A standard base pay program offers fixed salary ranges for each position type for employees performing the standard duties of their jobs. Set up minimum and maximum levels within those pay ranges to account for variations in experience and skill levels. Although your customers may experience a less-pressured sales pitch from a salaried sales rep, they probably won't purchase as much, either. If you offer several products or services or a combination of products and services, then your sales approach is going to require more of a relationship-building technique and probably more continued customer service if you want to make additional sales to your existing customer base. Your type of business will also play a part in determining the type of pay structure you offer your sales staff. What you have to do is make sure you have a good combination of both a base salary and sales commission. If you offer a single product with few variations, then a straight commission structure may work for you. For your sales staff, an incentive-based pay structure will almost always produce better results than a straight pay structure. Here is what NOT to do in an economic downturn to increase sales in business.

The downside of this is that employees may begin to see it as a given that they will get a salary increase after each evaluation, and it ceases to be a motivation to perform better in their jobs. FURTHER READING: Find out more about how segmenting your email list can help you drive sales and increase customer engagement. You can easily detect who is producing and who isn't and weed out accordingly -- or at least know who requires some additional sales training. Just because they try doesn't mean they should get the bonus that those who actually produce results get. Your rewards should also be based on results and not simply the activity level of the employee. Tying your employees' compensation to the results they produce will help them focus on the company's bottom line. Often, employees focus entirely on the sale of items that give them the highest return for their time and don't really take into consideration the actual needs of the client.

By knowing what items are being ordered most often, restaurants adjust their menu accordingly to improve customer service. Our infrastructure is being hacked by foreign countries left and right. Being a senior citizen has its perks. What perks can you offer that won't cost you additional money, but will mean a lot to your employees? Then use what you learned and try another offer! When customers can use their loyalty program points to discount future purchases, you can bet they’re going to take advantage. If everyone is going after the same goal, they'll have a better chance -- and your company will have a better chance -- of succeeding. You'll still establish base pay levels, but it may be slightly lower and you will build into that base the annual or quarterly (or any other interval) bonuses, commissions, or other types of shared cash compensation. These types of plans not only compensate your employees for good work, but also help retain them.

You can also tie in long-term incentive compensation in the form of stock options and deferred compensation plans (more about stock options later in this article). So does that mean incentive compensation is the way to go? For this reason, more companies are moving toward more of a reward-based compensation style, social revenue also called Incentive Compensation. Incentive-based compensation is becoming much more common because of the increased emphasis on performance and competition for talent. You'll also lose the benefit of the team-building effects of incentive-based compensation. Setting up an incentive-based compensation program requires the same research into your industry as the base pay program. This type of compensation structure significantly helps motivate employees to perform well. Also keep in mind that this pay structure can evolve over time. Whether you're offering a straight basic salary structure or an incentive-based pay structure may make or break you in the eyes of top job candidates. If you keep on top of how much money comes in and goes out, you won't feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck. That makes it a very important part of your business planning and management process if you hope to hire (and keep) top employees.