The sales industry is ever-changing as new techniques and technologies arise, but a number of myths and misconceptions about sales have stood the test of time. In this blog, we’ll be debunking some common myths about sales.

High-pressure techniques are required to close sales

A number of sales team members and leaders believe that they need to be a ruthless negotiator and apply a lot of pressure to prospects in order to close a sale, but this is not the case. More often than not, closing a sale comes about as a result of a good process and the right prospect, but there is no special technique required. While creating a sense of urgency is important for your prospects to take action to commit to an order, this should come at the end of the sale in the form of a gentle nudge. The more time you spend building a relationship with a prospect, the more natural it will feel to nudge them in the right direction at the end.

Sales team members need to be extroverts

A professional sales team is usually made up of both extroverts and that each bring their different skills to the table. While an extrovert will have the ‘gift of the gab’, an introvert will use active listening, reflection, and curiosity in order to close a sale effectively without dominating the conversation. While extroverts have a number of behavioral advantages when it comes to sales, they could stand to benefit from the techniques of your more introverted team members by asking more questions, listening effectively, and channeling their enthusiasm.

It’s better to start at the top

While it may not have been true in the past, sales teams are beginning to realise that customers in growth markets, or middle-sized customers, present a better proposition than those at the top. Competition in mid-sized markets is less fierce, which can make deals more profitable. Decisions in mid-sized businesses are often made more quickly and the decision-makers are usually more accessible, which can make the sales cycle much shorter.

One of the most common ways of encouraging a sales force to reach their potential is offering a commission for every sale that they make. It’s widely accepted that if an employee sees a personal benefit in a sale, they’ll try even harder. Ultimately, this will drive your company on to another level of success. However, in an increasingly remote working environment, you need to make sure that you’re as efficient as can be. Automating your commissions process can be the competitive edge you need.

Freeing up manpower

When you’re striving to make as many sales as you can, every hour selling counts. Thus, your company needs to be all hands on deck, especially in troubling times such as now. By having someone individually working out and assigning commission for each and every salesperson, you’re missing out on potentially hundreds of hours that could have otherwise been spent selling. Using commission tracking software means that all of this is dealt with automatically. Employees can be certain that they’ll get their commission, and it’s far more efficient for the business.

You can set quotas

A good sales commission software will show you how to set sales goals. This means that all of your employees will know exactly what they need to achieve. Because of this, they will see that they need to push a little bit harder for the end of the month, and earn the business even greater revenue. Although these could be done manually, the automatic process saves time and adapts to the performance of individual employees. That means that every salesperson is pushed to be their best every month.

It reduces the chance of mistakes

As good as someone manually organising commissions can be, there will always be the occasional mistake. An easy way of stopping this is by automating the process. The last thing you need is an employee being angry at receiving too little commission and working less hard. When used well, software such as Commissionly can automatically organise commission with no mistakes. This will keep the workforce happy, and revenues high.

COVID-19 is at the forefront of everybody’s minds – we’ve posted a couple of times about it recently here. Businesses across the world are adapting to the changes that have to be made to survive. It’s important that your sales team retains confidence in your business during these trying times as, while none of us knows what the future holds for many industries, your staff are going to be key to ensuring that you remain in a strong position.

Question is, what can you do to keep business confidence alive?

Sales performance goals: the heart of your company’s future

Sales performance goals are crucial during the lockdown. By updating these goals regularly, your staff will know that there is still every reason to strive to make as many sales as possible and to keep nurturing a rapport with your customers. This will also have a reverse effect on your business success by helping your company not just stay afloat but thrive: the more your sales staff put in, the more the company will achieve, which means your sales staff can keep giving it their all. Keep sales performance goals at the forefront of your strategies and this cycle will only get stronger.

Business confidence starts with leadership

When you update your sales team’s sales performance goals, they’ll see that you’re on the ball, keen to help, and excited about the potential of the future. When you project yourself as a leader that actively backs your staff – and therefore your business – this energy will only spread throughout your teams, whether sales or otherwise, ensuring you know your staff have just as much faith in the business as you do.

The solution to ongoing business confidence

Using Commissionly to create sales performance goals is the easiest way to give strength to your staff and your business. You’ll be able to set new goals whenever you choose, keeping staff motivated and business confidence alive, whatever the upcoming weather.

If you’re currently using a spreadsheet to calculate commission, and 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.

Making changes to your business with the current state of the market might not be at the top of your list. But with many companies currently working below their usual capacity, it might just be the ideal opportunity to get ahead. Implementing sales commission software for your business is a great way to improve morale, and establish brand-new practices that benefit your employees for years to come. Want to know how?

Here are our top tips to get you started:

Clearly communicate your plans

When implementing anything new in your business, it’s essential to provide clarity. This is even more important in uncertain times, where communication is the key to success. If you’re planning on implementing or trialing sales commission software in your company, then let your staff know about these plans. If your company isn’t currently furloughing employees, keeping them in the loop is even more essential, and can provide an extra degree of stability to work with.

Begin a testing and learning phase

While you may be tentative about rolling out new software immediately, implementing new processes at a slower speed may actually benefit your business in the future. There’s never been a better time to test out new sales commission software, especially if your business is currently on a reduced level of work. Whether it’s offering training, giving employees time to get to grips with the platform or providing webinars, there’s plenty you can do before that final launch. By putting down that foundation, you’re paving the way to a smoother start.

Implement your final roll-out

Once you’ve prepped your employees and communicated plans, what’s the next step? Change is already on the horizon, so bringing a positive addition to your business practices will be welcomed. By setting a date for roll-out as soon as possible, you can ensure good practices are in place ready for that increase in business that’s likely to come. Lockdown has been a time to adapt – but it’s also a time to grow for many businesses, so don’t be afraid to forge ahead.

Are you ready to jump-start your sales team with a new commission structure? If you need any help with your sales compensation management, get in touch with the Commissionly team anytime.

Some industries are more suited to a steady stream of sales than others. While some businesses are seasonal, others are evergreen. Those that cannot rely on a constant flow of customers 12 months of the year are forced to get creative when figuring out how to hit sales goals when customer numbers change.

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.

If you manage a remote sales team, it can be hard to ensure you communicate effectively with your team. Through phone calls and emails, important pieces of information can often be lost, making it essential you have a strong network of communication with your sales reps. Below we offer top tips for improving communication with a team of remote workers.

1. Set communication schedules

If you do not set a specific date or time to call an employee, you will most likely keep pushing the call further and further down your to-do list until the communication becomes long overdue. At the start of each week schedule the times you would like to speak to your employees, whether individually or as a team, and stick to it.

2. Have an office calendar

When working remotely, it is easy for an employee to be missed off a meeting list or email chain and fall out of a communication loop. Create an online calendar that can be viewed and added to by everyone in your sales team, so every employee knows when important meetings are. If an employee notices they are not being included in a meeting or event, they will be able to raise this with you.

3. Use sales performance management software

When managing an online team, organising individual sales commission is an extremely time-consuming and confusing process. Instead of allowing emails about commission to interrupt the communication flow of your business, you should use sales performance management software which will automatically manage your sales team’s commission. This will allow you to communicate with your employees about more specific work matters, as all issues about commission will be handled for you.

4. Offer a platform for feedback

You may wish to create a separate company email address for team members to send their ideas and feedback to. This ensures general comments and suggestions don’t get lost in daily communications.

Contact Commissionly

If you’d like to learn more about sales performance management software, or more ways to improve communication within your team, contact Commissionly today!

We have, in this blog, spoken many times about the value and necessity of sales goals. It is essential to not only have something to strive towards, but also to set out goals that can form a baseline for future performance; without having such goals in place, progress can easily stall, and improvements can be difficult to ascertain.

However, while sales goals should be an integral part of every business with ambitions of growth, there is little to be gained from setting goals that are wildly optimistic or simply unattainable. So, with that in mind, here is a quick guide on how to set sales goals that are realistic.

1. Consider what your company needs to succeed

Every organisation has its own targets and growth ambitions, and it is absolutely vital that these are taken into account when setting sales goals, as you need to ensure they are specifically tailored for your operation. By doing this, you will also be able to ascertain whether or not your current team has to capacity to attain the sales figures you desire, meaning you can be made more aware of whether you need to start hiring additional staff, alter your ambitions, or whether you’re already well placed to succeed.

2. Utilise the correct measurements

You need to consider more than simply how much money each salesperson is bringing in (though, of course, it is vital to keep this in mind always). You also have to look at progress – whether sales performance improves over time – and sales awareness – whether the individual is able to ascertain whether or not a lead is worth pursuing. By doing this, you will be able to set targets for specific employees, and also provide them with necessary training if required.

3. Consider time

A key issue that afflicts many companies is that they vastly overestimate the amount of time that employees will be able to spend working on hitting sales targets. It can be very easy not to consider sick days, weekends, and holidays, as well as how much time will be taken up each workday by attending to emails, partaking in internal meetings, and conversations – work-related or otherwise – with colleagues. Try to figure out – as best you can – the average length of time it takes to convert a lead, and make this one of the core factors in your goal setting.

We listen to our clients’ suggestions and respond by constantly improving our Software.

Introducing the new feature: ‘Suspend User Module’

The suspend user means a company can stop processing commission for a staff member who has left, but still keep their commission data up until their suspension date. When they are suspended it frees up the licence so it can be used for a new person.

Previously when you suspended the person, it would still process their commission and the licence still counted. This meant you had to delete the person to free up the licence. but then you lost all their historical commission data.

Once you have suspended a user, the only way to unsuspend is to contact our support.

If you’re currently using a spreadsheet to calculate commission, and 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.

If you have recently opened a small business, or you have been managing a business for a while, you may be trying to calculate commission payments yourself to keep your company expenses low. Although you may think you are doing the right thing for your company, you may be doing more harm than good. Below we explain why you shouldn’t try to calculate commission payments yourself…

1. You are taking time away from your work

Calculating commission payments is a very time-consuming task and requires a high level of concentration. Think of the hours you spend calculating the commission of your sales reps, and think about how you could better spend this time. For example, you could use this time to reach out to new clients or develop new sales strategies.

2. No one is exempt from human error

Even if you have fantastic financial skills and are experienced in organising commission, you may still make mistakes. Human error is often inevitable and can occur when you are trying to rush to meet a deadline or finish a task quickly. Paying a sales rep too much or too little commission can make them feel undervalued and unstable in your company, so commission calculation mistakes should be avoided at all costs.

3. You may not be able to manage your commission process for much longer

You never know when a company may suddenly grow, and you may find that your sales team is multiplying faster than you anticipated. Instead of drowning in commission calculations, ensure you have scalable commission software in place that will be easily able to handle the rapid growth of your sales team.

Interested to learn more about commission software?

If you think your company could benefit from commission software, do not hesitate to contact Commissionly. We can help your company reach its true potential by providing elite commission software that will keep your sales team motivated without consistent intervention. Contact us today to learn more about our commission software!