Sep 25th, 2015 - Category: Sales
After writing the recent post, “Rethinking Sales: Part 9 – Sales Without Commissions,” I came across the post that started this series “Part 1 – Rethinking Sales: Overcoming Functional Fixedness in Commission Based Selling.” Although it was written over two years ago, the basic ideas are still relevant. If commissions are eliminated and a reasonable (even generous) salary replaces them, there can still be a lack of salesperson motivation. The original post references a TED talk by Daniel Pink related to his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” The transcript of the talk is a quick read, faster than watching his talk, and a lot faster than reading his book. To summarize, 
employees prefer activities that include these three characteristics:
- Autonomy: Control over their work
- Mastery: Getting better at their work
- Purpose: Involvement in something bigger than they are
So if you are considering eliminating commissions, careful planning is necessary to transition motivation from the strongly motivating “intermittent reinforcement” of commission checks to motivation based on other sources. To be continued…