Is Your Sales SCAM Leaving a SCAR on Your Sales Team?

Over Thanksgiving, my 23-year-old son was explaining the difference between two private high schools he attended.  He said a typical day at the first high school went something like:

45-minute Break

2-hour Class

45-minute Study Hall

1-hour Lunch

45-minute Break

2-hour Class

Lots of free, unstructured time.

New High School

At his second high school there were seven forty-two minute classes with four minutes between each class and 30 minutes for lunch.  A lot of structure.

School #1 was great for teens that were motivated to learn, independent, disciplined, self-starters.  School #2 was great for kids who needed structure.

From High School to High Performing Salespeople: The SCAM

Sales is very much like the high schools in that both groups of teens grow up and some eventually become salespeople.  The country song would be “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Salespeople.”  The sales profession has both: motivated, independent, disciplined self-starters, as well as those who require structure.

Two Types of Companies

We also have both types of companies: Companies where the culture requires all of their salespeople to be motivated, independent, disciplined self-starters, as well as those where the culture is extremely structured and salespeople are micro-managed with lots of busy work like KPI reports, call reports, account plans, territory plans, etc.

The problem is that the culture in most companies doesn’t allow for both types of salespeople.

The unstructured Culture (#1) says, “They’re salespeople – they’ll know what to do.”  The structured culture (#2) says, “They’re salespeople and they need to be closely managed.” An example of a solution for this is where group 1 could join a weekly huddle, turn in weekly reports, and update their CRM application each week, while group 2 would be required to participate in a daily huddle, be responsible for daily KPIs, and enter daily opportunity updates in their CRM application.

The SCAM

I call this the Sales Culture Alignment Measure, or SCAM for short. It runs parallel to the nearly identical problem we have with sales compensation plans.  Like the SCAM, not all salespeople find alignment with all comp plans.  Salespeople that are extrinsically motivated will thrive on a plan that is all or mostly commission.  Salespeople that are intrinsically motivated will thrive on a plan that is all or mostly salary. Extrinsics chase the money; intrinsics grind for the win. Read this article on Changing Motivational Needs to better understand Extrinsically and Intrinsically motivated salespeople.

Consider the example where the commission-dominant salespeople get to maximize their “sky’s the limit” plan based on gross profit as a percentage of their quarterly or annual goal (depending on the length of the sales cycle and average sale size), while the salary-dominant salespeople are paid a fixed quarterly or year-end bonus based on a similar achievement.

Sadly, companies tend to love their one size fits all plans, despite the fact that they only work effectively on half the salespeople, increasing the odds of a candidate not wanting to work for them.  Worse, if the salesperson is desperate for a job, they may accept an offer despite the plan not aligning with their needs, leading to early, voluntary turnover.

The SCAR

So as not to confuse people with identical acronyms, let’s call the compensation contradiction Sales Compensation Alignment Reality, or SCAR.

The executives in the C Suite, along with sales leadership, should discuss their current SCAM and SCAR and agree to offer two options instead of one.  It will improve recruiting effectiveness, alignment, incentives, performance and retention.

If you need help getting these plans right, feel free to contact us!

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