When Sales Performance Incentives Don't Work

I have often been an advocate of increasing incentive pay and lowing base pay for salespeople in the B2C space. But increasing the portion of income that can be derived from commission won't work for all types of sellers.

Let's look at four different salespeople:

 

> Salesperson 2 is highly skilled at selling, and is also highly money motivated. This person will generally respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

> Salesperson 4 is not highly skilled at selling, but is highly money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to monetary sales incentives, unless that money motivation motivates the salesperson to develop his sales skills as an intermediary step.

> Salesperson 1 is highly skilled at selling, but is not money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

> Salesperson 3 is not highly skilled at selling, and is not highly money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

Therefore, sales management throwing money at a sales performance problem results in a FAIL for three of the salespeople in our scenarios. Monetary rewards only work for those who are highly motivated to make more money.

Don't get me wrong! I want sales professionals in the business-to-consumer market to earn more money!

To improve the sales of salespeople 3 and 4, management needs to implement sales training that works. To improve the sales of salesperson 1, management needs to identify motivators that will increase performance, as more money clearly will not. It might be: becoming the top salesperson in the organization (ego motivation), being part of a winning team (team motivation), or something else.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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