Comission Structures

I have just been handed a new comission structure to give to my sales staff, its long and convoluted but basically increases tgt before comission from £1800 to £18500......How on earth do I tell them without having a mass walkout on my hands
To my thats completely unreasonable but at the end of the day the company belongs to them. Any suggestions how to break the news gently?

OMG, that is like a 1000% rise. What sort of things do they have to sell and are the rewards now much greater for hitting targets? - I would hope so!!

By Text Message

Decimal point in the wrong place?

Originally Posted by keithglos

Decimal point in the wrong place?

Wot he said...... or maybe one to many 0's

Nope, its accurate, also just noticed that (we have 2 months before we get comission from sales date) that this takes effect as of 1st Aug....surely that cant be legal

Oh and its basically advertising and they get 3-5%

E-mail, that what my boss did! with the bonus' and pay rise info- most people don't read them and only realize when its too late.

Harsh but true

TBH, i wouldnt be surprised if they all walked, and in all honest I would be right behind them. I personally think its disgraceful

You tell them face to face - no other way mate.

Just remember that anything they say in the heat of the moment will not be personal to you.

Good luck.

Paul.

Cheers Paul, I have called a meeting first thing in the morning. Fingers crossed they all take it like men/women rather than children

Some will cry, others will want to kill you. Enjoy! ;-)

Is that the only change? If there is also a cost of living rise that might offset some of the reduction of £500-£700. I presume the commission rate is still the same. There must be some rationale behind it but doesn't seem to be!

If you do have to implement this try to understand the reasons for it. Sometimes one of the joys of management is that you have to implement something you're not happy with and the trick is not to let the staff know that you feel that way.

Must confess I got so fed up trying to work out a commission / package for our sales guys that we made them self employed and gave them a straight 15% commission, no basic at all. Protects the business and has worked well for both parties. One guy got £20k payment one month and promptly bought an A4 convertible.

I know exactly whats behind it, the owner is moving abroad and wants someone else to buy it, if they is not paying out as much in comission we look more profitable...simple as that. But to be honest, in our game and the prices out services are set it basically puts any comission completely out of reach for anyone.

Originally Posted by rafe005

I know exactly whats behind it, the owner is moving abroad and wants someone else to buy it, if they is not paying out as much in comission we look more profitable...simple as that. But to be honest, in our game and the prices out services are set it basically puts any comission completely out of reach for anyone.

Hmm so a new buyer with half a brain will ask the right questions. TBH if you are going to buy a business you look at the profits over the last (say) three years.

Projected profits, particularly in an incipient recession, hurriedly obtained by artificially negating staff costs would make any buyer wonder whether the company was about to fail. Sorry - just my thoughts.

Paul.

I totally agree, but lets say the current owner has always got by on favours and contra's rather than good business sense

Originally Posted by rafe005

I totally agree, but lets say the current owner has always got by on favours and contra's rather than good business sense

Then he has chosen the right moment (if he hasn't left it too late) to get out?

Might there be a case for constructive dismissal?

If the company's new targets are shown to be unattainable with the aim of getting some to quit then it might be said to have acted unfairly.