The tight budgets mean most small businesses have not only poor sales team management strategies but also inefficient bonus performance compensation programs. However, all is not doom and gloom for you as a small business owner. Enter sales compensation software, an automated program that will help in maximising your employees’ value while minimising HR costs.

Sales compensation software will automate not only your sales but also the accounting and administration teams. Compensation management couldn’t get any easier for your small business. Here are some benefits you get incorporating a sales compensation software in your business;

1. Make smart and informed decisions

Small businesses have a limited workforce, which in most cases, is stretched to the limit. A sales compensation software provides you with an all in one dashboard containing relevant data that otherwise would consume a lot of time and manpower to collect.

From business bonus programs to the sales team productivity metrics, the software calculates commissions and compensations in one click. With this information, you can make objective decisions on your next sales management move.

2. Easily secure your data and keep it up to date

There has been an increase in the number of data breach cases reported by small businesses in recent years. An ideal sales compensation software secures your sales metrics –compensation and commission – among other sales data to avoid access to competing businesses.

Besides, the software ensures sales records and performance indicators are up to date. Hence you can always anticipate what is coming up ahead in terms of market returns before your competitors.

3. Simplifies motivating your employees

With built-in features such as badges and leader boards, sales compensation software ensure you incentivise your team correctly. The software also provides teams with a sales commission portal from which managers can easily access sales data. Hence they can identify which employees need to up their game and what goals and targets need readjusting.

Automation of sales compensation will help your business avoid common compensation errors. Get software that also allows your sales teams to verify their earnings to ensure there is a complete trust in the system. Try out Commissionly, sales compensation calculator, to ensure your business adjusts accordingly to changing sales market conditions.

Creating more time to close deals

Having the right mindset is essential for all salespeople. If the sales commission software you use is complicated and time demanding, it will distract staff from their real goal. Yes, their goal from a personal point of view is to make money. But how is that done? By closing deals.

The advantages of CRM driven sales commission software

Keeping tabs on existing clients and having information readily to hand on prospective clients and your communications with them is vital. So, having a sales commission software package that is based on Customer Relationship Management rather than Comma Separated Values (CSV – typically spreadsheets) is a bonus.

One significant advantage of CRM sales compensation software is that it makes it possible to incorporate product catalogues. Most businesses have multiple product lines. Each product lines carries varying commission rates based on price and sales volume. 

The use of product catalogues is twofold. Firstly, it makes it easier to target your sales force toward specific products. You can put the spotlight on the product margins and revenues that you wish to promote. Secondly, it makes it easier for individual team members to track their progress in terms of sales commissions earned. Because of this, CRM driven sales commission software programs have the edge over CSV driven software.

Don’t forget your existing client base

Business and sales, in particular, is all about establishing good relationships and communication. The same goes whether you are talking cultivating new clients or expanding business with your current customer base. Far too many salesmen and women concentrate most of their activity on finding new clients. However, this can be detrimental to existing customers, who if truth be known, are your best source of new orders.

This brings us back to communicating. By staying in regular contact and recording where you’re at on the right sales commission software, you are nurturing new business. Besides new business, you will also be encouraging repeat orders.

To find out more about the best CRM based commission tracking software, book a demo or start a free 14-day trial today.

Why that next call should be different

If a salesperson is making regular calls to established customers, then another saying should be front of mind. And it’s this: familiarity breeds contempt. However, this can be a bit harsh, so perhaps it should be adapted to: familiarity can breed indifference.

More of the same-old, same-old

There are many salespeople who are satisfied with a call to such a customer where the previous order is repeated. They measure this as a success – and it’s fair to say that, on occasions, this might be the best outcome that can be achieved. However, that isn’t the same as being in a comfort zone where this is simply the salesperson’s expectation.

Adding something new to a call

In the scenario just described, there can be a comfortable relationship between buyer and seller. Until, that is, another salesperson arrives on the scene behaving pro-actively. This individual is offering something new or different. This might be no more than paying proper attention to the client and their needs, rather than taking them for granted. 

So, what might the something new be? It could be a product or service, or an improvement on what’s currently on offer. However, it might be no more than taking time to ask questions of the customer, to find out how their business – and therefore their needs – might have changed or be changing.

Changing expectations and outcomes

By the simple showing of interest, rather than just taking them for granted, a salesperson can move their relationship up a notch with regular, or infrequent, customers. Even for a first-time call, the level of genuine interest shown can be a game-changer! Author Maya Angelou said it well when she suggested that “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

The Commissionly cloud-based sales commission software app can offer evidence to managers of where the same-old is being accepted or an improvement is being striven for. To find out more about keeping a close eye on performance and more…

This type of software makes it possible for companies to assess each sales rep’s progress, predict future sales numbers and analyse the effect of renewals while keeping an eye on the status of their sales performance goals.

Managing employee commissions manually is a difficult and time-consuming task. Here’s what you should consider when switching to sales commission software that will work for you :

1. User-friendly

The right commission tracking software can boost not just your profits, but also your efficiency and overall workplace productivity. In order to achieve this, your chosen software needs to be simple to work with and have user-friendly features.

It must be easily operable and assist employees to produce high-quality results in a short space of time. It shouldn’t be too complex to install and must allow users to import information from other financial software already available in the workplace.

2. Functionality

This is one of the most important features to look for when purchasing sales systems. A professional commission tracking software should be able to process data from several business sources and work well together with any current software that you use.

It must be able to assist you in carrying out complicated business calculations and important analysis. The software needs to make your sales computations easier to handle and keep payments accurate. Finally, it must also be able to present all the processed information in a manner that’s easily understood by the company’s key decision makers.

3. Integrate with existing systems

The new sales commission software that you choose must be able to function well with your current systems. It must be able to access, share and transition information in a number of different formats and stay compatibly connected to other financial software systems in your workplace at all times.

4. Flexibility

Manually handling your employees’ sales performance and tracking their commission is a daunting task. This is because you need to work with several collections of financial information and spend hours of your time comparing datasets, all the while figuring out the best way to present every piece of information. But with a strong commission tracking software, you should be able to track and compare several large datasets quickly and with minimum effort.

The right software package for your business must be flexible, allowing you to choose your preferred method of processing information and adjust statistic views in ways that suit your business purposes.

With a sales commission dashboard feature, your sales reps will be able to track their commission in real time.

While all business managers will look at targets and goals in relation to the quantity and quality of sales, the majority of sales reps will be focused on their individual pay packet. That may sound like bad business, but if you have a clear commission structure you don’t need to have your reps overly care about your business as the pay will be more than enough to motivate them.

This is where good commission tracking software can come into its own. It can be all well and good having a well-organised commission structure in place, with the benefits which can come from that. Though if the data is inaccurate and reps aren’t paid what they feel is correct, all the good work implementing that commission structure in the first place is for nothing. Having the statistics monitored for you in real time and with accurate data will help you improve morale.

It is another fact that all businesses run on data, none more so than in a sales environment, thus if you have more accurate data it will improve your business. Commissionly offers this while also helping create your sales goals. It will then keep track of where you are in relation to those sales targets while at the same time improving morale, with reps knowing they are going to get paid for the work they do.

The reps will be able to see where they are and will be able to look at what they need to do to push that little further if they are short of where they would like their commission to be. Accurate data at your and your reps’ fingertips in the dashboard will help them push for more sales and hence help your business.

Occasionally, in-depth analysis and major change are needed to breathe new life into your sales performance goals. Whether the adjustments you need to make are large or small, decisions around business software are critical.

Get it right and you stand to revolutionise your business and your sales. Sit back and do nothing and you could be missing out on a whole range of powerful, automated benefits.

1. In-depth understanding

Unlike traditional spreadsheets which are susceptible to human error, automated software tracks and analyses raw sales data in a totally reliable and comprehensive way.

However complex your operations, once the facts have been input, executives can tap in for an in-depth understanding of how their teams are achieving day-to-day, produce reports and commission payouts. Employees can rely on their sales data to accurately reflect their successes. When you stay informed, great things can happen. 

2. Motivation

Nothing is more useful to sales team leaders than having accurate information about individual staff performance in relation to commission tracking.

They can see at a glance how the work of each individual is impacting on department performance. That means they can dedicate their resources to identifying and supporting reps that are falling behind.

It is easy to look for patterns of achievement and add extra motivation when it’s needed to reach a particular sales goal. For instance, if one rep is great at closing sales for a particular service or product, a manager can tap into their skills in order to train others and build success across the whole team. 

3. The here and now

Unless you have money to burn and an army of super-accurate data inputters, the smart money is on web-based sales commission software. It means that your performance indicators, sales records and analyses are always up-to-date, and you can log into your data from anywhere. You know exactly where you stand, you can assess what the future holds, and you can plan ahead for the benefit of your business.

Sales commission software isn’t just for the bigguns. Small and medium-sized businesses are now able to invest in specialised automated dashboards that strip away the guesswork. If you are looking for increased productivity, escalating sales and a motivated team, check it out.