The motivation of the sales force is one of the most focused on topics that sales managers experience today. Managers across the country struggle to find the most effective way to motivate their all important salesforce. Countless studies have been conducted to find the most effective way to motivate the sales force. Salesforce motivation is more important than motivation in other industry because of the high turnover and large amounts of rejection. These unique factors make motivation in the salesforce much more important than motivation is in fields such as accounting.
One of the big debates among sales managers is on how to pay them. In the beginning days of the salesman most were paid fully on commission the theory behind this was basing a salespersons salary on commission would encourage them to sell more. However the problem with this was that many salesmen would quit when they were having a down month because they would earn almost nothing in their down months. The next option was to pay a salesperson a fixed salary. The issue that came with this was salesmen did no longer feel the pressure to sell as much and sometimes would go months without making a sale. Finally in the middle of the 20th century managers found the sweet spot salary plus commission. Combining the two gave salespeople the safety of a fixed salary and adding the extra commission gave them the incentive to sell. This payment structure was found to be the most successful of all the sales incentive programs which speaks volumes for the future of the sales industry.
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