as quickly as you'd like? If your answers are those in column
one below, you have no reason to investigate revising your sales compensation
plan. If you have answers in column two, any one may be reason enough to consider
a revision. Several answers in column two would indicate a need to consider
a revision.
| Column
One |
Column
Two |
| 1.
NO (it has been three years or less) |
1.
YES ( it has been more than three years) |
| 2.
NO |
2.
YES |
| 3.
YES |
3.
NO |
| 4.
YES |
4.
NO |
| 5.
NO |
5.
YES |
| 6.
YES |
6.
NO |
| 7.
NO |
7.
YES |
| 8.
NO |
8.
YES |
| 9.
NO (I'm satisfied with the quality of my |
9.
YES (I'm concerned) salesforce) |
| 10.
NO |
10.
YES |
Your sales force compensation has huge upside and downside potential. On one hand,
your plan can be one of your strongest strategic tools. On the other, it is also
your biggest ongoing cost. Now is the time to carefully review your plan to take
advantage of its upside potential and minimize its downside cost.
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