We work with companies to help them improve their sales performance. One of the things we do is provide management consulting to companies that need to create a specific sales strategy or improve their processes. We can get as granular as developing team and individual meeting sequences, creating questions to ask sales candidates during the interview process, and yes, we develop sales compensation plans. However, I start every compensation plan conversation with the same statement…
"The plan we develop will not be a silver bullet for your sales performance.”
As you can imagine, my close ratio isn’t too high after making this claim. However, our satisfaction rate is up there with Dairy Queen and the New England Patriots. I don’t believe sales compensation plans will change behavior past the first 90 days. I don’t believe people decide what they’re doing at 2:30 on a random Tuesday because of what pays them the most. I don’t believe happiness is related to income after a certain level. (A 2010 Princeton study illustrated that this level is an annual income of $75k.) And I don’t believe that salespeople are coin operated.
I believe salespeople are human beings that need the same things we all need. Don’t get me wrong – you must have a competitive sales compensation plan. However, a good sales compensation plan is simply the cost of admission. It’s not going to make most people do their best over a long period. You must provide the leadership components that all humans need. The point of this post isn’t to share the key components of sales leadership, but to stress that it doesn’t end with pay.
So yes, create a great comp. plan for your salespeople, but then lead them and watch the results pour in!
