Having 37+ years in media sales for 2 of the largest media companies as well as small market media companies, and a third of my career was in management, gives me insights about rep compensation both from the rep side and the management perspective

Money is just one motivator. Understand your rep’s personality profile (D.I.S.C). ”Do onto others as they want to have done.”

I’ve resigned from three rep positions over my career because of compensation. Not the amount, but the inequity in the comp plan that my employers acknowledged but wouldn’t address. Be sure your front-line sales managers are monitoring/reporting your reps comp satisfaction. The lifetime value of a productive sales rep is immense. The cost of recruiting, training, and on-boarding a new rep is staggering!

Begin by determining your compensation objective. Assuming you want to grow sales, what aspects do you want to accelerate?  Know the overall, and the media sales-specific, average income in your market(s) area. No OOH company can afford “cheap” salespeople. If someone is willing to work for small money, you must question why.

Often high-level management discussions revolve around “the cost of sale.” Consider the astonishing cost of “NO sale,” Too often the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil approach to comp costs a company dearly. Don’t be ambushed by the resignation of one of your productive reps. Anyone in your company can say “no” to comp inequities, only key decision makers can say “yes.”

I have earned a very good living being paid straight-commission. However, from a company standpoint, it is not the ideal model for the new world. The very best sales departments will have a diverse personality group which includes: Drivers, Expressives, Amiables, and Analyticals. (Because we think anyone that talks/acts as we do is brilliant, it is difficult for sales manager to branch out and hire/nurture all sales types.)

A more robust team requires a universal hybrid comp plan. Straight commission gives the salesperson permission to not sell. While it rewards productivity, it only appeals to a very limited sales personality type. It is also unstable because it tends to attract “hired guns.”

I was happy to read that over 2/3 of the respondents to the Billboard Insider poll this week use salary plus bonus plans for ooh sales reps. Imagine hiring a doctor and telling them they will only get paid when they get patients! We have to continue to elevate the “profession” of the OOH sales rep for the benefit of the reps and the OOH companies.

The salary-plus bonus model pays a livable salary plus a generous bonus for performance. It rewards the money-motivated reps accustomed to straight-commission AND the other types of reps. It is steeped in accountability. (Some companies use a token salary to avoid having straight commission salespeople categorized as independent contractors.  This is essentially straight commission.)

Essentially sales compensation is buying the company strategic advertiser contact/engagement.  Sales will follow. To know if employers are getting their full compensation value, they must track critical KPI‘s like cold calls, face-to-face meetings, data gathering meetings. and yes, sales.

Given the skill, tenacity, resourcefulness, and training required, rep-generated new business sales should pay 3 to 4 times what RFP/transactional sales pay. This must be truly “developed” business, not call-ins or a new account from a friendly agency.

Another essential area of compensation is ownership stake/stock options for tenured, high performing salespeople. It is critical to understand the amount of ownership is not the carrot rather that they have ownership. Ownership would be ended upon leaving the company however, it is a powerful retention/growth component.

If you’d like to collaborate on a modern, profitable sales compensation model for your team in 2024, please reach out to me at KevinJGephart@gmail.com

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