Mini Case: Getting the Best from Your Salesforce 

Safi manages a team of elite sales representatives at a mid-sized software company. Due to
technological changes, their main document management product has become largely
redundant. The old product helped companies manage complex libraries of data such as their
patents, the technical specifications of their products, and policy and procedure manuals. The
new content management product handles similar tasks, but with an important innovation: it
also helps companies manage the largest and most complex websites, websites that have many
authors contributing simultaneously. It even permits companies to tailor their websites to
different audiences on the basis of individuals’ browsing histories and their relationship to the
organization (customer, supplier, or partner). 
Since these software systems are complex and customized to each organization, it usually takes
7–9 months to close a deal—that is, from the first contact with the customer to the end, when
the system is installed and the client receives training. 
Safi has noticed that the sales reps aren’t really pushing the new product and sales are sluggish.
The sales reps get a small salary (about $22,000), but on average 65–85 percent of their total
income comes from commission. The old product has commission rates of 6 percent for new
sales and 15 percent for annual maintenance contract renewals. The new product has a
commission rate of 6 percent for new-product sales and 10 percent for annual maintenance
contract renewals. Renewals for both products are required for ongoing access to technical
support services and are therefore considered mandatory by the overwhelming majority
of their customer base. The existing customer base is quite large; it is possible to achieve the
minimum acceptable sales quota by selling only renewals in some territories. Achieving quota is
the single most important thing, and is what sales representatives receive public recognition for
at their quarterly sales meetings. New deals are considered much more prestigious than
contract renewals, but they are also more risky. The average new deal is worth anywhere from
$100,000 to $450,000, but such deals can take months to close and some fall through at the
last minute. Renewal prices are based on the value of the original contract and range from 5
percent of the original purchase price to 12 percent, depending on the level of service desired. 
Sales territories are reviewed and changed annually on the basis of the organization’s strategic
goals. For instance, in the previous year the CEO had decided that the federal government was
a key target client. This resulted in all federal sales leads being reassigned to a single
government sales specialist rather than being assigned based on geographic territory, as had
been done in the past. The geographic territories were sometimes reshuffled as well to reflect
changes in demand. Silicon Valley, for example, had been made its own territory two years
previously, much to the chagrin of the California sales rep. The Maritime provinces were
lumped with Quebec at the same time, creating one territory where there had previously been
two. 
Reviewing the sluggish sales, Safi began to wonder whether there was something wrong with
her compensation and recognition system. She knew she had an elite and capable team with a
proven track record. They had been thoroughly trained and coached, so the poor sales of the
new product probably had more to do with motivation than knowledge or ability. Looking over
the existing incentive package Safi decided that she needed to . . . 
Solutions:
As said on the very first sentence their main task is seemingly redundant or
repetitive due to technological changes. If employees are given a chance to switch things up
like for those who want to use the old ways or technology can use them and those who want
to stick with the new technology can still use it so it can motivate them to work harder or
motivate them, give them more knowledge and ability which can lead to the desired sales
rather than the expected sales that they are receiving which are clearly low.