Sales commission software or if you prefer, sales compensation software that promotes making more sales. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Every salesperson knows just how important sales commission is. Therefore, having easy to use software that facilitates more time for chasing and closing deals is essential.

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.

Working together, or against?

Many sales directors will focus on the success of each individual. They award commission based on who followed the sales process from start to finish, and who closed the deal at the end. 

Each member of staff will work against their friends and colleagues. They fight to sign those high-value contracts and maximise sales figures. It’s every man for himself.

Could working together be a better option? 

Your salespeople are individuals, each with their own way of working. Surely a better approach will identify strengths, weaknesses and personality types. Can you connect the right salesperson with each specific type of customer?

Customers know when they’re being ‘sold to’

Today’s consumers are more aware than ever. They quickly identify how they’re being treated when they’re spending their money.

Many people feel uncomfortable when they’re dealing with one salesperson from start to finish. There’s a belief that this level of consistency makes a customer feel valued. In fact, it makes some customers wonder if they’re just a number. Your customers will look for signs you’re listening to them or whether you’re just after a sale.

Instead, pass your customers around a small team at different stages of the sales journey. They’ll hear the same message from many people, which reinforces the message and can boost customer confidence.

How does this work with sales commission?

If you’re going to take this approach, things need to change. You’ll need to break free from a commission structure that rewards staff only when they close a deal. Each member of the team should receive a share of the sales commission, as a reward for working together.

With Commissionly, it’s possible to create as many sales teams as you like. Now, you can manage your payments easier than ever.

No matter the industry, the sales team is one of the hardest working teams within any business. Ask any salesperson what motivates them, and the answer will typically be “money”. Nobody gets into a sales role to achieve a basic salary and commission plays a huge role in ‘the win’.

Sales roles are demanding, and at times can be demotivating. Frequent rejection, the frustration of being passed from pillar to post as you navigate companies to find your buyer, having a customer on the hook and losing them at the 11thhour. It isn’t hard to understand how many sales reps can find themselves in a slump. Here are just a few tips on how you can improve the general morale of your sales team, and as a result, see a spike in employee performance. 

1. Training

Employee training is important, especially for salespeople. Regardless of their previous background in sales, if an employee does not intimately know what they are selling they are handicapped in the process. Invest in your employees, and ensure they are as knowledgeable as they can be about the products or services being offered and the differentiating factors of the company behind them. 

2. Bonus/commission

A bonus and commission are often the key motivators for people within a sales role, as these are often a big contribution toward the monthly pay an employee will receive. Investing in a sales commission software will take the difficulty out of commission, it will automatically show each individual employee what commission they are earning, as well as show the efforts of the team as a whole. Having a system with real-time updates shows employees exactly where they are at any given time and where their peers are, which is ideal for target setting. 

3. Friendly competition

Within a sales environment, a competitive atmosphere is essential to bring out the best in your sales team. By encouraging friendly competition, whether it be with work targets or a sports sweepstakes, this will encourage the right atmosphere needed to drive up those sales numbers. By being able to track their performance and their commission targets, employees will be able to reflect more easily on what is and isn’t working for them within sales.

4. A happy workplace

Finally, making sure your employees are happy within the workplace and feel as though they are valued and appreciated will do wonders for morale, improve retention levels as well as performance.

In most cases, companies use sales commissions and quotas to motivate their sales reps. Essentially, you hit a particular target, and the company pays you an agreed sum of money. This type of motivator is extrinsic and it is a successful lever but intrinsic, non-financial motivators are important too and getting these working together is the real key to infusing energy into your sales reps, increase productivity and get the very most from your sales team.

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.

Every single business wants to generate profits. The goal of business is to provide a service or product that solves a problem your audience is experiencing and to grow the business so that year on year it can accrue greater financial payback.

1. Research your target audience

If you don’t know who you are appealing to, how can you hope to target your service or product to the people that will benefit most from it? You need to understand who your ideal customer is, what you can do to reach them, and define how your offering can be refined to meet their needs

2. Stick to what you know (at least at the start)

When trying to grow a business or create sales goals, it can be very tempting to try and diversify so that you can reach as many people as possible. But being all things to all people can backfire and leave you meaning not much to anyone. Focus on your core offering, what differentiates your business and make it the best it can be.

3. Figure out what sets you apart

Why should a customer choose you over a rival organisation? What do you do that other businesses can’t? If you are able to define this, you will be able to build your communications around this and grow your reputation to engage your key audience.

4. Utilise a variety of marketing channels

When it comes to marketing, you need to ensure that you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and ensure the channels you choose are reaching your core audience. There are so many channels to consider from social media, email marketing, your website, thought leadership blogs, events, direct marketing, networking, webinars and a variety of other marketing methods to ensure you reach the right people at the right time. The more effective your marketing becomes, the greater the engagement you will have with your customer and the easier it will be to increase sales over time.

5. Showcase your expertise 

Whether it’s through your website, infographics, videos, blogs, podcasts, webinars and physical demonstrations you need to create content to show that you are an expert in your particular field. If people are going to trust you, then you should be able to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Working with clients and customers to help grow your content repository can help to further bolster engagement and your reputation.

However, it is absolutely essential to grow a business in a way that is sustainable. Slow and steady wins the race, after all. So, with that in mind, here are five simple tips to ensure that your business grows steadily and in a manner that doesn’t put it at unnecessary risk.

Increasingly, smart businesses have started using sales compensation software to accurately analyze the current state of business and forecast future earnings. Sales compensation software is also a great tool to monitor the performance of each sales representative and calculate the effect of renewals. Through automation, your business can seamlessly execute these tasks by creating a sales incentive compensation plan. So, if you want to invest in sales compensation software, here are four things to consider.

1. Flexibility

The process of tracking and reviewing multiple collections of financial data manually can be exhausting. It is also hard to compare existing data sets and adjust their presentations. While it is possible to compare and track multiple datasets with Excel, you need a more flexible and robust commission tracking software for large datasets. Credible sales compensation software is designed to view and compare multiple data sets all at once.

2. Functionality

The inherent value of commission tracking software is defined by its functionality. Sales commission software helps a business track a myriad of numbers, data, and finances. The software makes the process of calculating payments more accurate and efficient. Apart from compiling data from various sources and assisting in making complex determinations, the software provides an easier way of viewing that information.

3. User-friendly

Sales compensation software can only be effective if it is user-friendly. Your teams shouldn’t waste several man-hours trying to figure out how to take full advantage of the software’s vital features. Invest in an intuitive software that is potentially capable of boosting the quality of output without too much difficulty. Good software should expedite the process of the computation and creation of commission plans. 

The software should also come with sufficient training materials for training new hires, educating first-time users, and providing refresher courses to your teams. The software should also offer reliable support services to prevent downtime every time your teams encounter technical problems.

4. Price

Ensure the price of the sales compensation software is reasonable, worthwhile, and justified. Instead of settling for the cheapest vendor on the market, pick a software that will give you good value for your money.

Commissionly helps you fulfil your business potential with an affordable, intelligent way to pay and motivate your salesforce, all tailored to meet the unique needs of your business.  If you are looking for a sales compensation management web app with helpful tools such as uncomplicated data import and commission setting tools, contact us today to book your 14-day free trial or free, no obligation demo.

Creating sales goals isn’t always an easy process, and anyone who thinks it is is probably doing something wrong. Although businesses do their best, sometimes their targets just don’t match up with reality. To avoid these common mistakes here are some tips on creating sales goals:-

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.

Once you’ve captured a high-flying sales team, the next challenge is to hang on to them and keep them motivated to grow your business. One of the ways you can do that is by using a cloud-based sales commission software that is easily accessible and which encourages collaborative working as well as rewarding individual talent. 

Foster team spirit

A salesperson who chases individual success without considering the overall impact of their actions jeopardises far more than a few extra pounds in revenue. When sales teams stop working together, they risk undermining the reputation and results of the whole organisation.

A good sales manager knows that collaborative working is essential for building sales in the long-term. Of course, any employee who thrives from earning commission is going to need personal drive and determination and that can sometimes seem incompatible with sharing support and information. But everyone benefits from transparent digital sales compensation software structured to help team members feel safe enough to input their own sales and successes without worrying that their leads might get stolen out from underneath them.

Reward the individual

Individual team members may be encouraged to be secretive if they know that only they will benefit from sales commission. A creative sales compensation structure will combine a personal commission package with team commission rewards.

This type of package encourages all employees to focus on growing sales in a collaborative way rather than be driven solely by their own earnings agendas.

Keep everyone in the loop

No matter how you choose to compensate your salespeople, you need to ensure that they have quick and easy access to real-time sales data including revenue and commission. Using cloud-based software is the ideal solution.

A sales commission dashboard is available to all employees 24 hours a day via their computers, laptops and mobiles. This type of open system links the shop or office to the road. Not only does it pull the whole team together, but it also means that commission for good performance can be tracked and pulled down quickly.

Take care of team working and you stand to boost the achievements of each individual salesperson. The right software can ensure everyone pulls together.

“Creativity is often the key to devising meaningful recognition programs that have an impact on individual performance and the bottom line.”

While Commissionly is one of the few CRM systems that offer native commission software, we pay careful attention to alternative modes of motivating and compensating sales staff that personify the competitive environment in the UK, Europe and the United States, especially with some sectors reporting talent shortages.

As Accenture summarily puts it “When it comes to motivating people toward great performance, it’s not just about the paycheck.”   Many sales managers have known or suspected this for years, especially in downturned economies when the selling cycle gets longer. Some companies may uncomfortably acknowledge that the number of calls necessary to close a deal has also jumped.   For instance, it is not uncommon to require six or more calls to close a deal in some sectors.

And conversion rates—moving from the initial call to the presentation stage, and then converting proposals to sales—are trending down for some industries, while in others the uptick in the U.S. economy may be moving them in the opposite direction.   Regardless, there will come a point in every small business lifecycle where they will experience some of the pain points above, which has a dramatic effect upon sales force motivation and performance.

“That leads to a situation where you have to know more and sell harder, but where you may be less effective in your overall success rates,” said Accenture. Traditionally higher commission and compensation rates may sound like the most sensible way to keep your sales force stimulated, focused and closing deals.

However, recent research indicates that this may not be the case with your sales force quenching for support in basic areas including sales enablement and tools, reducing quote cycle times, getting better documentation, and developing a product that is differentiated and easier to sell.

Modern authors like Daniel Pink, have also found compelling case studies in the software development industry which support the arguments above noting that one CEO decided to completely eliminate sales commissions after experiencing a protracted increase in commission complexity resulting from salespeople gaming the system and management constantly attempting to plug the holes.

For instance, salespeople would take advantage of early commission schemes by pushing sales into the time period most advantageous for them, by underselling one month to show a bigger gain the following month.   Soon the compensation software consumed large amounts of internal resources as management attempted to fight back, ultimately removing their focus from product and service development.

Frustrated by the process and results, the CEO decided to investigate eliminating sales commissions altogether, receiving at first, mixed and conflicting feedback from his sales force regarding this dramatic proposal:

“When I explained it to Tom [not his real name] he said, ‘It sounds like a really good idea. But James would never like it; he’s solely motivated by money. Remove the commission and he’ll leave.’ James said, ‘Sounds great. But it will never work with Tom. Money is all that drives him.”

Thus, according to Pink, not only were commissioned sales not leading to better performance, it wasn’t even the arrangement salespeople themselves preferred

The CEO decided to remove commissions and instead pay his sales force a healthy salary, which gradually resulted in increasing sales. Of course, this new scheme did have some casualties, with two salespeople promptly leaving. However most stayed and are thriving – including Tom and James, referenced above.

“Rather than relying on carrots [sell more and you can buy the new car] and sticks [don’t sell enough and you won’t be able to feed your kids], we are compelled to make our salespeople’s work more interesting, to set better goals and encourage teamwork,” said the CEO.

The result was collaboration and commitment increased and they became agents for the customer rather than a salesperson. While this strategy may not work in all industries it is worth acknowledging the drawbacks with the age-old use of commission structures.

According to Accenture, financial compensation—though not, strictly speaking, a physiological need—is analogous to the lowest tier of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. It is basic and important, but it touches upon only one dimension of motivation and a comparatively low-level one at that.

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Goal by PlusLexia.com licensed under Creative Commons 4.0

Creating sales goals can be difficult. Ensuring your targets are realistic enough that they are achievable, while also being high enough to boost efficiency, is a tricky balance to find. 

One of the best ways to encourage employees is to ensure that any and all sales targets are relatable. If employees feel invested in their personal targets, they are far more likely to reach them. Here are a few tips on setting relatable sales goals, which are useful for all sectors and teams of any size.

1. Different people should have different targets

Setting suitable targets for each individual is an important aspect. You can base these on years of experience, previous form and other circumstances. Of course, an experienced salesperson is likely to be able to sell more than a new employee so their targets should reflect this. Personalised targets also allow for greater self-reflection if they fail to meet them. This allows them to see where they can improve in the future. 

2. Give your employees context

Targets are always more relatable if your employees know on what basis they are set. Whether targets are set in line with projected company growth or last year’s figures plus 3%, explain to your staff that they aren’t arbitrary. It also shows how their efforts contribute to the wider company goals too

3. Alter targets upon results

Target setting should be dynamic. If an employee consistently achieves their target, then it’s worth considering setting them a higher target to keep them motivated. If an employee falls behind, then discuss reducing their target; it may make it more realistic and help them stay engaged. It’s important to note targets should still be a slight stretch for employees so they don’t become complacent. 

At Commissionly, we pride ourselves on being the first cloud-based sales commission and sales compensation management web app. We are 100% focused on SMEs. For more information about how we can help your business, contact us today [https://www.commissionly.io/contact-us/].