Keeping Your Sales People Happy - Preventing the Dreaded Turnovers

By nature, sales and business development arecompared with other salesmen or saleswomen.
extremely different from any other position in mostHowever, when seeking to give a sales representative
companies as organizations can actually quantify thea raise and figuring out the amount of that raise, the
worth of a professional account executive. Ancompany must take into account more than just the
example of another industry in which you can quantifybase salary of the sales professional. The other
the worth of employees is a hedge fund and the fundexpenses which should be factored into the payment
manager's investment ROI. With that being said,package for a typical business development
nobody can gauge whether the accountingprofessional includes health insurance, travel, home
department's credits and debits and subsequentoffice expenses, cellular phone costs, the profit margin
performance are worth what your company is payingfor each sale and more. If the profit margin is quite
them. Also, try and try again, but you cannot pinpointbeneficial for each sale the individual is making, a
the return on investment you are getting from yourpercentage raise relating to commission should be in
human resources group. This doesn't mean that theyorder.
are less important, however, salespeople are unique inA company should expect that their top sales people
the fact that the amount of revenue they bring into thewill eventually ask for a raise in their base salary. In
company, or their "worth" to the business is verymost cases, a company should pay it. If they don't,
apparent and can be calculated almost instantaneously.there are many organizations which are more than
Since a good sales representative is truly hard to find,willing to fork up the money to acquire this person.
an effective management team will immediatelyRemember that you are not the only show in town.
compensate the rep. generously upon seeing goodAs recruitment specialists, it is our job to find these
sales numbers from their work. There is nothing worsesalesmen and saleswomen. We are constantly coming
than having a great sales professional only to lose himacross cases where we find candidates who are
or her to a competitor due to a lack of perceivedwilling to look at other hiring entities simply because
corporate appreciation of his or her work. Much of thisthey feel underappreciated and under compensated at
perceived appreciation is in the form of salary.their current company. Companies have to keep in
Therefore, it is essential that a sales manager, anmind that commissions are heavily taxed and the
employee in HR or somebody in the accounting teampressure of having to work off of commission only
keep close track of how much each accountcan have negative effects on performance. Keeping
executive within the sales division is currently selling.your salespeople happy is essential to their success
To get an even more exact feel of the corporateand is essential to your company preventing turnover
worth of a salesperson, their sales numbers should beand losing great sales professionals.