Are These Commission Issues Causing You to Lose Sales Reps?

salesperson

Commissions are the lifeblood of your sales reps, and the importance of taking a thorough and detailed approach to handling them cannot be underestimated. Even the most loyal sellers are likely to experience burnout if they feel as though their commissions are being handled incorrectly, especially since many of these issues are avoidable.

Consider the following three commission issues, each of which can have a negative effect on the mindset of your sellers.

1. Commissions Aren’t Being Paid Consistently
Perhaps the biggest problem I see in regards to commissions occurs when they aren’t being paid to the seller in a consistent manner. You would think this would happen sparingly, but the fact is it remains an omnipresent issue in sales.

Calculating commissions isn’t always easy, and factors such as commission plan complexity, lack of company profit or even personal differences with a seller can all lead to discrepancies in payment schedules. Regardless, none of these serve as viable excuses for denying sellers the consistency they deserve, and all of them can lead to losing valuable sales reps.

2. Commission Plans Are Undefined or Too Complex
For a seller to feel as though they’re on the right track it’s imperative they work within a well-defined commission structure. Issues often begin to pop up when commission plans are either overly complex or entirely too vague, both of which can cause a seller unnecessary stress and confusion.

Take the time to outline a streamlined commission plan. This can help ensure your reps stay on task and don’t feel overwhelmed by myriad conflicting details. It also can have a direct effect on whether you are able to stick to a consistent payment schedule – something your sellers will undoubtedly view as being of the utmost importance.

3. A Shift in Product Offerings or Target Segments Occurs
I see this all the time: Sellers put countless hours into prospecting and building their pipeline, only for the company to decide to shift toward offering a different solution or targeting a new market segment. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but often it occurs unnecessarily and does little more than throw your sales reps off-track.

Reps spend a lot of time learning their target markets and internalizing every detail of your solutions. If you switch things up on them out of the blue, they have no choice but to start from scratch. The more often this occurs, the more likely it is that a seller will decide to leave.

It’s quite easy for VARs to blame the loss of a sales rep on outside factors, such as personal problems or a general lack of motivation. If you’re losing reps on a consistent basis, look at how you’re handling commissions. It often can be the root of the problem.

Kendra Lee is a top IT seller, prospect attraction expert, author of the award-winning book, “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the small and midmarket business (SMB) segment.