By Kathleen Black
Working hands-on with top producers across North America to help them scale to multi-seven-figure businesses, over the past decade, I have seen how creating a structure for compensation opens up teams for long-term growth.
Primarily we are looking at the term, “compensate” which does not mean, “How much will we pay them?” or “What will the commission split be?” It does mean “How will we enable growth, happiness, and balance?”
I believe there are three pillars to a high-quality working environment: Compensation, Opportunity and Security, and these three pillars are how we help the top talent to stay, thrive, and grow.
How You Pay Sales & Staff
To choose which compensation model will work best for you, you’ll need to begin by evaluating every influencing factor when approaching the compensation structure, such as skill-set level, education and experience, industry norms and location.
What makes the custom compensation structures so effective is that it is always targeted toward the goal of where the team will be in the future instead of where the team is currently.
Ten years down the road, the team will not be structured the same, with one team leader and one team member, so capping at a 50/50 split is extremely restrictive.
We assess at least 50 different factors with our Team Compensation System, to ensure you have the right model to pay your team members and staff. We reinforce the idea of compensating for your value, what you bring to your team, as well as, considering the future of your team.
It’s so important to build a structure that will give you choices later, versus the common splits that cap long term growth for everyone.
We always recommend taking your vision into account; if your team will have a lead conversion partner, a licenced assistant, and a manager, prepare for that from the beginning.
We also have to remember to account for a team’s expenses, such as marketing, overhead, and any additional costs that the team carries. This way, the team has the resources to continue to grow and build, which is in the best interest of everyone involved.
Compensation
You are building a team, you are creating a people-first environment, and in this ideal working environment, there is more than money on the table for compensation.
This team creates a family or a performance team, a business, and a caring environment, and consists of encouragement, training, and leads.
Compensation is more than offering up to 95 percent per deal. It’s creating the ideal working environment. There needs to be finances in place to support team members in reaching their goals, you need to have a budget that will allow your company to grow and develop with the team and the vision.
Absolutely, people need to be paid fairly for their role on the team, but that cannot be the only way people are compensated.
Which leads me to my next section, you need to compensate your team members with Opportunities.
Opportunity
Opportunity is the second pillar in creating the ideal quality in work-life balance.
When creating your compensation structure, you are continuously looking at the vision of the business’s future, and you are guiding your team members with that vision.
They need training and support so they can see the opportunity for growth in themselves and their own skills. They need to be able to see where they will continue to grow within the company, and understand the opportunities that will be made available.
A team leader can best showcase this with training and support, so the team member can see the opportunity for growth in themselves and their own skills.
Security
Finally, your compensation structure needs to have security. Not only will your top talent team have a job tomorrow, but they will have leads next month, and then in another 2 months, and next year.
With the ongoing training, encouragement, and team finances to support the growth, there is security in the direction the company is taking.
Team leaders need to help and convey this to their team members in order to have enough value within the team so that members can safely move their focus to fulfillment, knowledge acquisition, and powerful projects.
Know more, give more, make more.
Tracking
Those who profit together need to enjoy and succeed together. Our culture places the onus on individuals to earn our celebrations of success: our down time, our holidays, our dream cottage etc.
When we feel the perception that we have earned something, then we give ourselves permission to enjoy it. We need a tool to track this accomplishment and profit is a simple and straightforward tool.
When we are compensated fairly for a job well done we have a sense of pride and we take personal responsibility for the importance of our role. The role of a team leader directly affects the profitability of a team.
If we can track your success, we have a measurement tool of what you have accomplished. The achievement of your goals is evident and you can enjoy your success.
As a team leader compensation is an important aspect of that tracking. What have you earned for your hard work? A team leader has a vital role in the team. They set the tone for accountability, production, motivation, and the overall speed of the team.
Ultimately the most successful teams will see a distribution of the pillars and the maintaining of the top teams and optimum growth. It’s essential to look with the end in mind; it’s not where you are today, it’s where you want to go.
Source:
Kathleen Black, KBCC