Herman School of Business
Spread the Joy
Whenever a deal closed it was Christmas morning all over again. Payday. The reason you get up and go to work. The validation for your efforts. The positive reinforcement in your project that says you are on the right track. How do you make the success of your business the business of everyone who works for you?
By having everyone share in the payday regardless of the type of business you run. Surely there needs to be a regular paycheck on an assigned day ever two weeks or once a month depending on how you run your business. But that is not enough. Make ever employee a “partner” in driving towards success by having a system that shares in the real payday your company has. Whether you sell retail, run a restaurant, or work on projects that have certain paydays upon completion, there is some method by which your company takes in money. If your business collects revenue every day then set a monthly base and on the first day of each month calculate where you are and create a “payday” based on a set of numbers that guarantees everyone receives some kind of check.
Even a “losing” month gets something for everyone, because revenue was collected. Getting the minimum gives them some “joy” but also the reality that it was only the minimum, and brings them into the reality that not every business owner is getting rich from their efforts. Now, when we collected a commission from every deal we gave splits to ever person in the company. Even the lowest paid employee was a “partner” on deal collection day. And they always wanted to know what the revenue number was, because their percentage was a set number and every payday was different. We paid those checks out within two days of a closing when we took in the revenue. When they saw a larger deal completed they were like “Richie Rich” on Christmas morning because their tree had more presents under it that day. And we kept a deal board with the top ten deals our company had ever closed. If a deal made the top ten board and pushed an old record deal off the chart, we added a percent or two into a pool split equally by all employees. This made every person aware of how much their effort could effect their income. Screw up a big deal and you lost a chance at a bonus. Take a marginal deal into the big board status and you made it a higher payday for everyone.
This worked for the last 22 years for me. People always knew where every deal was and what needed to be done to cash a check. It was a team win and required a team effort to hit a higher number. Did the information books look alright? Was the mailing crisp and out on time? Did that prospect info get to the right person working the deal? People cared about every aspect of a deal, because it was “their” deal too. There was no way I was solely responsible for all the revenue derived from my contacts, or my efforts alone. Knowing every person in the company was covering my back with their efforts, because they were empowered with an ability to affect their own paycheck, was very comforting.
At one year end gathering a receptionist bragged to all that her “bonus” money was helping her buy the Harley Davidson she always wanted. My knowing she handled every call like it was her personal responsibility, and hers alone to get that deal done right, made me happy she got the ride she dreamed of. When she fell off the bike and broke her hand I thought about changing the system, but she never missed a day of work, or a call to my knowledge.
- Posted: 10 November 2007
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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