How to Outperform Your Sales Targets Using Commission Tracking

Motivate your sales people to exceed targets by using commission tracking in salesforce.

Commission tracking drives sales people to close deals.

It motivates them to create new pipeline. It propels them to go the extra mile to win a piece of business.

But it’s not just about the money.

Sales people are highly motivated. Commission tracking is a way of keeping the score. It’s a way of comparing sales performance with the previous month or quarter. It’s how sales people measure this quarter with their personal best. It’s how they know they are winning.

So the greater the visibility of commission earnings, both actual and potential, the greater the motivation for sales people to increase revenue.

So commission tracking is important to you (sales manager) to drive business performance – but it is paramount to the sales person.

But unfortunately there’s no out-of-the-box module for commission tracking in salesforce.

So at GSP we created one.

Here’s how it works.

 

Commission levels

Managers set up records in salesforce that define how much commission each person should receive for each level of sales revenue.

For example, the screen shot above shows the commission levels for Dave Apthorp for February 2016.

Dave will earn 2% commission on £1 to 50,000 and 4% on all sales between £50,0001 and £75,000.

If he has a particularly good month, Dave will earn 6% on all revenue over £75,000 with no upper limit.

Defining the parameters at this granular level (i.e. by person, month and sales level) gives major flexibility. It means that a commission structure that will best motivate the sales team can be created.

It also means there’s the opportunity to introduce kickers for individual months by increasing the percentages for that month. In this case, for example, we might raise the commission percentages for March to make sure we end the quarter with a bang and outperform the sales target.

There’s also the option to create commission levels related to product families. This means percentages can be varied based on margin or the gross profit associated with each type of product.

Commission tracking in salesforce

The screenshot below shows Dave’s commission tracking record in salesforce for February.

The highlighted box shows his:

  • Commission Earned. This is based on the opportunities he has closed this month.
  • Pipeline Commission. The total amount Dave would earn if he closed all the deals in his February pipeline.
  • Total Potential Commission. The sum of Earned and Pipeline Commission.

Dave’s opportunities that are due to close for this month are automatically linked to this commission record. We can see these at the foot of the screenshot.

This linkage between the opportunity and the commission record is done by a trigger that runs every time an opportunity is updated. If Dave edits an opportunity, for example by moving the Close Date on a pipeline opportunity to the following month, then the relevant commission records will be updated.

The in-line chart on the left of the page shows how much Dave has earned for the month on won deals (blue bar). It also shows his potential commission (green bar) and his total potential earnings (orange bar).

The chart on the right provides more analysis of Dave’s pipeline deals. He can immediately see which of his open opportunities will yield the most commission.

For most sales people, this commission tracking in salesforce is a proven way of focussing attention. Align the commission structure with your corporate sales objectives and you’ve a built-in way of driving sales performance.

 

Commission reporting in salesforce

This approach means commission tracking reports can be created in salesforce for managers.

Sales managers in many of our customers use these reports to motivate and encourage individual sales reps. The automated commission tracking visibility also saves (probably you) countless hours updating and sharing spreadsheets across the team!

Commission tracking isn’t just about the money. It’s a way to keep the score. And now you can keep that score in salesforce.

If you have a question, or you’d like our help in implementing a commission tracking solution in salesforce in your business, simply get in touch.

Popular eBook

ebook-250px-compressed-website

Don’t have time to read the entire Blog Post right now?

No problem.

You can download the entire “Your Sales Forecast Is Probably Wrong” eBook for free by completing the form below!