CHAPTER 7

The Big Divide Between Marketing and Sales

And How It Will Affect You in Sales?

This chapter discusses the practice that has become a divide between marketing, sales management, and sales team members. In past decades, this was practiced to engender respect for “upper and middle management.” Unfortunately, this practice went on far too long. We should also cover at length on the way salespeople should be treated and respected.

Why Sales and Marketing Don’t Get Along?

Sales and marketing teams pursue a common objective, create customer value, and drive company growth and results. But sales and marketing don’t always get along. Some tension between sales and marketing is healthy and productive, but when they pull in different directions, the productivity decreases rapidly.

The Divide, Unfortunately, Remains Today

When a sales person is elevated to sales management to lead a team, the new sales manager goes through several changes. First, the feeling of importance hits them, then the sense of responsibility of the job, and, finally, “I now have to manage people that I know well and in some cases are friends.” This is only one of the many scenarios that management faces when attempting to close the gap between management and sales members.

When I say a divide or gap between sales staff and marketing/sales management, for example, what am I saying?

For decades, there existed a love–hate relationship between marketing and sales. In the end, the game is to make sales profitably. Both departments must work together to create contact with a customer that needs a product or service. The strained relationship is not imaginary, but a real and tangible problem. Some would say it is better that the two departments work separately, but, in the end, both departments must reach the goal. “Smarketing” companies see a 27 percent faster profit growth and win 38 percent more deals if the relationship works harmoniously.

For example, a new marketing manager starts with the company and wishes to make his or her mark on the business. In doing so, there are casualties on the way, and an inevitable loss of communications begins.

According to the Aberdeen Group, an information technology research and analysis firm, organizations with optimized relationships between marketing and sales teams grow revenue up to 32 percent faster if marketing and sales work together well.

Perceived General Issues Seen Between Marketing and Sales

The following issues are a combination of problems that occur if marketing and sales are working in opposition rather than in sync.

• Sales funnel meetings are generally not combined and separated.
• Qualifying needs should be left to sales and marketing to help with sales progress.
• Passing on customer product trends is rare and not routinely practiced.
• Sales passing on new product development to marketing for R&D work.
• Common mapping of sales budget goals.
• How marketing can make it easier for information dissemination to the customer.
• Create a clear line of sales and marketing responsibility (identify a list of responsibilities).
• Marketing and sales not meeting to review what’s on next.

Putting some or all of these issues together discloses a “screaming divide” between both departments. In some companies I have worked for, the divide has been enormous. The common reason behind this divide is predominantly power and personalities.

The Divide Grows Larger, or Can It Be Closed?

The gap between sales management and salespeople is worth the effort to consolidate.

An MBA (master of business administration), unfortunately, does not make you a leader of salespeople. The divide remains until the leader is prepared to do what he or she wishes the sales team to do. This is called leadership by example. Many leaders will not and do not endorse this leadership philosophy as they may feel it brings them down to the salesperson level. Many managers resist this proposal, but sales staff often say the boss is too far removed to be approached for help.

The time factor plays a critical role as many sales leaders are responsible for more than 10 sales staff, perhaps stretched over several states. They may desire to be better leaders but find it hard to find the time to practice their management skills. A management course may help with this important issue; however, if the course is a top-down or a dictatorial style course, the new sales manager will be indoctrinated before he or she hits the desk.

Many sales staff will have the following mixed relationship with their sales manager

• Respected and highly looked up to by all sales team members
• Positive and respectful relationship with all team members
• Not liked but respected for their ability
• Admired and respected, has complete confidence in the sales team
• Considered insufficiently skilled to coach or teach the sales team
• Considered a liar and watched carefully by sales team
• Considered a manager who dodges the opportunity to pitch in and help the sales team
• Never available and considered a waste of time
• Always looked up to as a great mentor

These are just a few of the more common attitudes of sales team members toward their direct leader. The leader who develops honest respect, is a good and supportive coach, and is always willing to stand up for his team members, no matter what, will be ahead on points. The leader that deliberately places a divide between the team and him or herself will eventually lose team support. I call this leader

JUST A FOOL!

What Do We Need to Improve the Gap between Marketing and Sales Departments?

A good example of cohesion between marketing and sales shows a clear delineation understood by both departments “at all levels.” Having an understanding of who does what and where the lines cross is imperative, and you will find plenty of great examples of cooperation and productive cohesion between the two departments.

• Leave your ego at home

  Leaving the ego at the door suggests that personal agendas can creep into the misalignment. When you have one department that wants a bigger voice and control over decisions, getting the two to work together is near impossible. When companies spend between 30 and 40 percent of revenue to run both departments, you would expect cooperation. It takes a strong company director to turn this ego competition around.

  I held a sales position when I witnessed the great divide between sales and marketing and the egos at play. The current managing director either thought it was healthy to let this play out or was ignorant to the destructive dynamics. In the end it was partly responsible for the company not reaching plan for many years.

• The customer has been forgotten

  Caught up in this divide, the customer, ultimately, is not consulted regarding his or her current needs. This, in turn, drives marketing in the wrong product direction; not having up-to-date product/customer needs are ignoring the intention of the two departments.

• Reason for the rift: One of these things is not like the other

  For those that are not fully in the know, such as a new sales person, marketing and sales could be seen as the same division. This leads to the dangerous notion that a great marketing team can possibly render a sales team redundant or vice versa. In this situation, each of the departments may have the misguided attitude of superiority over the other. In this instance, big egos control what is a struggling sales and marketing operation.

Where Does This Leave You as the Salesperson caught up in the mess

If you are experiencing the sales–marketing disconnects, the best thing to do is stay out of the argument. However, if you are convinced that the last sale you lost and had nursed for months was affected by a lack of marketing input, speak to your sales leader and voice your opinion loudly.

Don’t take the rap for losing a great sale if you were let down by another group of people. When a big sale is lost because a department has not contributed as they should, you have a right to call out the people responsible. I would suggest an e-mail to all marketing and sales leadership members pointing out the deficiency of lackluster help that you believe lost the business. Sometimes, it is better to stand up and be counted.

Disconnect with Your Sales manager and How to Fix It

When I say “a disconnect” with your sales manager, I refer primarily to loss of respect. We can also say a loss of ability to communicate, in general, a resistance to asking for assistance, and a wondering how you can turn this situation around between you and your sales manager.

Example: A colleague of mine called me yesterday and said, “I have now lost respect for my sales manager.” She left a large global company 12 months ago with the promise of advancement from clinical sales to marketing. In her new position, she has, over the 12 months, shown incredible sales results and has proven herself outstandingly. A new marketing position was advertised, and she was encouraged to apply for the new position, which she did; she interviewed several times and made a short-list marketing presentation.

Yesterday, she was informed that an outside person was chosen for the position, whom she knows well and has little respect for. Crippled and disillusioned, she called me for advice on what to do next. This scenario will apply to all people in selling some time during the course of a working career. She is completely disappointed as her manager encouraged her and said the company wanted to appoint from within and that she was the strongest contender.

Yes, there could be a lot more behind the scenes, but this scenario plays out every day, and sales managers have to manage the disappointed salesperson back on the road to being productive. The problem here is that making statements such as “you are the strongest internal contender for the position” is setting yourself up, as a sales manager, to lose your top salesperson.

When we review why there is a disconnect between salespeople and sales management, I must refer you back to chapters dealing with lies and deception. All salespeople may take a dislike to their sales manager; however, just because you don’t like the way they comb their hair, that should not impair the positive working relationship that must be maintained. If, however, your trust, respect, or unhappiness in how you are treated affects your working relationship, then I believe the breakdown is inevitable. Salespeople are very quick to assess a person quickly, and first impressions of their boss can make or break the new job.

So if one looks at this example as a divide between leadership and sales team members, then we still have a long way to go. It seems that if mistakes are made by the leaders, we never pass on the lessons learned, and they should be logged and saved in the “great mistakes cloud in the sky.”

Why do we continue to make mistakes given that history has taught us otherwise?¹

Some Helpful Hints on How to Get along with Your Sales manager.

Please note: If you have to work on many of the following ideas, then perhaps a weekly consult with your coach is in order.

• Be on time and be early too.
• Be willing to help your manager with things they need quickly.
• Document opportunities and keep them realistic and up to date.
• Always be happy if they want to work in the field with you, and embrace the assistance.
• Encourage your boss to meet your customers.
• If advice comes your way, accept it, and make the effort to alter behavior.
• Always be honest and open with your ideas and thoughts.
• Show you are dedicated to getting the sales.
• Show you are keen to further education.
• Keep your paperwork such as expenses completed and sent on time.
• If you aspire for advancement, consult your sales manager.
• Always ask for their opinion.
• Endeavor to be on sales budget plan.
• Always be coming up with solutions to better sales results.
• Don’t take unnecessary days off for illness.

Many more items can be added to this list, but these are what sales managers appreciate from a good sales team member. They look for dedication, honesty, and hard work along with achievement. The remainder just falls into place.

Performance Reviews in Short

At your performance review, if your manager is an honest person, he or she will express happiness over certain things and mention anything not going to plan. This review is a time for you to consolidate the working relationship between you and your sales manager. For performance reviews, you are generally given a prereview personal assessment sheet for your self-performance and your bosses’ performance and support. This gives you a perfect opportunity to say what you need and raise any issues between you and your manager. Often, this is documented and you’re given a personal copy. Think carefully about raising any derogatory issues before they go on paper, even to the point of scaling back the harshness of the comment. Always express views positively.

Sales managers just want a happy and performing team and dislike disharmony and poor sales, as this is a direct reflection of their management skills. A tiff or two is normal, but when a team member becomes averse to their manager in the team, disharmony prevails further.

Conflict Resolution in the Sales Team

How Common Is Conflict in a Sales Team?

When do conflicts in a sales team relationship influence sales team performance, and what is the underlying process by which this occurs? Although there is burgeoning interest in sales research at the team level, very few empirical studies have shed light on sales team dynamics such as conflict and how they impact sales team performance. When conflict occurs in the team, the sales team destruction dynamic starts and generally witnesses members either leaving or taking sides.

My personal observation is that unmanaged sales team conflict causes declining sales along with general individual disharmony and aggravation. The worst disharmony will cause outright arguments and fighting.

What Are the Top Six Sources of Conflict in a Sales Team?

• Commission/bonus paid
• Sales budgets
• Cross-territory boundary encroachment without notice
• Overreaching our responsibility
• Difficult team member not performing his or her job
• Personal dislike between team members, and jealousy

Of the preceding six sources of conflict, which is healthy conflict and destructive conflict, the most difficult to deal with is jealousy and personal dislike, a problem that exists in many sales teams everywhere. Causes of discontent are typically routine, and all can be rectified by a good manager.

Personal Dislike between Sales Team Members Is One of the Common Problems We See

Personality clashes happen eventually in a new sales team. When you put together a group of Type A personalities and ask them to get along in a competitive arena, some issues will arise. Dislike between two or more members (especially if it is in a small team) could be happening without the knowledge of other team members. Eventually, you will see this as they snipe at each other or disagree without cause. If it is left to fester over several months, reversing the dislike between the warring members is nearly impossible. The sales manager must immediately practice appropriate management skills in conflict resolution.

I prefer to knock the issue on its head immediately by getting the two parties off-site to thrash it out together on their own. Future interactions must be monitored, and if the warring continues, you will have to intervene as soon as possible. Letting conflict fester is a monumental mistake. Sometimes, just getting both warring parties together will sort the issue out. It is up to the two parties to be adultlike and willing to work on the problem together.

An amicable working relationship, and, ideally friendly team relationship, and individual team cooperation is vital for the sales members overall successful result. Sometimes, it is better to swallow your pride and push on. Making a friend of your enemy is a good move.

If All Else Fails

From the leader’s point of view, before handing over to HR, try one more meeting with the two warring parties and appealing to their better judgment. Explain that there are casualties in these situations and that both of them could lose their jobs. Also explain that you will not tolerate the destructive behavior any further. Seek a final agreement between the two parties that they will endeavor to settle their differences, and let them know the company will not tolerate any further disruption.

Would You Be Open to External Counseling or Mediation?

If, after this final attempt, the opportunity is not taken up and the behavior still continues with the other party, perhaps some outside counseling would be helpful.

When there is conflict in the team, you will see the following behavior.

• A team member who sits back and avoids putting in, one who says yes but never delivers, or who says, “The order is coming” but it never arrives
• A team member who is constantly leaving home late to work and who is always sick and looking for excuses
• A team member who always talks up what he or she does but doesn’t have much to show, always sucks up to the boss, and who makes excuses all the time
• A sales person with a lack of appointments for the coming weeks and a team member who shows a constant dislike for another sales member and causes disruption

These are just a few signs to look out for. If you have a sales colleague who displays at least two of these traits, the team has a problem to fix. Very little is written or studied on this topic. A study of worth is the following by Provo UT in 2016, which pointed more toward speaking up in general².

In a study of 1,025 people, Provo found that an astounding 72 percent of respondents reported instances when they or others failed to speak up effectively when a peer did not pull his or her weight. Sixty-eight percent reported a failure to address disrespect, while 57 percent let peers slide when they skirted important workplace processes. According to the data, the majority of the workforce is guilty of similar conversation failures.

Our research respondents estimate their avoidance costs their organizations an average of $7,500 per conversation in lost time and resources.

The Final Word on Personal Conflict in the Sales Team

If you are caught up in conflict within your team, either through politics or maybe something you said, step back for the good of the team and yourself.

Simple Steps You Can Take to Settle Conflict

• Step back with no political involvement whatsoever.
• Do not get involved in the blame game.
• Avoid your sales manager’s attempts to get you involved in the argument.
• Remain unbiased in regard to the two warring parties.
• Try not to let the disruption affect your abilities and sales results.
• Try counseling if needed, your company may offer this service.
• Resist the invitation to be involved in mediation unless you are personally involved.

Your best position is to remain anonymous and impartial. This may be difficult, but, believe me, getting involved in sales team arguments and disputes is destructive and may drag you into an indefensible position, with consequences for your career. Take care of your Me brand first!

Conflict over Compensation Payments

This is often seen as one of the most contentious issues in sales team conflict.

You have an impression or understanding of what you are about to earn as commissions/bonus each quarter or year. You have worked this out according to the job description of the company sales commission scheme payments document (that’s if you understand the workings). You then receive the payment, and it is totally different from your expectations.

You may get this cold feeling of “have I made a grave mistake, or have I been taken for a ride?” You think about this for a moment or two, and then call a sales colleague to see how they went. Depending on their response, you start either to panic or decide to confront your sales manager. Often, this panic is compounded if you have ordered a new car or a family holiday based on your own predicted commission payment calculations.

There may be issues here of deceptive communication.

The First Thing to Do

• Review your commission pay policy and calculation method; ask for a new copy.
• Keep your own sales results to double-check on.
• Stay cool and do not jump the gun on this problem, but sleep on it.
• Conduct a sales review and apply the calculation method again; do this several times.
• Confirm the results on paper, and put them into a memo to your sales manager if they are incorrect.
• Set up a time with your sales manager to discuss your grievances and take evidence.
• If you are wrong, don’t make the same mistake twice.
• If, however, the company is wrong, smile and keep an eye on the future payments.

If there is a genuine mistake, some companies tell you that the payment will be in the next commission payment time frame. Do not accept this, as the delay may not be legal and the tax will be built into the next payment.

However, if, for instance, you find out your company has tried to dupe you and avoid payments that are rightfully yours, then you have only a few choices available:

• Hold the line on what you believe is right; don’t give up.
• Document everything in writing, and set up a file of documentation.
• Make sure you keep your original commission scheme offer document.
• Give the company the opportunity to explain their actions and how they will make good the right payment.
• If you feel there is no contrition and you are unable to work for such people then your pride and integrity are paramount, and working for a deceitful company in this situation would be intolerable. Companies that do this to salespeople will do it again and again.

What If I Don’t Understand the Commission System and How It Works?

I myself worked for a global company that paid commission each quarter and yearly. This was fine, but no sales team member could explain how it worked. When various leaders in the company were asked to explain the calculation method, even the CEO didn’t seem to understand. The only leader in the company who could explain the method of calculation was the national sales manager, and only after numerous challenges for him or her to explain. In the end, this ambiguous commission scheme continued, and no one knew how the payments were calculated. Later on, when I interviewed this leader for the research study, I pressed him to explain this to me; he maintains that there was no intent to deceive but acknowledged it was hard to calculate.

In this case, the scheme could have been simplified and explained to the sales team members to engender more trust in the organization.

What Are the Normal Compensation Schemes on Offer?

As you would imagine, there are numerous styles of compensation plans being offered in the corporate sales industry. The principle of compensation offers is to compensate you for working long hours and weekends and for sales excellence over and above that.

Most compensation plans begin with incentive payments for reaching 90 percent of sales and then escalate to 100 percent, with further payments for being over sales budget. The point where percentage compensation is paid under 100 percent of the plan differs from company to company. Some may pay 2 percent of overall sales made or a higher percentage. The idea here is to encourage you to drive sales but compensate you for just getting there and the effort put in. Note that many sales people get close to the sales plan and get upset if they don’t receive some compensation. This is the reason for recognition. In addition, payments under full budget are intended to recognize effort under difficult market conditions and I personally support this option.

Commission Paid for Overbudget Sales

The majority of companies provide a payment system that is simple and easy to calculate. Paying a percentage over sales budget either once per year or four times per annum is normal. For example, if your quarterly sales plan is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of sales and you reach 100 percent of sales and you are being offered say 1.25 percent for reaching budget, your compensation payment over sales budget for the year that you should earn is $2,750, or a quarterly amount of $937.50.³

In other compensation plans, paying only sales over sales budget, the scenario is vastly different. If you are offered 1.25 percent of “sales over plan” and you sell $50,000 over your quarterly budget, you are due $625.00 for the quarter less tax.

Other companies get a little more complicated with dicing up different products and giving more for new product emphasis and promoting lines for a year or a marketing period. These compensation plans are complicated and difficult to audit from the salesperson’s point of view.

Ongoing criticisms of overly complicating the payment system are usually leveled directly at the national sales manager for altruistic reasons. Very few companies go out to intentionally confuse their sales reps but come up with such ridiculous systems that you need to be an accountant to work out the end result.

The alternative question is this: Do compensation schemes motivate salespeople to work harder? In my opinion, no. Many salespeople I have talked with about their particular sales commission schemes say:

• Not generally interested.
• If I get commission, it is a bonus I don’t expect.
• I have no interest in the commission payments; never think of it.
• I generally forget it and let the end of the quarter surprise me.
• I breathe every day for a great commission payment.
• I plan my purchases and holidays around my commission.
• If I miss out on commission, I am devastated.

I myself always forgot about the commission payments for one reason: They distract you away from the real game—selling.

In the end, a commission or bonus is what we call a “BONUS” meaning the sugar on the cake. Don’t let yourself be engrossed in day to day thought about earning commission payment if you are on a good package.

Operational Budgeting Defined

For you to argue that your sales budget is a “big stretch,” it is best to know how budgets are formed first. Budgeting is part of the management control process by which managers ensure that resources are obtained and used efficiently and effectively in the accomplishment of the organization’s objectives. There are several kinds of budgets, and while specific terminology may vary from company to company, budgets generally fall into one of three categories.

1. Capital budgets: These budgets portray the corporation’s planned and approved capital expenditures for periods of one to 10 years.
2. Financial budgets: Such budgets typically project cash flow statements, balance sheets, debt, and statements of sources and use of funds.
3. Operational budgets: These usually consist of projected income statements and a series of supporting statements—such as budgeted sales, budgeted production (in detail), budgeted cost of goods sold, budgeted selling expenses, budgeted general and administrative expenses, and, finally, budget for overall sales.

The process often points out conflicts between top management’s objectives and the realities of the company’s sales capabilities. Through budgeting, management can both identify resources that will be necessary to achieve objectives and learn how those resources must be applied. If present resources cannot meet planned objectives, the process of operational budgeting may bring about an examination of the financial implications of additional asset procurement (capital budgeting).⁴

Companies practice a top-down or bottom-up approach for sales budgeting. The top-down approach is like fitting the sales projections into the number that management needs to operate the business.

Top-down budgeting is a budgeting method in which senior management develops a high-level budget for the company. Once the top-level numbers are created, amounts are allocated to individual functions or departments that must create a detailed budget with their set financial allocation.

Bottom-up budgeting is a type of budgeting that attempts to determine the underlying costs for each individual department or segment of an organization and then total up each department’s costs. This type of budgeting works in contrast to top-down budgeting. Which is right and what method is workable for the sales team? There is no right system, and I have worked under both. For the sales team, understanding your funnel potential for the next sales period and forecast reality is imperative for next year’s sales. My preference as an ex-company director is a mix of both.

Some companies ask you prior to finalizing next year’s sales budgets to conduct a business driver review around September or April and present your individual sales plans. This exercise is often conducted during this budgeting period. The reason why management does this is to test you. They want to see if you know your territory and funnel, to forecast next year’s sales growth, including your assessment of the market needs. They will be watching over forecasting too. If you are requested to present your next year’s business driver forecasts, please consider showing the following items:

• Brief overall summary to begin with, including customer base.
• Introduce your funnel management outcome.
• Break down the number of units to achieve next year’s budget.
• Break down the dollars to be forecasted that should meet the unit plan.
• List by region where this growth of sales will come from.
• List promotional growth and its origin of sales.
• List marketing needs to achieve this growth and overall forecast, even down to costs.
• List your overall operating cost less your salary/commission.
• List additional marketing support needed.
• Summarize and close with an optimistic power view.

The key to a business driver is to keep the presentation simple. Avoid any details, but have them ready on the side if needed. Do not overbudget or show unrealistic numbers in sales or territory costs. Ask if the plan is within the management’s projections. These numbers should match your CRM opportunities; if not, you are in trouble and not matching the forecast funnel.

Figure 7.1 Personal territory budget cycle

In Simple Terms, This Is Your Five-Step Guide

I fully support this process. It brings you, the sales individual, back to your area’s basics and makes you treat your area as if it is your own business. Remember, if you are a top sales performer, you will find yourself under high expectations. It is important to show right from the start of the presentation that you are following a logical funnel process.

If, for any reason, you forecast a more positive sales plan coupled with your future funnel outlook, management may alter and increase your sales budget accordingly.

What to Do If the Company Sets an Impossible Sales Budget That Causes Conflict?

Companies that do not involve their sales staff in budget forecasting are shortsighted. Returning from Christmas holidays and being given your forthcoming year’s sales forecast without any contribution is nothing short of disgraceful management. The act of asking salespeople to achieve a specific sales target without any consultation is arrogant and lacking in any form of team spirit.

How to Prevent Excessive Sales Budgets Set against Your Agreement!

Follow your sales funnel religiously every day and know the details well. Constantly consult your sales manager regarding progress of sales through the year. Ask to submit your forecast sales budget, if not asked.

Submit your sales plan around the final quarter accounting for funnel forecasting, and, finally, request to contribute to all things in your territory. Take ownership.

Setting your future sales plan based on the above logic makes it is hard for the company to refuse or deviate.

Cross-Territory Boundary Encroachment without Notice—How to Prevent Conflict

Nothing gets us more upset than knowing the manager or another sales team member is encroaching on our territory, without notice. Hearing this third hand is even more concerning, as when a close customer reports a representative from your company was in the other day.

Companies also conduct customer surveys with your customers through a third-party research company engaged by management. This form of customer feedback is good, but the account manager must know this is going on within their territory.

Cross-territory selling is common in retail as the market is open to peruse your sales. We see that the latest turf war is between major retailers and Internet sales, where it is different in our industry. We are allocated a specific area to represent. Alternatively, in pharmaceutical sales, again it is somewhat convoluted, with doctors prescribing in different practices and different areas, including hospitals. Considering this, where do we draw the line in the sand?

To Prevent Conflict between Team Members over Territorial Boundaries, Consider the Following Suggestions

Know your area and its boundaries and teammates’ areas well. Have a clear understanding of territory crossover policy with your sales manager, and if there are identified sales crossed over, have your sales manager identify for budget and commission payments. Ensure you see all orders in your area to document crossover issues, and structure clear agreements with close sales team members regarding boundaries.⁵

Overreaching Your Responsibilities

Being caught up in the day-to-day sales excitement, we sometimes take liberties when offering inducements to secure an order. Call this overconfidence or bravado, but this behavior often puts one outside the operational policies of the company. When I was a national sales manager, I made it very clear to the team: “no surprises.”

Some of the rules to follow.

• No entertainment without prior notice to your manager
• Coffee is at the salesperson’s discretion
• No additional discount below your approved discount scale level
• No additional customer training without management approval
• No days off without management approval
• No samples given out unless authorized beyond your scale.

Overreaching your salesperson limits is viewed from sales managers, that you are running your own business and bypassing the rules. Don’t do this; it is an insult to your manager and can lead to a situation of being reported or sanctioned.

 

¹ PM Posted by Stacy Bouchard ug 26, 2015 1:00:00 PM/Like many sales people, we feel and see a divide between management and salespeople. This paper brings clarity to the issue.

² Provo, UT—December 6, 2016.

³ Sales Commission Structures: Which Model Is Best for Reps? A good review of several different commission structures to look at for ideas and employment reference. The Disadvantages of Percentage-Based Sales Commission Plans/Arthur Luke Arthur. Are these commission issues causing you to lose reps/Kendra Lee Oct 2014.

⁴ Sales Budget: Definition & Examples—by Robert S. 02/14/2018—A great guide for setting up a basic sales budget from the beginning; I highly recommend this training.

⁵ Sales Territory Alignment: An Overlooked ... a worthwhile look at this very perplexing problem in sales.