Yasmin
New Contributor
I don't want to give too much away about what I do. To cut a long story short, a few months ago personal issues caused me to have to move my office meaning I had to let go of 6 sales team members (two were willing to relocate).
My two that were willing to relocate are my steady sales people, they make average sales that keep us ticking along but have never been my stars.
Recruiting new sales staff has been hard, but it has always been. Actually, recruiting is not the problem, retaining is. My new office is close to a university which means a lot of uni students apply and I have tried a few of them out I'll get good sales out of them for 4-6 weeks and then they usually leave. Needless to say my sales staff turnover is at an all time high (to be honest typing this out has made me realize high turnover isn't too much of an issue. New staff will usually make sales targets within the first two days of training, I have been advertising for this position on a free website and my manager can sell and train new recruits at the same time).
My issue is my sales staff have not been responding to bonuses, due to the nature of the sale I do not offer a commission on sale ( I can go more into this if you need me to ) they receive a higher than average hourly rate. If they exceed their daily sales quota by just one sale a day (so 5 a week) they will receive a $100 bonus (after tax) and not one has bothered with this. They cannot seem to get past their target (or just can't be bothered to). A while back one of my managers gave up smoking and suggested I use her unopened cigarette packets as part of a sales game (all of my sales staff smoke) I was unconvinced and thought it was a ridiculous idea. We exceeded all sales targets that day due to the cigarettes being a "prize". I still feel ridiculous typing that out! I know you are probably thinking "keep giving out the smokes" but I feel it's unethical to reward people with something like a pack of cigarettes and deep down I suppose I feel a little embarrassed by my sales team. On top of this they are very 'friendly' with each other for example two of them took the same day off after attending a party together (please note I do not know this for sure, this was told to me in confidence my another staff member). I also had to let go of one of them for making degrading comments about the company on Facebook. The more I write the more I feel myself getting angry, it looks an absolute joke written out like this.
I want the same atmosphere that my old team created, motivated by money friendly with each other yet competitive.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
My two that were willing to relocate are my steady sales people, they make average sales that keep us ticking along but have never been my stars.
Recruiting new sales staff has been hard, but it has always been. Actually, recruiting is not the problem, retaining is. My new office is close to a university which means a lot of uni students apply and I have tried a few of them out I'll get good sales out of them for 4-6 weeks and then they usually leave. Needless to say my sales staff turnover is at an all time high (to be honest typing this out has made me realize high turnover isn't too much of an issue. New staff will usually make sales targets within the first two days of training, I have been advertising for this position on a free website and my manager can sell and train new recruits at the same time).
My issue is my sales staff have not been responding to bonuses, due to the nature of the sale I do not offer a commission on sale ( I can go more into this if you need me to ) they receive a higher than average hourly rate. If they exceed their daily sales quota by just one sale a day (so 5 a week) they will receive a $100 bonus (after tax) and not one has bothered with this. They cannot seem to get past their target (or just can't be bothered to). A while back one of my managers gave up smoking and suggested I use her unopened cigarette packets as part of a sales game (all of my sales staff smoke) I was unconvinced and thought it was a ridiculous idea. We exceeded all sales targets that day due to the cigarettes being a "prize". I still feel ridiculous typing that out! I know you are probably thinking "keep giving out the smokes" but I feel it's unethical to reward people with something like a pack of cigarettes and deep down I suppose I feel a little embarrassed by my sales team. On top of this they are very 'friendly' with each other for example two of them took the same day off after attending a party together (please note I do not know this for sure, this was told to me in confidence my another staff member). I also had to let go of one of them for making degrading comments about the company on Facebook. The more I write the more I feel myself getting angry, it looks an absolute joke written out like this.
I want the same atmosphere that my old team created, motivated by money friendly with each other yet competitive.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
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