Create and track incentive compensation

When developing your incentive compensation plan, your decision-makers will need to work hard to create a system which attracts the best sales talent, motivates and encourages the right business decisions. However, incentive compensation plans can become complicated, particularly when they involve several different performance measurements – or if you have different employee levels, for example. Your sales compensation calculator within Commissionly can help speed up the process.

The benefits of incentive compensation

Incentive compensation is incredibly effective when it comes to encouraging desired behaviour in employees. It allows organisations to promote upselling, incentivise customer interaction and the use of a variety of different sales techniques.

Here’s how a sales compensation calculator within our compensation software could help your company to benefit:

Help align your incentives with your business objectives.
• More likely to meet long-term and short-term targets of the business.
• Focus attention on the behaviours and working culture of the business.
• Encourage your teams to plan ahead and highlight any expectations.
• Attract more sales-driven candidates for vacancies within your business.
• Save money related to salary rises through the allocation of funds for when goals are achieved.

Creating the perfect incentive compensation plan

While incentive compensation is a great concept for improving productivity, it can be difficult to implement without the right commission calculation software.

It’s virtually impossible to manage different commission parameters with manual systems or spreadsheets. This is where a sales compensation calculator comes in. With our commission calculation software, your organisation can ensure that employees are rewarded accurately and on time, to help keep them motivated to continue hitting those all-important sales targets.

For more information on how Commissionly could help you to develop your incentive compensation strategy, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

Commission is motivating

The idea that staff should prioritise the company above their own interests is a nice one, but it’s simply not grounded in the facts. Motivation is essential if you want staff to perform at their best. Remember that for a lot of people, more money is a strong motivator.

And, naturally, your sales staff are the team you want to motivate the most. Without them, your business can dry up fast.

Commission means more revenue

Companies that object to a commission-led environment usually see the size of commission payments from their industry and wince. However, they’re not thinking in terms of what those commissions really mean.

Imagine paying out $100,000 a year to your top salesman. Now that’s a LOT of money, for sure. To a small business, it’s a massive payment. Nigh impossible. But now imagine that this salesman has made you $2,000,000 in revenue; then, $100,000 is just his cut of 5%. Would you get rid of that salesman? Of course not!

Don’t think of commission… think of just how much bigger the revenue will be to the company.

Commission gives more certainty

Measuring results gives employees and companies more certainty. It’s motivating for staff to know exactly what they’re contributing to the company. This motivation is intrinsically linked to the company’s success.

Reviewing staff performance for many businesses is too subjective. They grade staff according to how they ‘think’ they’ve performed. This can be awkward for the company, and frustrating for the staff member who’s put in years of extra work but doesn’t get rewarded because ‘subjectively’ the company isn’t sure how their work is paying off.

Commissions require specific tracking, which lets everyone know where they stand.

Commission attracts the best staff

The best salespeople thrive on competition and measured performance. They want to excel, and to be rewarded for excelling.

In a commission environment, you’re giving your staff everything they need to thrive and reap the rewards. The best salespeople will go where the rewards are, so you give yourself a better chance of attracting them. Commissionly is the first step.

Modern technology can come to the rescue. For managers, there is excellent commission software, and for salespeople, there are new ways to generate leads and build strong connections that can reduce the sales process and improve conversions.

So, in what ways can modern technology be used to help staff meet sales performance goals? Here are three ways.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a very common way that sales people can actually find leads online. The social media channel has a lot of important information on it that can help identify and communicate with social media users who are decision-makers within their businesses or homes.

Just a few minutes a day and salespeople can connect with dozens of people and communicate with them quickly. Salespeople can prepare three or four standard messages they can use to introduce themselves and the services offered. These can be used to start conversations.

2. Blogging

Research has shown that blogging can result in higher lead generation (up to 67% more leads than not blogging). And sales people can get involved. If they write just one blog post per week, they can get traffic to the company website. At the end of the blog post, they should include their contact information. And then, when people contact them, they can initiate the sales process.

Alternatively, salespeople can subscribe readers to an email list they can use to start the process of selling to them.

It should be noted that the more times that a company blogs, the more sales they’re likely to get. To get the best results, businesses should be blogging at least every other day. But, if there are multiple sales people within a company, this can be easily achieved.

3. Quizzes

People love quizzes and salespeople can use quiz technology to find out more about prospects and collect contact information. Quizzes can be developed for free using website software and other apps.

At the end of the quizzes, the contact details can be collected and the salesperson can then speak to the person.

By using the above three options, salespeople can quickly find more leads, with more information about the contact than is possible through cold calling or using an old database. Then, using this information, salespeople are more likely to meet sales performance goals.

Generally speaking, most companies have to compete for their slice of the pie. Which is why it’s not surprising that the pressure is always on the sales team to land orders.

When faced with all of that pressure, it leads many sales operations to work at a frantic pace. Sales personnel throw more time and effort in, in order to maintain a high order intake, but there is only so much they can do. There comes a point when the return on all that effort begins to diminish. Growth slows and salespeople become over-exhausted, and that helps no one. It’s time to work smarter.

More than just a sales commission software tool

Most businesses operate some sort of sales commission or sales compensation process. There are various software programs (some Cloud-based) to help with calculating and keeping track of commissions owed.

But the latest cutting-edge programs now include a lot more than just tracking software. They include CMR software and innovative apps that allow their programs to be linked to other departments and disciplines. So, what is often branded as sales commission software can be so much more. If properly leveraged, they can help your sales staff to work smarter.

Making CMR work for you

It’s all down to the CMR module. This module can be used to store all sorts of key data about existing and potential clients. Things like who are the main points of contacts, contact details (phone numbers, email addresses, etc.), size of spend, consumers’ profiles, etc.

New sales commission software programs are also great news for managers too. They make keeping tabs on the levels of commission per head a breeze. They also handle all of the calculations – no matter how complex they are.

These new programs also empower managers to set commission rates as they see fit. It means they can steer the sales focus very efficiently. In addition, the new breed of sales compensation software can be used for setting targets and creating sales forecasts.

One of the most intuitive, Cloud-based sales commission programs around right now is available through Commissionly. If you want to work smarter and achieve more in doing so, contact Commissionly today.

However, the software now available can do so much more than just track and provide live updates on sales compensation figures. It can also offer team leaders and financial management information that will facilitate sales forecasting. This same data can also be used for planning strategies.

Increase sales efficiency

Leveraging the Cloud for software programs is the way to go. Programs can easily integrate with other applications. This provides you with a powerful tool that can improve the efficiency of any sales operation. Enabling frontline staff to keep tabs on their commission, creates incentives that drive sales staff to greater heights.

Linking accounts into the loop makes the commission payment process much more manageable. It also provides managers with important information relating to running costs and the impact on profits and losses.

Access the benefits of built-in CRM

If you choose a commission software program that incorporates CRM, it can really revolutionise the sales process. When your sales team uses the dashboard to update their sales compensation progress, they can also access all sorts of other data. This data includes; who orders what, how frequently they order, who the main contact points are, what the accumulative spend is, etc.

This is all insightful information that your salespeople can have at their fingertips. Managers and team leaders can share the same information. Using this, they can create strategies and assemble sales targets.

If accounts are tied into the data too, they can use it to drive their cash flow predictions. The more integration that takes place, the bigger the potential efficiencies and benefits.

Software for all industries

Commissionly sales commission software has been expressly designed to create benefits and efficiencies in industries across the board. By including the Zapier App, you can integrate seamlessly with as many as 2,000 apps and programs, including the likes of Hubspot, Insightly, Quickbooks, Sage, Salesforce, and Xero.

If you are not yet using Commissionly sales commission software, it’s about time you started. For more information, contact us and set up a free trial today.

Here are three things to look for:

1. Software that runs the way you want it to

Each business has its own way of doing things. The end goal is always the same, but the way it needs to be achieved is always very specific depending on the business. This is a universal problem, which is why sales commission software is flexible to suit your needs. When you choose the right package you will be able to enjoy the advantages already built-in. And experience far less hassle maintaining the system.

Take manager overrides for example. Many companies grant their sales managers small override commissions on the sales their teams make. This is something that can be easily set up in some of the leading sales commission software programs.

2. Out with the old and in with the new

A lot of businesses still use spreadsheets to calculate sales commissions. There is nothing wrong with spreadsheets per se. However, they do take time to set up and maintain. In addition to which they are not easily shareable and are error-prone in terms of inputting data.

By switching across to a specifically designed program for capturing and calculating outstanding sales commissions, you can make life a whole lot easier. Easier for both management and employee too.

Calculations will be error-free. With each member of staff being able to get real-time updates. As a result, everyone can measure their performances against their targets.

3. Integrate and share data

There is something else that is very attractive about the latest sales commission software. It integrates with most other existing systems, and it’s easy to install. Leading state-of-the-art software will also integrate with other disciplines. It can be linked to customer relationship management and accounting software. Sharing data in this way obviously has many benefits.

If you would like to discover more about how you can tailor the latest sales commission software to your business needs, contact us or peruse our website for more information.

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.

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.

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.

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.