Kelly Didn't Pay Commissions, Did he? Do You?

The other day I was watching (again) the movie Kelly's Heroes, and it reminded me of the whole commission pay structure.

Essentially the commission pay structure to salespeople is something like this, "I give you the privilege of working for me for free. You take 100% of the risk, do 100% of the work, and if you bring in new business for me, I'll give you a tiny percentage of the rewards. And you should be proud of being part of our company."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against the "piece of the action" type of compensation if it's distributed in a fair manner. Unfortunately most technology companies use the commission structure in a communist manner, "I keep most of the reward and give you just enough to keep you alive and have you come back tomorrow for more abuse."

And don't tell me communism is about equality. I lived in it for 27 years, and never experienced equality.

When Kelly found out from the German colonel that there was a pile of gold bars in a bank somewhere in Germany, he started organising some people and supplies to go and get the stuff.

And here is the interesting part...

He didn't say to anyone, "You risk your life and do all the work for free, and then bring me the rewards and I'll give you a competitive(ly low) percentage of it."

No…

When Kelly went to see Crapgame, the stock keeper, to arrange some supplies, he even gave him a bar of gold as a deposit for his commitment and participation in the mission. Of course, at that point Crapgame realised Kelly was dead serious about this gold stuff.

Now, considering that the typical B2B sales cycle can be as long as three years, isn’t it amazing that so-called “successful,“ and even “world-class” technology companies expect salespeople to sign up with them, and are supposed to live on their own savings until they land their first deals because these “world-class companies” with their “world-class” stuff to sell don’t have the balls to invest in their own futures, but expect their salespeople to finance the companies’ clients acquisition with their personal savings.

One thing clients expect of technology professionals is objectivity. But how can we expect objectivity from people whose rewards are directly tied to selling the most expensive whatever they sell?

I firmly believe that if you pay commissions to your salespeople, all you do is alienate them from the rest of the company, and while short-term focused predators, as they are often referred to, can bring you some quick buck, you also land in a constant and never-ending hunting cycle for new business because these clients won’t be giving you repeat and referral business. So I suggest that you put your salespeople on the payroll and let them be part of your company. Then you have a better chance, having a real team, to achieve your sales goals.