How do you get salespeople to accept technology to help them be reps, not employees?

Who sells for the agency? What do they see as their role? How productive are they? Do they provide value? How do you measure “value”?

As rep agencies grow, the primary need they have is salespeople. The more lines, the more big lines, the more big customers, the greater the need for qualified salespeople.

What qualifies a person to be a salesperson for a rep agency? Sales experience, and product and industry knowledge are certainly high on the list.

Someone who has sold the lines you represent or similar products is automatically desirable to sell for your agency. Knowledge of your customer’s operations is an asset. Knowing why customers buy and how they sell provides excellent background.

All of these experiences and background elements help to position a salesperson to be successful as a rep salesperson. But what additional, higher level attributes can help a rep leader assure that the fledgling salesperson will succeed?

Being a Rep

Unfortunately, the most important part of the rep business — commission-only compensation — has been eliminated from the equation for most salespeople.

A rep “eats what he kills.” This is the biggest selling point for using an outsourced sales force — you don’t pay anything until the rep sells something.

Yet, when it comes to the salespeople working for a rep, the salespersons’ demand is for a salary and a bonus.

How do we reconcile the totally opposite compensation system for the employee salespeople with the fundamental nature of the rep business?

Can the Systems Be Blended?

There are a few rep firms that pay their salespeople a flat percentage of the commission they generate plus expenses. A salesperson may get 30 percent of the earned commission and expenses.

A Legitimate Draw

The old fashioned “draw against commission” system can work, but in many cases salespeople can’t live with the vagaries of business conditions and sales opportunities. Many rep firms provide a draw but never recapture over drawn amounts when the salesperson does not earn the draw.

Can Salaried Salespeople Succeed in the Rep Business?

The answer has to be “yes” because so many rep firms are paying salaries and bonuses to their salespeople. But, can the rep firm be one of the best rep firms with only salaried salespeople? This is something that the ownership of the rep firm has to debate and determine. Times have changed. Salespeople do not seem to be willing to take the risk of no guaranteed income.

Can a Rep Firm Offer Alternative Compensation Systems?

Is it possible for a rep firm to provide a salary even with a bonus, but at the same time push the salespeople to straight commission?

A rep firm can track the salesperson’s potential earnings from commission and provide a report to the salesperson every quarter. Will the salesperson opt for the straight commission system, if he or she sees that they are forgoing substantial compensation by not working on commission?

Selling the Sellers

Working with the salespeople to discuss and evaluate compensation under different plans can work to build more incentive into the sales compensation system.

Using Technology to Create the Rep Mentality

The advent of technological support for the sales process can provide a new way to drive salespeople to think more like reps. Cloud-based CRMs provide a platform for helping a salesperson think more like a rep.

When a salesperson is provided with a tool like a cloud-based CRM, the data puts the salesperson in a position to more clearly understand the business he is doing and to go into much greater depth regarding individual relationships and individual lines. The scope of information, if used by the salesperson, can help the salesperson be much more productive.

How Can the Salesperson be Motivated to Use Systems Completely?

One of the problems with getting the salespeople to understand, appreciate and use cloud-based CRMs is that they see the system as a micro-management tool to track and discipline them.

They are right if that is the way management sees it. But, in its proper progressive, productive installation a cloud-based CRM is a tool for the salespeople. It puts the salesperson in a position to have all of the data needed to totally run the relationship with the customer and build the lines that can mean the most to the customer.

A cloud-based CRM allows the salesperson to be a true professional salesperson. Cloud-based systems allow the salesperson to be totally involved and aware of all information at all times and to use it effectively to build the business. Cloud-based systems make the salesperson totally self-sufficient, but only if they use the system at all times.

Compensation Can Follow Better Use of the Systems

Getting salespeople to move to a more aggressive, more independent type of compensation plan will probably prove difficult in present times. Is it worth it to a rep firm to try?

We’ll leave that up to individual owners.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].