BWSmallBiz -- Compensation  Best Ways to Pay Your Sales Staff
Stephen Webster  Matt Wilson needed a top-notch sales staff—and
he was no longer sure he had one. His 70-person masonry company,
Holland (Ohio) Wilson Tile & Stone, had prospered during the
real estate boom, posting $8.1 million in 2007 sales. But as
conditions soured, his four reps, no longer enjoying the ease of
a quick sale, didn't seem particularly hungry to close deals.
"Too many times, I'd see customers in my showroom, and there was
no eagerness either to upsell them or even to push the sale,"
says Wilson.  It turned out the reps' compensation plan was
partly to blame. Salespeople received 80% of their compensation
in base salary, which gave them little incentive to hustle. When
they did make sales, commission payouts were low—and
complicated: 3% of gross profit, but only after they hit a
monthly quota. "I have no problem with my salespeople making
money," says Wilson, a vice-president at the company his father
founded in 1985. "But we wante