Changing how we work

The problem is; the standardised way we work out how to set sales targets and quotas can cease to be fit for purpose from month to month. Compare December to January, for example. One is slow due to holiday festivities while another represents a new year and new goals. Yet they are only a month apart. Previous targets and KPIs may be unrealistic, if not completely unachievable, so penalising our salesforce is never the answer.

We may not be able to control the shifting sands of time, but we can influence buying habits through marketing, and we can control what we do as a business. It’s important to keep in mind that this is the industry we choose, and such seasonal occurrences should always have been factored into our strategy.

What businesses can do

Every industry needs to prepare for a ‘sales boom’ as well as potentially quieter times. People go through boom and bust as well as businesses, and those living frugally are going to be keen to make up for the lost time when they can. We need to be ready when they do!

One method is to refocus on our salesforce. This is a great opportunity to provide training. Feedback and coaching are essential aspects of performance sales management. Do you do this enough? Your salesforce is the lifeblood of your business, so take this time to sharpen their skills and knowledge of your industry. Up-skill where you can and dig into each sales person’s strengths and limitations.

Finally, always maintain consistent but sensible levels of marketing. While it’s tempting to cut budgets during off-peak times, this risks becoming irrelevant. Customers need to know we still exist. They need to miss you, to know that you’re still open for business. Be seen and continue your marketing efforts as usual, particularly around your social channels. If you don’t, your competitors will, and they’ll also reap the rewards.

Still using a spreadsheet to calculate commission? If you’d like a simpler, more efficient way to manage sales performance, why not consider Commissionly?

You can benefit from a free trial with a demonstration on how to improve your sales performance management. With a host of powerful features, like sales territory management, sales quota management, and sales objective management, you’ll soon find yourself wondering how you ever managed with a simple spreadsheet.

At Commissionly, we know how to create realistic targets and have put together a list of the most common mistakes to avoid.

1. Not understanding what is realistic for your team

If a small proportion of your team misses their goal on a regular basis, then the problem is likely to lie with their techniques. However, if the majority of team members are failing, then it’s likely the problem is with the targets themselves. Start by defining what is realistic for your company and then create sales goals in line with this. Remember, targets should be manageable and achievable.

2. Ignoring market potential

Every market and industry is different so setting the best goals for your business relies on following current market trends. Are you entering a previously untapped market or promoting a new product that fills a gap? Then aggressive sales goals may help you to establish your brand before competitors catch up. 

3. Failing to train team members in sales

You wouldn’t expect someone who hasn’t learned how to drive to be a chauffeur. Thus, you can’t expect new sales staff to exceed their targets immediately. There is an art to selling and anyone who is willing can learn the tricks of the trade. That means it’s important to teach new team members how you do things and impart any tips for success. You can also allow older team members to share their experiences and wisdom, improving communication and team spirit in turn. 

At Commissionly, we pride ourselves on being the first cloud-based sales commission and sales compensation management web app for SMEs. For more information about our product and the benefits it brings, get in touch with us today [https://www.commissionly.io/sales-commission-dashboard/].

A strong sense of purpose

Some sales reps are motivated by a strong sense of purpose. They believe in the products and services they are selling and the benefits that they deliver to their customers. They are personally invested and delighted by the satisfaction their customers get from their products and services. Reps who are driven by a strong sense of purpose should be brought into the client feedback loop to champion their clients and provide insight into product and service development. 

Accountability and ownership

When people are involved in setting their own goals, they are more invested and more likely to achieve them. As much as the company will always have its overarching goals for the sales department, it is essential to allow individual reps to create sales goals that are SMART and map out their own plan to achieve success. Having personal targets that are aligned with the company’s goals helps to improve motivation and attainment. 

Autonomy

Whilst management at varying levels is required in most organizations, ‘micromanagement’ is often one of the reasons given when people chose to leave a position. Innovative, fast-moving business are recognizing the importance of self-management – working our clear goals with employees and giving them autonomy to deliver. Giving your sales reps some control over their own time manage, their daily schedules and the tools and techniques they use, without the need for a lot of bureaucracy may enable them to sore. 

The rapport between sales reps and managers

Managers and sales reps should work together to define best ways of work in term of communication, how they intend to handle supervision and feedback. For some reps, having a quick meeting with their manager every day is quite motivating while others find the weekly sit-down more helpful. It’s important to find out what works best for your team and personalizing the approach for each member in order to get the best out of them.

At Commissionly we offer a cloud-based sales commission and sales compensation management web app to help you motivate your sales team by using a commission-based payment structure. With a well-structured commission coupled with non-cash incentives, you can be sure that your sales team will deliver impeccable results.

Not consulting stakeholders

A big mistake is giving the job of creating sales goals to one person and expecting them to complete it in isolation without consulting with other stakeholders. It’s important to find out how the needs of customers will impact your sales in the coming months, while also maintaining an awareness of the competition and the way their plans and marketing could impact you. Sales goal setting is a team effort, so make sure you have everyone pitch in.

Looking backwards instead of forwards

Although the sales history of your company can shed valuable insight into future trends, it’s important to be focussed on forecasting rather than reporting on what’s already happened. When it comes to sales goals, they need to be firmly grounded in where you’re going, not where you’ve already been.

Not giving employees an incentive to work harder

Your sales staff thrive on the commission you give them, the promise of earning more driving them to do a better job and earn more money for your business. However, by promising all your staff an increase in salary every year regardless of your financial situation, they may lose some of that enthusiasm. This could skew your sales targets, as your top performers may not perform quite as well. Make sure you reassess any commission or pay increases each time you set new goals and base them upon the current financial climate.

No room for flexibility

You might think that setting a goal and sticking to it is a good thing, but extreme rigidity actually limits you. You need to make sure your goals remain achievable and adapt as you realise which targets you’ll be able to meet and which you won’t. There’s no sense striving for a goal just because you set it at the beginning of the year if there are other areas that could benefit more from your time and energy.

Commissionly gives your salesforce real-time updates on performance, serving to motivate and challenge the whole team to achieve. We also provide insights and intelligence to your financial managers and leadership teams, helping you to forecast and strategically plan for the future. We work with SMBs and larger businesses around the world to help them to work smarter and achieve more.

To book your free demo or start a complimentary 14-day trial of our sales commission software simply contact our team anytime.

Tip #1: Revisit your sales roadmap and reset expectations

Anxiety can get the better of all of us sometimes, but salespeople can be particularly prone to it when they feel they can’t hit their targets. When this happens, and they push even harder to sell, the anxiety can paradoxically make their sales performance worse. To help this, try revisiting your annual roadmap and show your sales team that it’s okay to go through a lull in sales – especially if it’s early in the year. 

Tip #2: Give your sales team well-defined goals

One issue that can lead to a sales slump is a lack of clear goals. If your team doesn’t know exactly what they should be aiming for, it’s very difficult for them to judge how well they’re doing. This can then progress to a lack of confidence in their own skills – even if they’re excelling at their job! If you can help them to create sales goals, and perhaps do some commission tracking to keep them focused, you’re certain to see better results. 

Tip #3: Incentivise in the right way

Once you’ve got sales goals set the way you want them, you also need to consider how to keep your sales team on target. The answer to this is, of course, incentivisation – but how do you go about this? You’ll know your team better than anyone, naturally, but financial incentives in the form of commission are often the most effective solution. By tracking progress on a sales commission dashboard, your team will be able to stay focused and maybe even get some healthy competition going with their teammates! 

If you’d like to avoid the dreaded sales slump, it’s a smart idea to invest in sales performance management, which is exactly what Commissionly was created for. If you’d like to learn about our cloud-based sales commission software, simply contact our team anytime.

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.

Let’s look at why improving the way you communicate could give your sales team a boost:

1.) Don’t forget they’re human

When you’re managing a fast-moving sales team, it’s natural to focus on performance. In doing so, the team can become a lot like a machine, but it’s vital to remember that in reality, you’re dealing with a group of human beings.

They get tired, they get stressed, they have needs – and by addressing them with good communication, you can improve the sales team’s performance. Be sure to take the time to speak to each of your salespeople individually – and not just about their work.

2.) Ensure sales goals are clear and concise

There’s nothing more frustrating for a salesperson than an unclear or nebulous goal – and because salespeople tend to be goal-focused, this can result in stress and a reduction in performance.

When communicating with your sales team, ensure that you’ve been clear about what their goals are and what success looks like. If this means you need to work with them to create sales goals which work better for them, so be it – it’ll benefit your bottom line, after all. 

3.) Double-check they’ve got the tools they need

Another key to supercharging your sales team via communication is to make sure they have the tools and materials they need to succeed. If they’re pitching to a prospect and they don’t have the correct printed materials or resources, it could result in lost business for you – and this could have been avoided with better communication.

It’s a smart idea to set up a central location where your sales team can find all necessary collateral they need to make those sales.

If you need a little help meeting sales targets or motivating your sales team, consider a compensation software like Commissionly. With an easy-to-use design that’s accessible to all, it makes communication with your sales team an absolute breeze.

Using professional software may well be the way to combat your sales management troubles. These tools can give your company an edge over the competition while unlocking limitless opportunities for growth and success.

The best of these software can not only aid you in tasks such as budgeting and commission tracking, they can also help you decide how to set sales targets and quotas to achieve future business goals. Here are the top four benefits your business can gain by investing in quality sales management software:

1. Proper account regulation

Your sales management system can serve as a useful database that holds together all of your business information and sales accounts. This will allow you to handle as many accounts as your business needs without any risk or hassle.

Strategically managing your accounts this way will also help you identify accounts that promise the most revenue and have them ordered to suit your priorities.

2. Commission tracking

Commission tracking software is one of the most useful features you can expect from a sales management system. This is because the more employees you have, the more you come to realise that using different spreadsheets to track every last sales commission is just not a practical solution.

Using professional software will provide you with great options such as a sales commission dashboard and sales compensation calculator to keep your business transactions flowing smoothly and error-free.

3. Create sales goals

A sales management software system will allow your sales reps to focus completely on making more sales without burning energy on administrative tasks. With the system holding all the information they need, the sales team will be efficient when selling products and services to target consumers. And with access to sales goals software, they will be more likely to succeed when deciding on how to best approach the company’s sales performance goals.

4. Reports and analysis

Using sales management software will help you track the success of every sales and marketing campaign launched by the business. This will tell you if your efforts have produced enough sales conversions and traffic to meet your goals. And by studying these reports, you can identify any shortcomings present in your strategy when initiating a new campaign.

Some success factors for sales performance management are:

Regular feedback

Both managers and employees require regular feedback, for instance, conversations about their performance and development. Feedback should highlight areas in which they excel and areas where more effort is required. This helps in supporting continuous learning in the workplace. Meetings should also be fairly balanced, rather than purely criticising employees. Focus on acknowledging their strengths to make them feel more valued and appreciated.

Altering the conversation

Most sales reviews are centred on forecasts and day to day performance. These short term interventions alone are not enough to improve performance. More emphasis should be placed on improving individuals’ skills and abilities through constant training and coaching. Listening to what employees have to say and providing constructive criticism also helps them perform their job more successfully.

Having appropriate goals to reflect the changing business environment

Sales environments are dynamic. As such, there is a constant need to adapt to the changing circumstances. For instance, acquiring a new product will attract new competitors. Consequently, a new strategic plan has to be in place. Every person should know how they fit into the new business landscape. Individual expectations should be constantly reviewed and communicated as and when necessary.

Goal transparency

Effective sales performance management should focus on the different dynamics of a team. A performing team is the sum total of its individual members. With well-aligned goals, it will be easy for each team member to understand how they can help one another better. Sharing ideals and feedback in a team (not just in a management team) makes for a more collaborative and inclusive environment for the whole team to succeed.

Productive reviews require preparation

Performance discussions are only productive when both parties prepare well. For employers, performance appraisals present the perfect opportunity to listen to employees. They should be allowed to voice their concerns and point out specific areas where they require more support say, for example, through special training.

Are you ready to take your organisation to the next level? Start by mapping your sales enablement journey. Always remember that organisations that implement effective sales performance management elevate themselves above their competitors.

Thorough onboarding, regular training and a good operational base are the best way to implement your brand standard, so here are some tips on how you can create that atmosphere for your workplace:

1. Have a clear, consistent sales commission scheme which is implemented across the board

Perhaps your commission scheme has different levels to reflect experience or commitment to the company, but it is vital that this should be open and transparent throughout the team.

Without a standard process or structure, resentment, gossip and vindictive behaviour can thrive as people think they are being shortchanged or undervalued. This toxic environment, in turn, leads to high staff turnover and therefore a big loss in potential sales.

2. Create sales goals which are regularly reviewed

Obviously, sales goals are paramount to any business development team, but there is more to it than that. If people feel that they have moving targets which are personal to them, they feel valued and are more motivated to keep on progressing up the ladder. Having a good sales performance management tool in place will save you a wealth of time when structuring this kind of workplace.

3. Keep training sessions short

When training spans hours or even days, concentration dwindles and the capacity of the brain for retaining information is compromised. Many of the most innovative companies around the world instead run short daily or weekly huddles in which a new subject is explored. This serves not only as personal development for your team but is also a great stimulator first thing in the morning when your team might need the cobwebs brushing away.

4. Use the buddy system

By buddying coworkers, they not only have a person to bounce ideas or problems off, perfect for conserving your energy, but they also form more meaningful connections at work. These friendships will keep your staff more satisfied with their job and therefore less likely to leave. A great way to keep your turnover down and retain solid employees!