Compensation vs. Learning: Which trumps in remote work? :  

Managing a sales team remotely is an arduous job. Most organizations have been accustomed to one-on-one review calls and team meetings. The ongoing pandemic has pushed everyone to adapt to the new normal including who manages sales. Now along with the performance assessment, the most challenging task for a sales manager is sharing the knowledge with the sales team, developing the skills of the sales representatives, and motivating them to get more sales.

While many organizations might vouch for formal and traditional training, we will encourage sales leaders to introduce a compensation program to upgrade the skills of the sales team and boost the performance of sales reps.

Why are we in favor of compensation in this unique dual-off between “Compensation vs. Learning?” Read on to know how sales commissions provide exclusive advantages plus the secret benefits of sales commission software to a sales team…

1) Remote learning is not wholesome:

Execution without learning is not complete. The theory and method of sales can only be tested and proven once they are executed on the field. Learning asks for active participation. And here comes the challenge of the remote environment. Though numerous powerful LMS is available, the remote learning method is less engaging and less powerful, especially for the sales training efforts. Remote learning will not be effective to realize sales goals.

A compensation program and incentive compensation management help here.

It drives the sales team and sales reps to pursue more leads and close deals. In doing that, the sales team gets a plethora of valuable tips and a thorough understanding of their audience, market insights, industry trends, competitors, and customer pain points. Learning is a good step forward, but sales leaders and sales managers should focus on driving effective initiatives like compensation programs to make it happen.

2) Sale is a complex job:

The sales cycle is complex, exhaustive, and requires excellent domain knowledge and techniques of persuasion, negotiation, and the art of communication. sales reps cannot learn and master such soft skills without a practical method. To level up their sales skills and be effective sales leaders they have to find real-world solutions and take crucial strategic decisions. The remote learning program would not be able to help sales representatives to improve their sales process.

The sales incentive compensation program trains the sales team by pushing them to discover new prospects and leads. Compensation plans motivate sales reps to chase the new market, pitch their services and products to individuals with diverse needs and motivation, hone all their sales skills, and develop immense capability in each cycle of the sales journey from finding the leads, closing the deal, and nurture it for repeat business. Sales commissions help sales representatives to achieve their sales goals in time.

The most powerful advantage of the compensation program is that it provides the sales manager complete visibility into the sales team’s performance.

If you want to super-charge your sales team with great skills and make them into great sales leaders, ensure you have a solid sales commissions program ready.

3) Identify your weakest resource and train them:

The most powerful advantage of the compensation program is that it provides the sales manager complete visibility into the sales team’s performance. With robust and user-friendly sales compensation software, you can quickly dive deep into the data and determine whose performance is not up to the mark.

Sales compensation software provides sales performance management which helps sales managers to train their sales reps and improve their performance, upgrade their sales skills and turn them into sales leaders.

Remote learning programs do not have the power and flexibility of sales performance management. Also, let us not forget that most learning programs are imposing, dull, and fail to engage the users. They are time-consuming and not ideal for a sales organization.

Sales compensation management programs powered by performance management solutions help keep the sales team on the ground, active, and occupied with tasks doubling the chances of acquiring knowledge and do better sales planning and sales transactions.

4) Introduce sales commission software:

In the new normal age, a compensation program dwarfs the traditional learning method. Introducing sales commission software will help you to make the most out of the incentive program.

Sales commission management software offers unique features like automation, data & analytics, compensation planning, and a powerful dashboard. The sales compensation software helps to make agile decisions and motivate your employees to pursue more leads and improve their skills.

Also, the sales commission management software helps to work on sound planning, explore new sales territories, try new sales strategies, build a better sales pipeline and offer lucrative incentive plans.

Furthermore, the powerful combination of incentive compensation solutions and performance management software helps the sales representatives to figure out in which KPI, the sales reps need to work harder to earn more which in turn helps the organization to achieve sales goals.

5) Easy availability of courses:

Many good courses are available online. If we have the right sales incentive plans, then it helps to motivate the salesperson to go through these courses.

In this case, there is intrinsic motivation in the salesperson to learn from whatever resources available for improved sales and achieve sales effectiveness. This helps the organization as well as the salesperson.

It’s an uphill task to carry forward any learning or training session remotely. The sales manager has to be innovative in their approach. Over the years, we have seen the compensation program improving the sales team’s performance, skills, and accomplishing business skills. And the contribution of commission management software is noteworthy.

What are your thoughts? Have you seen a paradigm and cultural shift in your sales team after introducing a compensation program and commission management software?

We would love to hear your thoughts. Share with us now at nishant.kumar@atmax.co