Sales staff are a unique group of individuals in the business world, in large part because they’re so accustomed to individual and group incentives for high levels of achievement. While many people value the bonuses provide consistent business growth, salespeople are part of a smaller, distinct group that generally expect to receive performance-based payments as part of their regular compensation.
Let’s look at a few strategies for providing these incentives in an effective way, ensuring your sales representatives can follow a pattern of consistent growth:
Give everyone an opportunity to succeed – and earn incentives
Whether you have one salesperson on staff or a dozen, the addition of new hires to the department requires some extra thought and care. It’s critical to give each member of the sales team a defined territory, be it geographic, part of the list of current and potential buyers or split through another method. Recruiting specialist Peak Sales Recruiting said a failure to properly divide the overall sales realm can oversaturate certain areas and potentially lead to a focus on easy or short-term prospects instead of the best ones for the business.
By making sure every salesperson has their own area – be it physical or conceptual – to cover, your business avoids these potential problems. Instead, your staff will have generally equal opportunities to earn their incentives and bring in as much business as possible.
Incentivize more than volume
There’s nothing wrong with offering an additional payout to staff who close a lot of deals, but it shouldn’t be the only way in which salespeople can earn additional income. Business2Community said focusing only on pure volume can lead to issues where the team feels under pressure to close deals before the end of the month or quarter. That means short-term results for your business, but with potential negatives in the long term.
By adding incentives based on metrics like the length of relationships with buyers or the growth of those connections over time, you can encourage more of a focus on sales that provide the largest overall benefit. Staff won’t feel as pressured during crunch times and they can focus on crafting and closing deals with the best possible clients, instead of just the overall volume of sales for the month or the quarter. If your sales staff needs to grow to take advantage of existing opportunities but you’re short on available capital, consider a business cash advance to get you past that obstacle.
