Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

From someone who has developed marketing for many businesses yet makes his living from sales, let me offer a couple of thoughts...

You mention "huge" commissions. Of course this is an objective statement. your huge may not correspond to my huge. That said, in the sales field HUGE commissions are only paid to sales reps wherein the degree of difficulty is HUGE. Companies will not pay one dime beyond what they have to in order to get the business... So if the commissions are huge, the degree of difficulty is also.

You didn't mention the commission arrangement. Are the sales reps working on "Salary plus commission?" "A drawing account?" Do they have monthly quotas? When are they vested? Are they salaried at all or "1099" reps (paid as an independent contractor and pay all their own expenses)?

At the end of the day, you've already defined the problem. How can your input be quantified? If the customer really doesn't think much of the marketing materials, but the rep gets the sale anyway?

I don't think "greed" enters into the equation. If you feel that you can make more money in sales, switch over... Like I did ;-)

In a word, NO. You don't get a sales commission unless you earn it by closing a sale and bringing in revenue. Your role is to keep the product/service fresh and appealing, responsive to client needs, etc., and that's what YOU get paid to do.

Typically sales commissions are paid to the folks who are "at risk" -- they don't earn anything unless they perform. If they do a lousy job, they don't eat that week/month. You are not in that category. You get paid regardless. And even if your work isn't up to snuff one day or one week, they don't reduce your pay.

If you think you could earn more working on a commission and you are willing to take some risk (i.e., sharply reduced base pay), maybe you can figure out a way to propose that to your employer. Just remember that the problem of identifying the source of a new prospect isn't so easy ... and that could hurt you -- especially if a traditional commissioned sales rep has to get involved to close the sale. (They'll still need to be paid, right?)


P.S. One of the nice things about being a commission sales person is that you can go to a movie or get your nails done in the middle of the day. As long as you bring in enough new business to earn the commissions you need to live, nobody really cares.

Thank you for your thoughtful responses. Here is what I know about the sales structure: They are salaried plus commission. They are supposed to be getting commissions based off of the the referrals they get from the Doctor's offices they visit. Since our numbers have been on a steady decline these past 2 years, people within our company have been taking a harder look at the sales team. In fact, recently is was discovered that a few sales people have been getting the credit and commissions off of walk in business that they had NOTHING to do with. How many more times has this happened? It got alot of us thinking about how well they safeguard the referral and commission system and whether or not it is being abused?

Our Sales Manager gets commission off the top of her sales team. What may be happening, is she is getting too much of control over the numbers. In fact she spends alot of time applying formulas and adjusting the sales numbers. So much so that one of our VP's questioned why she keeps getting different numbers than he does. So basically she is allowed to lay claim to the majority of the revenue being brought in. And why not if she can get away with it?

Many of us are suspicious about the fact that we as a company aren't doing well and yet the sales team is still earning the same money if not more. And they are the least stressed out when they should be panicking like the rest of us. We have 10 on our sales team and we are bringing in less business then when we had 3. In fact we aren't getting our profit sharing checks this years cause the numbers are so low, however the sales team is still getting their bonuses.

And I've got to ask how can our sales team be bringing in new clients when they are out at the movies? Let me rephrase: Is it the sales team bringing in the business, is it the advertising or is it upselling by our CSR's? And it's 100% against company policy for the sales team to be out getting their nails done or going to the movies during working hours.

I'm turning myself inside out with new marketing ideas and campaigns, employee training, etc. I'm really working hard to change things around , but I fear that as in the past, my efforts will be putting more money in the pockets of the sales team. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe I'm entitled to money off of accounts that a hard working sales person worked for. I just resent the fact that they are getting the credit from practically everything that walks in the door. And this alone is creating a climate where they don't have to wrok for their sales. I'd be really interested in knowing how other companies safeguard against this kind of abuse. I'd be sure to pass any useful information to my bosses because they are looking into it as well.

you have raised many interesting issues, and there is nothing quite so much fun as a fight between sales and marketing...

... but to address your specific question about marketing people earning a bonus based on sales...

If I were personally in your situation, I would begin by visiting monster.com and similar sites to look at job openings for marketing functions at healthcare firms, so that I could see the types of compensation generally offered in the industry.

I think it's pretty common for sales to get alot of flack because of the flexibility in their jobs. I want to make it clear that this is in no way a bash the sales profession kind of post. Our company started as a mom and pop organization. The people responsible for setting up the sales structure were medical professionals and not business people. I just think it's abused and hurting the company as a whole. I guess I figured if the company is so quick to just throw their money away---why not throw it away on me too? ha ha. All jokes aside, I'm there to do my part in making the company successful. And I take that seriously. Thank you for your suggestions. I look into those links! :)