The seller's code: how to motivate an employee to do a good job

10.04.2023 18:11

Trade automation expert at Torgsoft

Мотивація персонала магазину

To withstand competition, economic turmoil in a changing world and ensure a stable level of profitability, a store owner needs to take care of many things. In addition to a competent business promotion strategy, assortment selection, and sales area design, it is worth thinking about the main driving force - employees. It is the quality of salespeople's work that determines the daily revenue, the fulfilment of sales plans, customer loyalty, and the success of the business as a whole.

A shop assistant is the link between the product and the consumer. An indifferent, incompetent, tactless salesperson can easily spoil customers' impressions of a good assortment, affordable prices and other store benefits that you have invested your money, nerves and time in.

For employees to be interested in the growth of your store, they need to want it. The task of the manager is to find a form of motivation that would make each employee give 100%. Let's look at different methods of staff motivation.

What is staff motivation, and what does it look like?

Motivation is everything that drives a person to do something. A seller's motivation can be expressed in persuading a customer to buy a product. However, for this to happen, the seller must be interested in receiving certain benefits or incentives. For example, an additional supplement to their daily salary or payment for lunches. In other words, the salesperson needs to be motivated.

Motivation of labour activity is a set of measures that encourage an employee to work with the greatest efficiency and thereby contribute to the achievement of the employer's goals.

Motivation is always based on satisfying human needs: physiological, social, material, aesthetic, and professional. Motivational measures make sense only when they meet the needs.

Let's imagine that a store owner decides to reward salespeople with a fitness club membership for excellent work. And the salespeople are obese women of pre-retirement age. Will such motivation achieve its goals? Obviously, no. Moreover, it can have the opposite effect. Salespeople who are outraged by such a gift may deliberately disrupt the sales plan next month.

That's why not every motivation is right for your employees. To ensure that each employee receives the reward they need, a manager or employee motivation specialist should develop a special motivation strategy.

How to prepare motivation measures?

Staff motivation management for a company or store includes a set of measures aimed at ensuring that each employee understands the proposed incentive system.

For motivation to work, the team needs to trust it, so that everyone is aware of their role in achieving the overall result.

The basis should be clear and understandable instructions, usually prescribed by an HR specialist. Staff motivation should be clear to each employee, and the regulations for motivational measures should be freely available.

You can develop new or revise existing store rules. They should specify the specific actions of employees for which they will receive incentives from the company and determine the type of motivation.

What can you reward salespeople for?

Fulfilment of the sales plan. Use ranges: pay 80% of the bonus for meeting the revenue plan by 80-99%, 100% of the bonus for meeting the plan by 100-120%, and 120% for exceeding the plan by more than 20%. If the plan is fulfilled by less than 80%, no bonus is paid.

The sales plan can be set for an employee personally or it can be general. In this case, the bonus is distributed among employees.

Increased average check. Knowing the amount of the average check per month in the store (for example, UAH 300), the owner sets an increased amount of the average check (UAH 400), for which the seller receives a bonus.
Performing additional duties. This can include training colleagues, adding/uploading a database with new goods to the accounting programme, scanning goods by barcodes, creating and uploading a delivery note from the supplier to the programme, participating in inventory, unloading goods, merchandising, cleaning the retail space, etc.
Overtime work. Set a fixed or hourly rate for additional hours of work.
The overall result at the end of the year. As a rule, the bonus for a certain period is not systematic, predictable and is appointed by the store owner at his/her own discretion.
Execution of one-off assignments. Active participation in the preparation and conduct of a store promotion may also be rewarded.
Regular bonuses should be awarded only for clear and measurable performance indicators that can be achieved by the salesperson in the performance of their direct duties.

Material motivation

There is a distinction between material and non-material incentives.

Material motivation in trade is the most common. These are incentives related to the receipt of financial or other material rewards by an employee for the performance of his or her duties. As a rule, they are paid as a supplement to the fixed part of the salary - salary or other performance indicators:

✅ Percentage of sales.

The most common type of financial motivation. The interest rate can be constant (for example, 5%) or progressive (the higher the revenue, the higher the percentage).

✅Percentage of total revenue.

The scheme works, but somewhat one-sidedly. By following it, the seller can deliberately make efforts to sell the best-selling products, while the non-selling ones will remain in the warehouse. Additional incentive indicators are introduced to prevent a bias in product sales.

✅Percentage of sales of goods of a certain group.

The store owner determines which group or groups it will be, taking into account the current need: perishable vegetables and fruits or hygiene products in a newly opened department.

✅Percentage of sales of goods of a certain price category.

An experienced seller will quickly determine the level of the buyer's income and offer a product that matches their status and needs. High-quality and expensive. In marketing, this is called "upselling" - a method of upselling when the seller encourages the buyer to purchase an improved or more expensive version of the product.

When setting the % markup, you need to take into account the margin of the product. Obviously, the percentage of sales of goods with a margin of 15% and 50% should be different.

✅Additional payment. Award.

Unlike the percentage of sales, the size of the bonus is not directly proportional to the amount of revenue. The bonus is paid for achieving certain performance indicators (KPIs). If they are not achieved, the employee is left without a bonus. The amount of the bonus for a particular indicator is fixed and can be set arbitrarily, or it can be linked to the salary.

If a salesperson performs poorly, then penalties are imposed instead of rewards. Shortcomings in work, sabotage, and other systematic violations of duties are punishable by deprivation of bonuses and fines.

Risks

The use of financial incentives requires a transparent approach, when each employee understands why he or she is rewarded or punished. Employees notice mistakes or unfair distribution of motivational benefits instantly.

There is no worse situation than when the innocent are rewarded and the guilty are punished. To prevent this from happening, you need to automate the calculation of salaries and rewards.

For this purpose, the implementation of a trade accounting programme is the best solution. In Ukraine, Torgsoft offers its own accounting software. Among other things, it automatically records and evaluates the personal labour performance of each employee when calculating their salary and remuneration. This is achieved by analysing reports on the number of goods sold over a certain period, the type of goods sold, or analysing the amount of cash receipts.

You can also choose to record the results of a shift or the entire team. In addition to incentives, Torgsoft allows you to depress staff in the form of one-time or regular deductions.

At the same time, an entrepreneur can set up a system of material motivation for staff that is optimal for his business. This will allow the employee to understand where they are underperforming and make efforts to earn more.

Non-financial motivation

A good salary is the primary incentive for quality work. However, this is not the only measure that affects an employee's involvement in achieving the company's goals.

Firstly, an employee is always willing to receive more than he or she can be paid. A hidden element of dissatisfaction can affect performance. Secondly, human needs, which motivation is based on, are not always tied to money.

If a shop assistant receives a large salary, but at the same time faces rudeness, disrespect, and a lack of normal working conditions on a daily basis, he or she is unlikely to be imbued with corporate patriotism and give 100% of his or her best.

That is why non-financial motivation is becoming increasingly important. Pay attention to the following points and see how your employees' attitude to work will change.

Non-material incentives

A normal psychological climate in the team. A boorish boss can easily ruin a subordinate's joy at a good salary and bonus. The store owner should be an example of respectful attitude, not allow rudeness, unreasonable criticism, and personal attacks, and not take out his or her own negative emotions on employees. Fear and humiliation deprive people of motivation. The same rules apply to employee relationships. Ignoring, harassment, and insults are unacceptable.

Do not hesitate to get rid of toxic employees who are a constant source of conflict.

Adequate living conditions. Make sure that the store has such basic things as a locker room with personal lockers, specially designated places for rest and eating, a clean bathroom, as well as cleanliness and order in the room. These small benefits will help make your employees' work more comfortable and therefore more productive.
Celebrate employees' successes and failures. Verbal rewards and penalties are a form of non-financial motivation that works well for most people. In this case, praise in public, scold in private.
Demonstrate trust. Relieve employees of unnecessary patronage, give them freedom to make decisions, delegate authority, and set challenging tasks that require a creative approach.

It's been proven that involving employees in top-level decision-making energises them and increases their motivation.

Opportunities for professional development. A reward for a good salesperson can be a free attendance at a lecture or webinar on business communication skills or a specialised exhibition. Offer your best performers refresher courses. A business trip to another city can have a positive impact on the motivation of an employee who will remember and appreciate such an event.
Corporate events. Joint celebrations and team building bring the team closer together. Even though our country is currently at war, sometimes arrange informal meetings or outings for employees. Of course, if you work offline.
Contests and competitions. All sorts of rewards for achievements can also motivate employees to become better at their jobs. Practice shows that employees compete for the title of "salesperson of the month/year" with energy and excitement, especially if the prize for winning is not a photo on a board of honour, but a small tangible "perk". For example, a mobile phone top-up voucher.

As you can see, there are more than enough ways to motivate store employees. With the right combination of them, an entrepreneur can achieve a real increase in the efficiency of their business.

Програма обліку товару для інтернет-магазинів, крамниць, торгових точок, складів та виробництва

Thank you for your feedback! It will be published after being reviewed by a moderator.

Last name and first name
Phone number
Other contact information
Database type
Do you need a call and consultation from a company employee? Yes No Choose one of the options
I agree with Torgsoft's Privacy Policy. Please review Torgsoft's Privacy Policy. If you agree, please confirm below.