Lazy Salespeople: Does A Salary Make This Worse?

Lazy Salespeople: Does A Salary Make This Worse??

Lazy salespeople tell us a lot about a business, from poor recruitment and lousy management to inadequate incentives to work.?

One area that businesses debate about that makes sales reps lazy is salary. In all jobs, salary plays an integral role in motivation. Arguably, this is amplified with sales jobs because of the different sales compensations available.?

In this post, we'll be answering this question and providing tips to help you revitalize lazy salespeople.?

Does a salary make sales rep lazy??

Unlike many other job roles, sales reps can get paid in multiple ways. Typically, this is either salary, commission, incentives, or a combination of all three. Because of this, it can get hard to gauge which is the best option.?

Before concluding whether salary makes lazy salespeople, we need to consider each possible payment option.

Different payment options for salespeople?

So, what's the best??

There are many payment options available. Ideally, you want a perfect mix of comfortability and reason to work. In this situation, comfort comes in the form of salary and, the reason to work, commission.?

Finding this mix makes salespeople non-lazy. Yes, they have a comfortable barrier that supports their financial well-being. However, they also have the option to strive further and improve their salary.?

When a salesperson gets a 100% salary, motivation decreases. After all, why should they work hard when they always get paid the same amount??

Because of this, we conclude that lazy salespeople can form from a salary-based payment structure. We strongly advise a commission only or commission + salary plan to boost their motivation and performance.?

How do you motivate your sales team??

A quality sales compensation plan can help motivate your sales reps. Though money plays a massive part in stimulating innovations and inspiration, there are still plenty of other tactics that'll help improve a sales team's performance.?

To motivate a sales team, create a high-quality sales compensation plan and the following:?

1.???Identify motivation issues and fix them?

As a CEO, sales manager, or business owner, you must be able to handle two elements of sales team motivation: individual and team-wide. The only way to achieve this is by identifying and fixing motivation issues.?

To discover these problems, the best approach is by holding weekly or monthly one-to-one and group meetings with the salespeople. Here you can start painting a picture of what's happening, identify any problems, and, most importantly, create solutions to eliminate them.?

For example, if you want them to increase their warm or cold calling frequency, but their headsets aren't comfortable, you can't expect them to be motivated. However, you wouldn't know about this unless you hold these one-to-one or group meetings.?

2.???Develop well-constructed company processes

When searching for ways on how do you motivate your sales team, company processes are always overlooked. However, an interesting study from Harvard Business Review concludes why you should.?

According to the below chart, here is how company processes directly affect employee motivation:

While most of us think leadership plays an important role, other processes have a larger impact.?

On the x-axis, it shows the Total Motivation Factor (TMR). With role design, you can see how many TMR points it can offer. The total swing is 87 points, with a TMR score ranging from -40 to almost +50.?

Although most businesses traditionally link leadership to motivation, the above table showcases something much different. Because of this, we can confirm that a well-structured role design can greatly impact a sales team's motivation.

1.???Always report, set, and forecast goals

Any organization with a sales team should already do this. However, you need to report, set, and forecast realistic goals that your salespeople can reach. Ideally, you want to choose something achievable but not easy.?

A goal or set of goals should scare and excite salespeople. When presenting their goals, always explain why they should do it. For instance, if you reach "X" in sales, you might have the chance to win employee of the month, which has an "X" prize. Though it might be a small prize, it provides a "why" to the goal.?

Summary?

The above concludes whether lazy salespeople occur from salary-based payment plans. Personally, we believe it does as it allows them to remain content. Although this is good in most circumstances, you want a mixture of comfortability and challenge. Therefore, we recommend a sales compensation that utilizes salary and commission.

While offering better sales compensation is excellent, more is needed. Because of this, we detailed three vital tips that can help improve sales team motivation. Using these with better salary plans can decrease the number of lazy salespeople and help them thrive.