My first sales job had me start with a meager salary and a commission of just 4 percent. Granted, each sale in the industry usually brought thousands of dollars for the company. Yet,with each sale I got, I was still unsatisfied with the commissions. I felt like my sales were being undervalued with the commission I received. If I were to do it all over again, I would pay more attention, work even harder, and look out for these three signs that I need to have my commission increased.
1: You feel like you have hit a glass ceiling.
"Glass Ceiling" is a term that is often used to describe the wage gaps between genders and how women find it harder to rise to the top in an organization, yet it can also describe the feeling that you get when you need to get your commission increased.
You've felt a bit down about your job, you don't see yourself making much more money than you are, so you get bored. Your boss, while not making as many sales as you are, makes more money than you since he's in management. Odds are, he is not going to leave his position any time soon, which puts you in a predicament. You aren't going to make much more money and there is little to no upwards mobility in your organization, so what is stopping you from jumping ship?
Bringing this up to management, along with strong sales numbers that back up the necessity to increase your commissions, will go a long way towards getting that commission increase. You really do need strong sales numbers for this though, otherwise they have no motivation for doing so.
2: Your sales conditions are miserable
A friend of mine used to sell newspapers door-to-door back when he was in high school. The best salesperson made between 80 to 100 dollars a night in commissions when he was selling.
Mind you, this is door-to-door sales, and you are knocking on several hundred doors a day, all for a wage that, while quite good for a high schooler, is really not that good as someone who has a family to support. There is a reason why these kind of sales job have a high turnover: the pay is bad and the conditions are terrible. If you are doing this sort of work, you had better make sure you are getting paid fairly!
3: Your company is undergoing serious change
Companies are constantly evolving; whether it be by offering new products or changing the organizational structure itself, it is crucial to remember that sales is what keeps the entire organization afloat. If there is going to be major change in the company, then why not see how sales can change?
If new products are going to be offered, what if they're harder to sell? You may need a bigger commission out of products or services that most will not have a need for. If people in other departments are getting raises, why don't you get a commission increase?
If you act like sales is truly what keeps your company together (and it is!), then you need to realize that the sales force needs to change along with the company. Even if we are not discussing payment, sales is the glue that holds a company together. If you change what you are gluing, but don't change how you apply the glue, what you are gluing will surely fall apart.
Have any of you successfully negotiated a commission increase? If so, do you have any tips? What motivated you to seek that raise? Please comment!
Also, if you have any ideas for what you would like to see discussed on this blog, please feel free to share in the comments as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment