Maximizing Sales Team Productivity During Layoffs: Automation and Incentives

Layoffs are a difficult time for any organization. While the decision and the need to downsize can be a tough call, the ones most affected by such decisions are the rest of the workforce. However, one segment of employees often bears the brunt and the most significant share of the stress resulting from the fallout - the salespeople.

Salespeople are the lifeblood of a company, and they are the ones who burn the midnight lamp to bring in adequate revenue. But when layoffs hit, they can find themselves struggling to maintain their productivity and motivation.

However, despite the challenges presented by layoffs, there are some easy ways to help you keep your team's morale high at all times. This is why we are here to explore how you can leverage incentivization and automation to keep your sales team performing at their best all the time.

Layoffs or no layoffs, these methods can help you ensure that your sales team never lags and your company keeps growing steadily.

How are incentives traditionally calculated?

In the case of salespeople, incentives come in the shape and form of commissions. Commissions are the amount a salesperson gets for facilitating and scoring a successful sales deal. In the sales field, the most common and traditional form of calculating sales is awarding a pre-determined percentage of the sale value to the salesperson who made it happen.

While this is the most common method, some companies may choose to calculate the incentives based on the profit margin of the sale or even offer a flat-rate commission regardless of other factors.

When calculating traditionally, there may be a few other factors that need to be considered:

• Commission base
• Commission rate
• Commission period
• Commission tier
• Override commission
• Split commission

But that is not all. While calculating incentives accurately is crucial, managing the commissions of each salesperson and keeping track of their payments is equally essential. For this purpose as well, managers and companies can use multiple tools and strategies, such as:

• Using Commission Tracking Software
• Establishing a clear commission structure
• Communicating with salespeople regularly
• Establishing KPIs to monitor progress

How does automation in incentive management help to accelerate sales?

Imagine a scenario in your company. You have a team of highly hardworking salespeople who strive daily to convert leads and generate revenue for your establishment. However, while they are motivated by the commissions they will receive, your company's actual commission calculation and processing process needs to be revised, clearer, faster, and prone to errors.

So, your team of stellar salespeople needs to get a resolution to any queries or cannot process the commissions promptly, leaving them frustrated, demotivated, and unwilling to work as hard as before.

This is exactly the point where an automated incentive management system can be beneficial for your company. Automated management tools can assist in making commission calculation and processing much simpler, transparent, efficient, and accurate.

In turn, it can lead to a team of happier and much more satisfied salespeople who are well aware of their record of commissions and are thus motivated to work hard to generate more revenues for the company.

More specifically, here are some ways in which automated commission tools can help you accelerate sales:

Automated calculation of commissions

Automated commission calculation is automated incentive management systems' biggest ease in operations. Simple data entry can help you calculate commissions automatically, reducing the need for manual calculations that are highly prone to error.

Automation also makes it incredibly time-efficient, so you can focus the rest of the time on making the company culture less stressful for employees, especially amid layoffs.

Real-time monitoring of commissions

Meeting sales targets is a crucial KPI for most professionals. So, they would prefer a system that lets them track their progress at a glance. This is precisely what an automated incentive management system can help them achieve.

Providing real-time transparency regarding the number of deals they have successfully closed and how much they have earned from those sales can help them stay motivated to meet their targets or even cross them. As a result, your salespeople will put in more effort to close as many deals as possible.

Customizable commission structures

Automated systems also allow you to customize the commission structure to suit the specific needs of your salespeople. Whether you wish to set the commission structure as a portion of the sale value or a part of the profit margin, automated systems allow you to customize the calculation structure accordingly.

You can align them to your business goals and observe how your salespeople are contributing to meeting those goals in real-time.

Commission management, tracking, and reporting

Automated commission management tools also assist with proper management, tracking, and reporting. Particularly, managers can evaluate and monitor employee performance through such tools to identify the high-performers.

Accordingly, the high-performers can be rewarded for crossing milestones, which can act as an effective motivator for others in the team to reach those milestones.

Benefits of automated incentive tools

In addition to motivating salespeople to perform better and streamlining the commission management process, there are many more benefits of automated incentive tools that can help your sales team become better and more cohesive. A few of such benefits include:

Saves time

Time savings is one of the biggest advantages of using an incentive management tool. Without it, calculating individual commissions can seem daunting, especially if each team needs to follow a customized commission structure.

However, with such automated tools, the process becomes as quick as an instant, which is precisely how much time it would now take you to calculate individual commissions.

Higher data accuracy

Another significant benefit you enjoy when you use automated incentive tools is the level of accuracy without putting in much effort. While the manual calculation of commissions is time-consuming, it is also extremely tedious and prone to errors.

However, with an automated system, the chances of errors in calculating the figures reduce to minimal or even none. In addition to reducing the time consumed in calculations, adopting such systems also reduces the time otherwise spent on resolving grievances due to faulty and erroneous disbursements.

Automated workflow

100% automation of the entire workflow, from A to Z, is another benefit of using automated incentive tools. Set up rules for the calculation and commission disbursement process, and the system will help you automate every step.

With accurate calculations and timely disbursements of all commissions, this process can further help reduce any complaints your salespeople may have. Subsequently, it can help you achieve a happier and more satisfied working environment.

Audit logs

Automated incentive management systems further increase convenience in documenting every commission-related documentation in a designated location. This can not only assist you during audits by helping you locate essential documentation easily, but you can also track changes in commission plans, monitor the performance of employees through past commissions disbursed, and even monitor any errors that may have been made.

Pre-defined components

Most incentive management systems have pre-defined components, such as commission structures, bonus calculation methods, and individual pay rates. This enables easy customization of components as you like to match the requirements of the business's goals.

Such pre-defined components provide additional benefits through consistent and accurate calculations, helping reduce grievances and discrepancies in the process.

If you are looking for an all-rounder incentive management system to help make your commission calculation process more accessible, look no further than Compass. With solutions curated for different industries, Compass is the ideal tool that provides everything you need to manage your sales team - from sales commission and performance management to sales motivation, data integration, and revenue intelligence.

Boasting an intuitive and user-friendly interface, the highly convenient setup helps you manage your commission structures easily. Furthermore, with intelligent insights in the form of performance metrics and analytics, and advanced reporting, Compass enables you to optimize your sales team exactly the way you want it to be. Visit the Compass website today.

Conclusion

Managing a team amid layoffs is a challenging task. However, as long as you have the right tools, namely incentive management systems, you can manage your sales team effectively and maximize their productivity. By providing you with a comprehensive platform to overlook every single aspect of your sales activities, Compass is one such system that helps you save time, reduce errors, streamline your workflow, and manage your salespeople's progress accurately. So, keep your team's morale high by motivating them with accurate incentive calculations with the help of Compass.