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Now how do you reward and retain these<br />
superstars after they are identified? One aspect is<br />
easy: You pay them a lot of money. I am a big believer that you<br />
should over pay your superstars. The critical factor here is that you<br />
only over pay the superstars. A compensation plan that overpays<br />
everybody in sales is not a good program from an expense or<br />
recognition perspective. This also comes back to having logical<br />
quotas based on analytics of the value of the base accounts and<br />
a level of expectation for new business. If you know a rep’s base<br />
accounts should produce $500,000 and you expect the superstar<br />
to sell 30% net new business, then you pay the superstar above<br />
average compensation when they hit $650,000 in business for the<br />
year. That year, qualification is critical.<br />
A rep that has a blowout month isn’t a superstar; anybody can have<br />
a great month, or a bad month for that matter. What truly matters is<br />
that over a year—or the shortest period a quarter—the rep achieves<br />
their quota. When they do overachieve, bonuses should kick in that<br />
pays that rep above the norm.<br />
The rep should also be paid very well for selling new products or<br />
services, but again only if they also achieve their quota; meaning they<br />
retain their base accounts and sell net new business.<br />
It doesn’t excite me if a rep sells $20,000 per month in MNS business<br />
if their base accounts should have produced $400,000 in equipment<br />
and they only sold $300,000 in equipment for the year. They lost base<br />
at the expense of selling MNS. I certainly compensate them for the<br />
MNS they sold but not at the same level if they had not also achieved<br />
their equipment quota. As an aside, I’d have a real issue with this rep<br />
losing base!<br />
I do want this rep to feel great about working at my company so<br />
I recognize them in other ways as well. Clearly, rep of the month/<br />
quarter/year recognition is important but that is the most basic<br />
recognition there is. I might provide my Sales Superstars with an<br />
annual—and meaningful—increase in car allowance for the year. If<br />
you give every sales rep $400 per month, I might give a one year<br />
quota achiever $600 / $800 if they’ve achieved quota for two years<br />
in a row, and $1000 for three or more. But I want to ensure that they<br />
“celebrate” with the car so I don’t just give them the cash; I make<br />
their car payment up to that amount.<br />
Trips are another great recognition approach and every company<br />
should have a “president’s club” trip for their superstars and a guest.<br />
There’s nothing better than getting the spouse or significant other<br />
involved in the superstar’s success and spending five days at some nice<br />
resort, often with the principals of the company and their significant<br />
others, which builds loyalty to the company.<br />
I’ve also seen awards such as a Rolex watch for anybody that<br />
achieves 125% of quota, and often with a Rolex to the significant<br />
other if it’s for two consecutive years at 125%. This make those<br />
Superstar Reps and their significant others feel like gold!<br />
Tom Callinan will present on “Sales Superstars” with David Ramos,<br />
Director, Channel Strategy Service, InfoTrends, and Thomas Bruguiere,<br />
VP of National Accounts, Crawford Thomas, at the ITEX Expo in Ft.<br />
Lauderdale, FL on March 8, <strong>2016</strong>. Details at www.itexshow.com.<br />
Tom Callinan is the Managing Principal of Strategy Development. From 1998-2005,<br />
Tom was an executive with IKON Office Solutions, culminating as VP and GM of their<br />
largest business unit with revenue of $1.4 billion. Prior, Tom was founder & CEO of<br />
Copifax, Inc., an award-winning copier dealership that included INC 500 recognition,<br />
which later was acquired by IKON. Tom graduated with high honors from The Wharton<br />
School, University of Pennsylvania. Visit www.strategydevelopment.com.<br />
The New <strong>2016</strong> CW Catalog is Now Available.<br />
View it as an interactive Flipbook or in tradional PDF form.<br />
View or download our new catalog at<br />
www.cwholesale.com/<strong>2016</strong>catalog<br />
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