electricblue
Senior Member
- Location
- Largo, Florida
- Occupation
- EC
How do you guys offer bonuses to the guys out selling job? I got 2 guys now and I have them selling service calls. I just want to keep them wanting more...
service bonus
- Thread starter electricblue
- Start date
- Status
Depending on how much they sell you can do movie tickets, dinner for two at a nice restaurant, buy them tools, give them a half a day off (paid) or a full day off (Paid), gift certificate to clothing store, sports tickets, take them out to dinner, pool hall, bar the sky is the limit. But I would stay away from giving them cash. I don't think it has as much appreciative value.
- Location
- Massachusetts
Money, I am an adult and would prefer to decide how I spend a bonus I earned through hard work.
mgookin
Senior Member
- Location
- Fort Myers, FL
Good point. Give a guy a gift certificate for the nicest steak house in Tampa and find out his wife is a vegan so he took his mistress. Bad!
Joking aside, a progressive compensation scale can be effective. Sell $30k this month and you get x%. Sell 40k and you get x+n%, etc... Just make sure they don't push work from one period to another for their benefit.
texie
Senior Member
- Location
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Occupation
- Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
Had to laugh at "the nicest steak house in Tampa". That would be for sure Bern's Steakhouse and that will be a very expensive spiff. Hope it is a pretty big job to pay for this.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Depends on how well you know your employee and what they like, dislike or what their needs may be.
I once had a guy that worked for me - big time hunter. Every Christmas instead of cash bonus or gift items - I just gave him a Cabela's gift card. It was about the best thing you could give him as you could be pretty assured he was going to use it. If you give gifts, or even gift cards, those are direct expenses, but if you give them cash - it is subject to payroll taxes. Doesn't mean cash is wrong - just something to think about.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
There actually is a word for that.
Salesmanship.
It's a common affliction in the automobile, real estate and cable TV industries, just to name a few.
- Location
- Massachusetts
I can't even begin to understand a employer would think any type of gift card, no mater how much you think you know your employee is better than a check or cash.
You don't know if they have bills they might like to apply it to. To me that is am employer trying to be in charge of the employees earned money.
Keep in mind I don't think the OP is even talking about a Christmas / holiday type bonus but a performance bonus which should be a regular thing if the employee keeps selling work.
You don't know if they have bills they might like to apply it to. To me that is am employer trying to be in charge of the employees earned money.
Keep in mind I don't think the OP is even talking about a Christmas / holiday type bonus but a performance bonus which should be a regular thing if the employee keeps selling work.
- Location
- Massachusetts
Regardless of the reward given an unscrupulous person is going to sell work that is unneeded.
To me that is more of question who you hire and keep on the team.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
I agree if it is any kind of routine performance bonus then it should be cash, as it typically is for other professions as well.
If it is just a gift, for any reason, it could be anything, and remember that cash is payroll and subject to payroll taxes - other gifts usually are not.
hittjw
Member
- Location
- United States
I second Edward's advice to stay away from cash. Several studies reported by Daniel Pink show that cash incentives stop motivating certain types of people -- they can also reduce performance for various reasons.
Cash also tends to get rolled into expected regular compensation in the mind of the person selling. They come to expect it, then get frustrated when they don't see it, yet rarely tie it back to their own behavior.
Even adults can be motivated by a variety of rewards. A choice of different kinds of bonuses, from steak dinners, to pre-paid vacations, to cash -- at the individuals level according to their performance level. Get your folks involved in what goes in the pot.
Often word will get out around cash bonuses which cause support staff to slow down. Every call from your top performers becomes more work for the back office, and they start to resent it. If your sales people don't kick back to the back office, then have prizes for recognition of those who support the sale.
There is more to bonuses than how much they sell ...
Be real careful to measure the right things. You don't want a bunch of slow pay customers who will be a huge pain in the butt -- or too many large accounts that you cannot adequately serve. A sales is not a sales -- you want profitable customers.
With some I've seen a straight commission (i.e. 1% of gross paid on receipt) plus some kind of bonus pool did good for motivating the person selling as wells as the teams supporting. Add a "Pick from the prize board" with even a cheesy monthly celebration work a lot better.
On the whole tax thing, even some non-cash gifts are taxable.
Most people can be motivated by recognition. Even if it sounds silly to you -- what gets people to do what is necessary is really up to the person receiving it more than you giving it.
Best,
Justin
P. s. If your folks are making more than $70k (especially if over $110k), they may prefer bonuses that their family can use with them that doesn't come with an increase on the W2. I'm not giving tax advice, but ask your people. One guy I met was letting top performers take out his fishing boat (which was bought in the business as an employee benefit) another was lending out prime weeks at the company cabin. Talk with your CPA or tax attorney.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
I tend to agree with some of this. One of the solar companies that came rolling through town had a sales man that was doing about $100K a year. That's great money for sitting in someone's home and telling them how much money they were going to save while sharing a cup of coffee. Yet the install staff was out there making about $12 an hour and the sales guy didn't get paid until the job was signed off and he started to demand his own install crews and inspection staff. How much was he kicking back? I don't know if anything, but I can bet the install crews could care less about when his jobs got done.
Also I would take a week at the company cabin over a cash bonus. In the long run, while it might not sound like much, it might come out to more than the cash bonus would have been. Or as mentioned a prepaid vacation.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
But now we are getting into a salesman position and not a service position that is doing well promoting more business in some way. The salesman's job should be to make sales, someone else like the owner or HR manager is more responsible for making sure there is enough labor force to perform jobs that are sold. The service tech, will mostly sell add on's, upgrades, or find existing conditions that may need attention, more so then he will go out and make mass increases in new sales.
ceknight
Senior Member
If a steady paycheck isn't enough to inspire them to keep doing their jobs well, either they need bigger paychecks or you need better employees.
Easy for me to say because I don't have employees. Your mileage may vary.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
Sometimes you get better employees by rewarding them somehow, if you simply pay them better, some (many) will get too comfortable and expect an easy ride. Just where to draw certain lines is up to each employer.
I have seen many production employees that work for customers of mine - they are happy with their steady pay, but will not do anything they don't have to do. They practically have to be told what to do, even if they only have limited number of tasks they regularly do, when to do every task, will not respond to something abnormal without being told how to, even if they have enough brain cells to know what should be done in certain situations.
They may know several station tasks but, will ignore other items if it is not specifically part of that station's tasks. That big puddle of product in the other corner of the room leaking onto the floor is "not my problem" and I am not even going to report it to my supervisor:roll:
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
I used to work as a maintenance tech in a die cast foundry. The people there worked hard in harsh conditions and got paid not so well.
Typically, a die cast operator could do 400 - 600 'shot's in an eight hour shift. One op, Robert, was way faster doing 800 + and his goal was to be the first one to do 1000. He did it one day and just as a crazy thing to do I made him up a sticker for his hard hat with gold sparkly stars and stuff on it labeled '1000 Shot Club'. He thought it was great.
A couple days later, one of the other ops came to me and asked how Robert got the sticker. I told him and I also told him that if he did 1000 shots, I would make him a sticker, too.
Within a week or so I was making another sticker. As the months went by, several more were made. Then the trim press operators made the point that if the die cast ops did 1000, so did they as they were doing the same parts.
So I made some for the trim press ops that did 1000 trims in an 8 hour shift.
Production made a marked increase as the workers all strived for the 1000 mark. Then I started giving out gold stars every time a 'club member' got 1000 and soon having many stars was a status symbol. Now all of a sudden, coordinating down time with the ops became a smooth endeavor. Before the sticker days, down time meant break room time.
I had no reason to do what I did as I was a maintenance tech. But the ops were good people and I considered them my friends and if management wasn't going to recognize their hard work, I figured someone should.
The stickers only took a minute to make and were just stuff from the dollar store. I kind of just did it for fun. I was amazed at the change it made in the workers. Beside production going up, morale went up as well as people competed to get the most gold stars for their hard hats.
So, I think that rewards for hard work can come in many forms and as long as the recipient feels like they are recognized they will be appreciated.
Typically, a die cast operator could do 400 - 600 'shot's in an eight hour shift. One op, Robert, was way faster doing 800 + and his goal was to be the first one to do 1000. He did it one day and just as a crazy thing to do I made him up a sticker for his hard hat with gold sparkly stars and stuff on it labeled '1000 Shot Club'. He thought it was great.
A couple days later, one of the other ops came to me and asked how Robert got the sticker. I told him and I also told him that if he did 1000 shots, I would make him a sticker, too.
Within a week or so I was making another sticker. As the months went by, several more were made. Then the trim press operators made the point that if the die cast ops did 1000, so did they as they were doing the same parts.
So I made some for the trim press ops that did 1000 trims in an 8 hour shift.
Production made a marked increase as the workers all strived for the 1000 mark. Then I started giving out gold stars every time a 'club member' got 1000 and soon having many stars was a status symbol. Now all of a sudden, coordinating down time with the ops became a smooth endeavor. Before the sticker days, down time meant break room time.
I had no reason to do what I did as I was a maintenance tech. But the ops were good people and I considered them my friends and if management wasn't going to recognize their hard work, I figured someone should.
The stickers only took a minute to make and were just stuff from the dollar store. I kind of just did it for fun. I was amazed at the change it made in the workers. Beside production going up, morale went up as well as people competed to get the most gold stars for their hard hats.
So, I think that rewards for hard work can come in many forms and as long as the recipient feels like they are recognized they will be appreciated.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
I was talking about a sales person, but he was talking about support staff, and if you reward the guy getting all the jobs, do you also reward all the people doing, the paperwork and the scheduling and what not? To the salesman the support staff is the install guys. What do they get for busting their humps to make sure the salesman get's his bonus?
growler
Senior Member
- Location
- Atlanta,GA
I think you should ask the guys/gals that are out there selling which they would prefer. I think most would like to earn more money. What motivates you? Gift cards and movie tickets or money?
electricblue
Senior Member
- Location
- Largo, Florida
- Occupation
- EC
I talk to the plumbers and A/C guys and get a paid comp pay. Sell a capacitor get 30 bucks. Plumbers sell a tank rebuild get 30 bucks. They sell the whole house a get 90bucks.
- Status