How to Add Duties to a Sales Staff
While adding responsibilities to your sales staff may seem like a convenient way to lower costs, consider the long-term results before moving forward. Remember that your sales staff generates the revenue that fuels your business. Adding responsibilities to your sales force may cause your sales to decrease, affecting your budget and forcing you to make cuts down the road. But keep in mind that giving more duties to your staff can be done in a fun, competitive fashion that doesn't diminish sales, and that cross-training your employees increases their overall value to your company.
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Instructions
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Wages and Policy
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Sales reps who struggle to close deals should be the first considered for other hourly jobs. Review the system you use to pay your sales staff. Some sales reps are paid on straight commission, meaning they get a percentage of every sale but earn no other wages. Commission-only staff cannot be asked to perform other duties without addressing compensation. If you would like to offer duties to a sales rep who struggles to sell, it is acceptable to offer them a position with a low hourly wage in addition to their commissioned sales. By doing this, the rep is still motivated to earn cash via selling, but will not resent the added duties.
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Remind your sales staff that customer service duties will create opportunities to build relationships and upsell product. If sales staff is performing to the point that executing tasks is a problem because of volume, it may be time for a change in policy that adds specific duties, such as customer service or data entry, to the sales force. Finding the right method of compensation for your salespeople will still be a concern, but you can use past complaints by sales reps -- such as the loss of a customer due to poor customer service -- as fuel for motivation.
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Don't neglect human resources issues. Review your company handbook; rewrite and redistribute it if needed. If you are changing the duties of a single sales rep, you should also change their job description formally on paper. Be sure to distribute information regarding new duties to all relevant departments. For example, if salespeople are now expected to make bank deposits, the accounting and bookkeeping departments must be notified.
Techniques to Increase Sales and Complete Non-Sales Duties
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Adding responsibilities to your staff can be done in a fun, competitive fashion that actually increases sales. For example, if you had to remove contracted janitorial crew from your budget, these duties can be used to motivate your reps. Basically, the sales team that has the lowest revenue at the end of the week is tasked with cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the following week. Remember to prepare staff for these changes ahead of time, giving them plenty of notice.
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Use extrinsic motivation to encourage reps to expand their duties. Extrinsic motivation is created by external factors like pay raises, promotions or training certificates. Successful sales reps who are motivated by large commission checks must be equally motivated to perform other duties. If you assign website management to a sales rep, give him a new title and business cards.
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Use intrinsic motivation to give staff a sense of ownership. Intrinsic motivation is powerful because it occurs within a person. It can be as simple as recognition for a task done well. For example, telling your new sales rep/webmaster that your website looks better than ever and encouraging the rest of your staff to review it during your sales meeting will motivate that employee to continue doing a good job.
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References
- Photo Credit sales representative image by Peter Baxter from Fotolia.com check in macro image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com customer service image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
