Pegging sales people salaries to job grades retards career growth

They also agree that the staff are contractual; as such they shall not enjoy the “benefits” that come with being inside the pyramid, like a medical cover, leave days, pension scheme and staff loans.

The sales people are like animals in the wild who are not meant to mix with the domesticated ones in the protection of the pyramid.

Even their remuneration is unique — a retainer plus commissions. The retainer is just enough to get by; the magic of their income is in the commissions.

And magic it is. From a paltry retainer of say Sh15,000, it is demonstrated to them that they can build their commissions to hundreds of thousands of shillings.

“Your job is special. You determine your income. The sky is the limit,” heads of department who understand sales people expertly inflate their motivation like a balloon.

And so the sales people are released to the wild to go hunt and fend for themselves.

By and by, the normal distribution graph takes shape and the lions in the wild emerge. The most successful salesperson’s commissions rise unabatedly with every passing month until someone, possibly in human resource, starts questioning the huge payoffs.

Pay grade

“How do we pay him Sh300,000 in monthly commissions? And we are told this figure will keep rising. He is earning more than staff three times above his pay grade. We can’t keep paying him this amount.”

Yet when the salesperson was being recruited, it was clear he was outside the organisational chart. Now he is being victimised based on the very chart he isn’t a part of.

That aside, listen to the unsaid part of the basis of the victimisation: “It is because he is bringing in too much business”. Talk of shooting oneself in the foot.

It’s even worse when the salesperson starts earning in two years time what those “three grades above him” took fifteen years to earn.

And so the unsolicited domestication of this wild animal begins: “Let’s ‘promote’ him”. “Let’s bring him into the fold.. “Let’s give him a salary.”

“He must start reporting to work at 8am”. “His pay is causing animosity with senior managers. We should also increase the pay of other persons at the same level”.

And on and on. And all this because the structures of the organisation do not support the growth of the salesperson.

It’s almost as if to suggest that it works so long as the salesperson is earning amounts that are “acceptable” to the pay scale.

Desk job

Sadly, few people understand the sales profession and are able to nurture the salesperson’s growth.

Using the typical pyramidal organisational structure as the yardstick to the salesperson’s growth is an exercise in double standards. The sales job is comparatively unstructured relative to the desk job for which the pyramidal organogram was designed. Equating the two is comparing the domestic cat to a lion.

To support a sustainable sales culture, organisations must invite those complaining within the pyramid to step out of it and into the wild, and enjoy the benefits therein, instead of showing them they can have their cake and eat it too.

There must be someone within the pyramid with the business acumen and managerial strength to drive this message home in the interest of staff development and business growth.