Share the details to create transparency. Another thing we’ve
done in that performance culture is, every quarter, we give
every employee their P&L,
which is their cost — salary, benefits, taxes, the commissions
we’ve paid them — against the
revenue that they generated.
Employees sometimes don’t
understand, for example, medical benefits. How much those
really do cost. There are taxes
that we pay that they’re not
aware we pay. We’re willing to
set up a compensation program — a commission program — where they will be
rewarded. But it also comes
with, they’re going to have to
put the effort in, the work in,
to get that reward.
And it’s clear. It’s simple. You
can see it every month. It’s not
a complicated formula. For
example, a new business, we
would pay a salesperson 10
percent of the gross profit.
That was not my instinct at first, to share all this information, but over time, I learned
that was the best thing to do.
I’ve seen some compensation
programs that are very complicated. I don’t think you build
trust with your employees doing
it that way, because they always
think maybe the commission
formula’s being manipulated.
Keep your culture by hiring people
who fit. We look for people who
are more hunters than gatherers, we look for people who are
competitive, people who have
good communications skills,
and then we interview.
We interview them many,
many times before we make a
decision. So they may go
through five or six interviews
before we make that decision.
You look for things in people’s background. Were they
on a competitive team in high
school, college? Did they help
contribute financially to their
college? Did they work during
college?
Another technique we also
like to do is, before we’ve
actually hired the person, they
will travel and spend a day
with one of our salespeople —
somebody they’ve interviewed
with — or sales managers
actually in the field selling.
And see what it is like, a day
in the life, so to speak. So I
think people who maybe aren’t
well-suited for that kind of a
position would experience
that, and they may back away
from the position just because
they don’t feel comfortable
doing that day to day.
HOW TO REACH: NESCO Resource, (440) 461-6000 or www.nescoresource.com
