by Mike Brunel | Feb 13, 2019 | Sales
Recently, commission-based salespeople got a pretty hard time from the Royal Commission investigation into the banking and insurance sector.
I haven’t taken a salary for 30 years.
For the 30 years-plus that I have been selling, I have never once taken a salary.
In other words, if I did not sell, I did not survive, feed my family, or build my business.
I sold on results and commission, and I still do. However, that’s me.
I thought it might be useful to explore other ways to reward success.
Why you shouldn’t pay your salespeople commission
There are actually two other ways to reward success, and one to keep your clients loyal.
If you are thinking of a selling career, in my experience there are 3 sales types.
- Commission Sales
- Relationship Sales
- Service Sales
Over the course of this article, I will go into the pros and cons of each.
Let me firstly set this straight; selling is a career, and there are many professionals (and businesses) that rely on selling to make a living.
It’s the greatest profession in the world and might be one of the oldest.
Nevertheless, millions of people struggle with it, and refuse to acknowledge that they are sales people. In fact, many quiver in their boots at the very mention of the word – selling.
Let’s dive into the difference between these three types.
- Commission Selling
What is commission selling? I define commission salespeople as those where all of their income is derived from commission. A share of a sale that has a percentage attached to it, which is paid to them once a sale is complete.
I’ll use my old company, NRS Media as an example. My staff were commission-based sellers who received a range of 10-15% of every sale we made.
In our case, we sold 12-month membership subscriptions to small business advertisers that used a radio, TV or newspaper to advertise their product.
As an example: For small media companies, we created an offer to advertisers with a sale price of $5,148 over a 12-month period. We got 10-15% gross for that sale.
$772.20 per year paid (monthly) based on 15%.
On average, we sold 100 of these annual memberships over a two-week period.
Doing the math at 15% x 100 memberships, that means we would sell 100 x $5148= $514,800 x 15% = $77,220.00.
We would charge the media company 1/12th of that each month.
The beauty of our business was that we had critical mass over time and relationships with hundreds of radio, TV and newspapers. It took time, but the rolling revenue was pretty good.
That was our model. The con of commission-only is that you have to take the risk upfront, with the rewards paid out based on your performance.
- The next type of sales career is Relationship Selling.
This type of job, by my definition, sits alongside the commission sales role, but most have a base salary and a more modest commission structure, or some type of bonus plan.
The pro of this type of selling is that its suits salespeople that work with existing clients and need to build long-term relationships.
Relationship salespeople tend to focus on longer term sales cycles and usually are what we call soft-sellers, or soft-closers.
The challenge with these people is they are often happy with the base salary and therefore do not prospect or go that extra mile.
As a manager, there needs to be a firm expectation of building additional long-term relationships.
- The final sales type is Service Sales.
I define a service sales person as one that usually relies more on selling to an existing client.
This is often from a service call or in a retail environment.
These people do not prospect, and generally, they tend to be uncomfortable with that type of approach. However, they are important in the sales environment.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
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Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Feb 6, 2019 | Sales
In my blog last week, I talked about building a team of salespeople that have – Independence.
In a sentence, you want a sales person that is independent of you, as opposed to dependent on you.
In this week’s blog we talk about the – People side of the Business.
You want people in your team that enjoy people, who remember and realise that those customers or clients pay you money for your product or service.
We would agree that the folk that have those skills tend to gravitate to being sales professionals.
In my experience, salespeople that are energised by meeting new clients, and establishing new friendships, tend to do better than others.
I think we know too, that these people enjoy this process of prospecting and meeting new people.
This, however, can trip some good salespeople up.
Don’t oversell
Genuine interest in other people is the key to building good long-term relationships. Asking lots of questions about this new person helps build trust, BUT don’t oversell.
There is nothing worse than meeting a salesperson and, within 2 minutes, they are trying to sell you something.
I have said this before; within 3-5 seconds, a potential person is asking “Do I trust this person, and can I work with them?”
How can you help your team be better at this?
Remind your team that if they have a natural interaction with people and find it easy, then it’s an opportunity to build rapport get to know the client.
Do a good job and these people become a great resource for referrals.
Teach them to be better at presenting your product or service. Build training and sales programme that bring the client into the conversation.
Sometimes we hear that salespeople are not good at listening. Training them in good listening skills helps. Get them to involve themselves in the community. Socially, they need to meet new people.
Warning – Why not me!
Sometime sales people who are very good at meeting people do not take rejection well. They often are so transparent that they think that everyone should like them and should buy from them.
You don’t have to be liked for a person to buy from you. It’s their needs that you have to focus on, NOT yours.
Next week, we look at the difference between commission sales people, and relationship/service salespeople.
Chat to you next week.
Mike
PS: We can help you find these people, just email me for a chat and I can take you through the Leading Sales Training Assessment Tool for Salespeople.
mike@mikebrunel.com
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jan 30, 2019 | Sales
In my blog last week, I talked about the second behaviour that I think is the most important when you are looking to hire good salespeople –Achievement Potential. This measures the salespersons’ ability to be motivated by challenge, as opposed to being safe and secure.
This week’s discussion is around – Independence.
Summed up in one sentence: you want a sales person that is independent of you; as opposed to dependent on you.
In a sales environment, these people can be taught all the important information about your product or service and then not require hand-holding.
These people work best with people they like and respect.
Too many times when I work with teams, the sales managers simply do not stack up. It’s a problem worldwide. They try and micro manage people, and I can tell you it’s a recipe for disaster, because sales people are not comfortable with a culture that requires their every move to be managed.
How to maximize these people in your sales organisation:
Matching– You see this a lot in real-estate, matching a person with similar types that can create synergies together. I know in my case, we worked on this with sales assessment programmes that could provide us with the right behaviours for the role.
Involve: Sell a Culture Fit.
Explain your company sales strategy and challenge them to consider other ways to implement that strategy. This allows him / her space to explore their way of doing things that compliments that culture.
Have a good support network around them, team them up with support staff and others that can help and enable him / her to do what they do best: sell.
Finally, teach them how the company culture works. When you do this, it allows him /her to be an effective team member, and know where support is required.
Chat to you next week.
Mike
PS: We can help you find these people, just email me for a chat and I can take you through the Leading Sales Training Assessment Tool for Salespeople.
mike@mikebrunel.com
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jan 23, 2019 | Sales
In my blog last week, I talked about the first behaviour that I think is the most important when you look to hire good salespeople – Self Management.
In this article I am going to discuss the next characteristic that makes up a good salesperson – Achievement Potential
This measures the salespersons ability to be motivated by challenge as opposed to being safe and secure.
Stress is an important element in anyone’s life, too much, naturally, is bad.
When I recruited salespeople I always wanted to measure if my salespersons could act in their role on their own.
A little stress was applied in our training to test those attributes.
Were they motivated and open to accepting that they have to take on their own challenges, and not always rely on us or their team leaders to forever take care of them.
We looked for salespeople who bought contacts and networks as they had to build a book of business.
We did not want to be hand holding them too much.
If you have a salesperson who forever is asking you for guidance once your induction is complete, that person may need to be coached on setting regular achievable goals.
Coaching him or her to make sure they focus on what they need to accomplish daily.
OT’s might not work
OT’s as we used to say. Order takers.
In an environment of salary/commission these people do not usually survive, they want security and safety.
On the other hand, if you do have a salesperson who is highly motivated by challenge, they often need new challenges to keep them interested.
The trick with these people is for them to set their own goals.
Get out of the way in one sense, with one eye on their planning.
Mistakes do happen, but with any salesperson, acknowledge and reinforce their achievements when it’s appropriate.
We are a funny breed us salespeople.
Mike.
Don’t Ever Hire A Bad Salesperson Ever Again. Check out my FREE report here.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jan 16, 2019 | Sales
As we dive into 2019, it’s often a time for reflection; a time to review both the good bits, and the not-so-good bits.
I am often asked this question from owners and sales managers.
“Mike what make a good sales person and what should I look for?”
“What are the behaviours you think are the most important for sales people in this new selling environment?”
“What abilities do you believe are going to help salespeople in this new selling environment?”
Here is my take on it, as you start the New Year.
I am going to address one behaviour at a time, in each blog.
I want to do this because it’s not okay to accept just anyone that shows up in an empty suit.
Having hired literally hundreds of sales people, I know what makes the good one’s tick.
1. Self- Management
This first behaviour is one of the most important skills that I look for in a salesperson. It can be a lonely job selling. Often, you are wanting your sales team to be able to take instructions, and make sure they can be confident to be comfortable.
I want my salesperson to be able to focus on their own personal effort to achieve their goals. Why? I do not want them to be forever coming to me for the answer. Good self-managers work it out for themselves. You want to know that your salesperson has the capacity to utilise his/her efforts on their task load and attain their daily objectives.
2. Survival Capabilities
In my business, we had a salary and at-risk structure in place. Survival in that environment requires the salesperson to take control of the sales process.
If you are able to select the person that also has the motivation, then your salesperson ticks off the first important trait you need to look for –Self Management.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jan 9, 2019 | Sales
Today, as I take the opportunity to spend some time with my family over this summer period in the southern hemisphere (winter in the north), I was thinking of ideas to talk about.
It came to mind because of a conversation I had towards the end of last year (2018).
I get to work with a lot of pretty cool clients, and often as I get to know them, they are enthusiastic about growing their business, but don’t want to be known as a salesperson.
What?
That’s a pretty dumb statement, if you ask me.
I believe that everything is selling your product or service, and making a profit is based on your ability to sell.
Time and time again I hear from clients who don’t know how to sell.
One in particular, a client who had decided to use a new vendor told the current one that they were moving, the vendor accepted that it was probably time for that client to move on. I had a first-hand advisory role with that vendor.
However, six months later, the same client sent emails to my vendor several times.
Guess what? He had $250K to spend and wanted my vendor to do it. The lead was there, but by simply not answering the email, the sale was gone. Dumb? The problem maybe a bit of pride, but they were not willing to accept that they had to swallow their pride and get back in there and sell.
If you want to dominate your niche you MUST become a MASTER at selling.
In this new year of 2019, study selling and work with your fellow colleagues to do the same.
Remember, everyone is selling, every minute of the day.
This year we are working on a study programme to help you get more sales. We will be launching over the next few months, and we will keep you posted.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
