Podcast — AoS #3: Data Analtyics and Flat Salary Compensation, the Nordic Way
Magnus explains some major lessons of his 15 years in call centers, including data tracking, team management and no bonuses.
Published in
5 min readSep 25, 2017
This podcast is an excellent listen for anyone who:
- Wants to understand the nordic approach to customer happiness.
- Has ever pondered the benefits of introducing a flat salary compensation (no bonuses) into their sales teams, as well as what effects that might have.
- Wonders how much contact center sales has changed over the past 15 years.
- Likes to nerd-out about data analytics.
In this episode of The Art of Sales Podcast, we chat with Magnus Slørdal, CEO at Headshed AS, about contact center management, flat salary for sales reps and building customer trust the Nordic way.
(1:07) You’ve worked as a sales rep, sales coach, marketing coordinator, manager, and entrepreneur across a variety of small and medium companies. How has sales changed for you in each of these different roles?
- Sales as a discipline hasn’t changed much. The tools are different but the art is mostly the same.
(2:18) When you worked as a sales coach, what did a normal day look like? What tools or strategy did you use to get the job done?
- Data is still the key to influencing outcomes.
- Understand how your teams performed and what is driving or influencing those behaviors, then provide coaching or guidance as needed.
- Magnus’ approach to reassigning sales agents regularly to keep things fresh and to understand which people work best with which tasks.
- Key to retaining employees is variation. “They need to feel that they are properly challenged.”
- Clearly setting expectations and providing the right tools is the key to coaching.
(6:51) How important is goal setting and performance tracking for employees?
- You must know where you need to go before you start going, so setting goals is critical.
- We have a lot more possibilities for automation now for calculating performance scores and such, so there is less use of spreadsheets and whiteboards and more use of analytical tools.
- It’s necessary to run new sales competitions and come up with new ideas for motivating teams.
(14:28) How effective are competitions in getting a salesforce to focus on a specific task?
- If you understand who is competing and what motivates them, competitions can be very effective.
- You must have a direct goal and a clearly defined reward that motivates the sales agents. If you do this, you can achieve good results.
- The goal should be to engage not just the top performers, but the whole organization.
(17:46) What is your view on bonuses, compensation, and rewards? What works best in motivating a salesforce and why?
- Money is not the most effective… people want purpose and meaning.
- Money is not a long-term motivator.
- Magnus ran teams that removed money incentive and instead went with flat salary… the results were surprising. Decreased level of conflict, better sharing of customers/campaigns and better overall teamwork.
(21:57) Discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of flat salary for sales reps with no additional bonus incentive.
- Perhaps you attract less top sales people/#1’s, but sometimes these people attract more conflict in the organization anyway.
- Customer satisfaction perhaps says more than closing deals anyway.
- How to determine who is giving 100% effort and who is not is difficult and as a result, a flat salary makes everyone feel equal.
- Magnus believes that this results in entire teams of core performers, rather than so much of a mixed result.
- You have people who are more focused on customer and less focused on money as a result of flat salary scheme.
- Many top salespeople just jump from one organization to the next in search of higher bonuses anyway; Magnus suggests that by using flat salary, you are less likely to have high turnover as a result of hiring these type of commission-based salespeople and instead you will have better longevity and better overall performance in your workforce.
(29:40) What kind of success has Magnus seen with this flat salary approach to sales compensation?
- Consort AS has gone from 2 employees in 2010 to almost 100 in 2017, with a doubling of annual revenue year-over-year for the last six years.
- They have brought in many of the top Nordic customers with this approach.
- “What our customers get with this model is trust, because they know there is no incentive for the sales reps to make shortcuts or treat the customer in an unfair way.” They get the same pay regardless and therefore are more focused on creating value for the customer.
(33:49) In a recent blog you wrote about Fintech for the Future, you wrote that “the role of software in business is to help customers become more efficient and reduce irrelevant noise, thus helping them (sales teams) sell more” — can you explain a bit more about this?
- Software should make it evident which customers are most interested in hearing about your product and which are not, allowing you to only focus on those who would like to hear from you.
- Highly targeted calling of 100 people is much better than randomized calling of 1,000 people.
- If you can save sales agents from making so many unnecessary calls, you can save contact centers money and place less burden on people with unsolicited calls.
(38:30) Closing round
- What motivates Magnus in life.
- The importance of continuous learning in personal and professional development.
- The future of contact center management, in terms of efficiency and productivity.
- What Magnus wishes he knew about sales a decade ago.
- The most important lesson contact center managers can learn from this podcast.
To learn more about sales motivation software, visit our website or request a demo today!
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