When a top sales person is making more money than anyone else in the company, is the only answer to fire them?

Many years ago, I brought an $8 million dollar deal with one of the then Big 3 automakers to my boss. I’d been working on the deal for the better part of a year, our company was in the final two to win the business, and we were being asked to shave off some of our costs to be awarded the business.

To the shock of everyone in the company, including (especially) me, my boss made the decision to walk away from the business.

Later I found out the issue wasn’t that we were being asked to bring down our price and sacrifice some of our profit.  It was that my comp plan, which was uncapped, called for me to be paid 20% commission. My boss didn’t want to set that precedent, so she decided to just forgo the business opportunity entirely.

The sad truth is, had my boss simply put her cards on the table with me and shared the needs of the business and the concern about setting a compensation precedent with a sales person, I would have happily agreed to some other terms that would have allowed everyone to win.

Instead, we never broke into the automotive market, we gave up an $8 million deal, and I left sales.

Companies are constantly in search of the right balance of compensation against the profit needs of the business. You don’t have to sacrifice your business profit to keep your sales superstars. You just have to be willing to have the honest business conversation with the sales person. And if they really are a superstar, they will work with you to make it an all-around win.

In our work, we hear a lot about the tough issues companies are grappling with, particularly as they move from one stage of business growth to the next. These growing pains are common, and often, clients intuitively know the best course of action, but for any number of reasons, they don’t want to take that action (or they may be looking for outside validation that they don’t need to!).

In the next few posts, I’ll be tackling some of these tough business choices, and I hope you’ll also weigh in with your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

And if there’s a specific question or issue you’d like us to take on, let us know and we’ll address it in a future blog post.

In fact, it seems that no matter how high tech or cutting edge a company’s sales training program is, it’s the “customer experience” basics 
sales people seem to fail on time and again. And those just happen to be the things
customers say they value most and that often influence their purchase decisions.

This is only going to become a bigger issue for retailers going forward as social media and smartphones make it easier than ever to spread the word about bad customer service and unpleasant sales experiences. Remember the old commercial, “and she told two friends, and she told two friends…”? The story about that rude sales associate is guaranteed to be repeated and shared again and again in today’s digital world.

Amplify’s CEO Joe Trueblood recently spoke with Michael Koploy of Software Associates about what retailers should be covering in sales training to be sure their associates have the skills and motivation to build the right customer experience.

Joe points out that in a retail setting, sales people often are the customer experience. Training has to give them the rationale,
confidence and skills to make that experience exceptional for every 
visitor. He recommends that training cover:

• Building the “reflexes” to greet, listen, show interest and respond to a variety of customer situations and requests in a professional, warm manner
• Strategies and techniques for dealing effectively with upset customers
• Relevant company policies and procedures, and how those should enable exceptional customer service, not hinder it

You can read more in Empowering Associates to Assist the Educated Consumer.

What do you think? Are retail sales associates prepared for the demands of today’s consumers? What are some of the skills you want to see in the sales people you interact with?

Do you have to have a Gold or Platinum membership to get good service? Really?!

I do get it, and I do benefit from it when it pertains to flying and being upgraded and service levels in hotels. And it does keep me flying the same airline or staying in the same hotel. Because heaven forbid you have to change brands—you get thrown to the back of the line and get the worst rooms when you don’t stay where you have status. But is it worth the cost of the customers they lose because they aren’t at these levels? Is this just the power of the 80/20 rule?

Recently, a friend and I were traveling to a funeral and the flight got cancelled. She tried to call the regular help desk and basically didn’t get anywhere. I called the Platinum desk and we got it all worked out. We got rerouted and arrived even earlier than we would have on our original itinerary, and they had us on standby for alternative travel in the event that we needed it. Talk about customer service! We were so appreciative! But…

We had to call in my Platinum status to get that service. Why? The story was the same. We had a funeral to get to. Why wouldn’t the regular help desk have the ability to do the same thing the Platinum desk could do?

What would happen in this world if everyone paying for a service got uniformly over-the-top customer service?

What would happen in your business?

If you are a business owner or leader, when was the last time you mystery-shopped your own business? What percentage of your business are you leaving on the table because a new customer comes to you and hasn’t yet built up their Platinum status? How often are you really asking for feedback from your clients? When you get feedback what do you do with it?

I have an inherent need to solve puzzles. As a child, I was one of those elementary school kids that spread Elmer’s glue on my hand so I could let it dry and peal it away like dry skin…I spent hours working my Rubix Cube or playing every form of solitaire imaginable. I’ve always psychoanalyzed my dogs (and treated them like royalty). And today I am addicted to Spider solitaire and am fascinated by the way people behave in airports and shopping malls.

No doubt, these things uniquely prepare me for the hardest job in the world—selling. Sales is a never-ending process of seeking answers, peeling back layer after layer, lining things up and caring about this mystery-person’s needs before yours. You have to be tireless and not let the white noise (competition, corporate politics, unanswered calls, etc.) distract you from solving the puzzle.

At the end of the day, that is the key to bringing the right solution to the table, closing the business and making a difference.

Hard economy or not, sales has to be about connecting with people.

I don’t care if you’re a sales rep for a moving company or senior account executive for a consulting firm. If you don’t hook on to an issue that is important to the person you are talking to, then you don’t have a relationship—and you don’t have an opportunity.

It’s a timeless fundamental, and I am amazed how often this still gets missed today.

And isn’t that the point of it all? Breaking the mold, living your individuality, realizing your personal potential and not being afraid to follow your inner voice. Steve Jobs made computers “for the rest of us,” and by doing so, he allowed us to make them uniquely ours in a way that has helped me (as they have for so many others) begin to tap into my true self.

Steve’s death has reminded me that I can never be a drone—corporate or otherwise. More importantly, he’s reminded me that being bold is what has allowed me to do everything in my life, from working my way through college to being successful in the corporate world to starting a business and now raising a child on my own.

So in honor of the man who defined achievement through boldness, I’ve decided in our own way to keep Steve’s torch burning through this blog.

Today’s reminder is summarized best by Steve himself: