subject: Sales Staff Enjoy Good Benefits [print this page] Most large corporations will aim to provide their sales staff with good rewards and incentives if set sales targets are achieved. These might include bonuses, commissions (over and above any retainer), company cars, flexible working hours, laptop, training courses and accommodating to travelling needs.
Sales staff are usually the 'face' of the company they are employed in. They must have good sales skills, good product knowledge so that they can respond to queries presented during the selling process, be resilient in the face of a rejection of the service or product offered, present well and be self-motivated to a large degree. A business to business sales position involves sales staff selling product or services to other businesses as opposed to directly to the public or consumer.
The business to business sales person needs to be confident meeting with clients and prospective clients and appearance of any member of the sales staff is of the utmost important. In any sales role the sales staffs is given targets to meet each month.
In some corporations the sales staffs operates as a team with a group target to achieve, while in others each sales staff member must strive to reach individual set targets. This latter scenario can lead to conflict between sales staff especially when leads are provided to the sales team.
It can create significant angst when one member of the sales staff through pure luck receives a strong lead while others may have to persevere with lesser leads. A team target and team effort will generally lead to much better staff morale and enthusiasm as each sales person looks to make a solid contribution to the target.
Difficulty will arise however if one member of the sales staff is considered not to be pulling their weight so the team does need to be managed carefully. As a general rule most new recruits will operate on a retainer plus commission basis. The retainer may be small by comparison to average salaries in the company but taken targets are achieved a sales person will have the opportunity to earn much metre than the average.
Staff that reach or exceed their targets and are commission's plans will ultimately earn more. They also may be entitled to additional individual or team bonuses due to the amount of business they are bringing in. Employers like to encourage employees to think like owners and reward them with bonuses which may increase their income by more than 50% of their base retainer or salaries.
Good sales staff must learn to control their own income flow in that when times are tough sales may be slow and income significantly reduced. With majority of sales jobs being commission based, the more time and effort the staff put into their job, the more they will sell, the greater their income and ability to set aside surplus for leaner months.
