Commission means that salespeople sell more doesn’t it. And more commission means they will sell even more. Right? Wrong.

Apparently commission and all incentives kill the personal motivation to get things done. More than that, the quality of work falls and it is actually a relatively poor way to motivate people, according to the research cited by Alfie Kohn in the book Punished by Rewards.

It is an astonishing conclusion for anyone that has been involved in sales for a long time. However, the more one thinks about it, the more it could be true. I know plenty of people that work incredibly hard for less than the market wage and others that do as little as they can get away with despite the chance to make a lot of money. The recent series Make Me Millionaire Trader showed several talented prospective traders abandon the project due moral objections. Despite the fact they could have made a lot of money.

The suggestion that commission does not work then begs the question, “how do we motivate sales people then”? Indeed! I have to say, the evidence is very persuasive suggesting that commission is a very poor way to encourage salespeople to sell more.

At the very least, commission in the long run appears no better a motivator to working hard than helping staff to get job satisfaction. The problem is two-fold in my view: how do you replace the deeply ingrained tradition of commission being used to motivate salespeople? And the other problem is, how do you train sales managers to adopt the better way?

STRATEGIC
It would be a brave sales organisation that ditched commissions for improved management. It would certainly be difficult to attract some of the best salespeople.

However, my experience suggests that really good sales people will do their best work where they like the company and believe in the product. It is another matter whether they would set aside their “greed” to work for such a company without commission instead of an alternative company with a great compensation scheme.

TACTICAL
If you are a salaried salesperson with an element of commission, then, frankly, there is little you can do about the commission you get. Time and again I hear salespeople moaning about the fairness or amount of compensation schemes. Sometimes they might have a point. But the inescapable fact is that they probably can’t change it.

So the decision has to be, how do you motivate yourself? My suggestion would be to say the commission is simply a way of keeping score against your fellow salespeople. The main thing is to do the best YOU can do.

Judge yourself against your own benchmarks and learn to me “intrinsically motivated”. In other words, find your reasons. And set your own goals. These should be independent of those imposed upon you by managers or your employer.

You will find this discipline will see you right wherever you choose to work and however fair the commission package.