"It's the BASE SALARY, Stupid" - 04/21/21 Edition
Stephen Says Column
Dear Stephen,
I’m trying to hire a new sales person and it seems impossible. Don’t worry – I’m not afraid to hire a recruiter, in fact we did. I’m just not able to close anyone. Even unemployed people are saying “no.”
We’re a medium-size manufacturer with a premium, high-end seating and table line. Great furniture, great designs. It’s unique because we’re liked by the A&D community as well as the design firms, and we seemed to be priced just right. I’m the VP of sales, I make the hiring decisions, and we have several openings around the country.
We have people working here that continuously make in the mid-six figure range total compensation, and we have people that have been here a long time. I can’t think of anything negative – we have low turnover, competitive benefits, we encourage people to spend T&E money, cities are opening up and, of course, many have never closed. Even our showroom in the New York Design Center has a waiting list for appointments for people to come in and social distance. In some parts of the country, like in Texas, Georgia and the Southeast, we’ve never closed.
I’m proud to say that I don’t have any of those lazy salespeople who are continuously posting our product on LinkedIn to showcase it instead of making a socially distant sales call. (At corporate, we do very elaborate social media and viral marketing, so I don’t need my sales people in each region to duplicate it. They should be out in front of the customers!). Both through recruiters and on our own we’ve identified candidates and put them through our standard HR process and have not been able to get a “yes.” It’s not just about a counter offer, like I said, even unemployed people have turned us down. I’ve asked for some feedback because our program is very incentive driven with no cap and people keep telling me that the base salary is too low. I don’t get it? I thought that was a sales person’s dream come true – an incentive driven no cap program. Am I missing something?
Signed,
What I Thought Was A Dream Has Become A Nightmare
Dear Dreamer,
You’ve already answered the question yourself. I’ll adapt an old line from Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign; “It’s the economy, stupid!” and turn it into “It’s the base salary, stupid.”
To get a highly qualified candidate to take a job – ANY job – sales, operations, design, you need to start with an attractive, higher than usual, base salary. Candidates have just been through a life changing year. We all have. Taking a new job is a scary prospect right now, even if you’re unemployed. At The Viscusi Group we survey candidates constantly to determine their hot buttons for them to change jobs. In the top three is a higher than average base salary. The other two are a great boss and a great company. If you want to know the order you’ll need to call me personally.
Half of the battle for human resource departments across the country is to get positions filled. It’s easy to identify quality individuals, the hard part is getting them to a “yes.” It’s not even about a back-and-forth negotiation, in my opinion, it’s all about offering the most generous base salary from the start. A candidate is NOT a used car. Do not make them feel like they need to negotiate with you to prove themselves.
Candidates tell us in our research they’d rather have a lower incentive potential than a no-cap or incentive driven program. Everyone today feels uncertain about the future. How will the vaccine impact this new surge in business for everyone? Will there be inflation? Frankly, if salaries go up, it looks like there will be. But that’s what candidates demand.
In our recruiting practice we see the home furnishings sector on fire. We’re now finally seeing the contract recruitment up by 50%, in contract: dealers and manufacturers alike.
I’m sure that your company is a great place to work. I love your spirit and enthusiasm and that there is a low turnover. But times have changed, you have to put your money where your mouth is and make it a better place to work by offering better than average base salaries. And if you really want to close the deal you can go one extra step which is offer an extra enticement of a sign-on bonus. It’s not as hard to get someone to “yes” as you think, it just costs more.
Stephen
You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: StephenSays@bellow.press
Questions selected to be answered, will appear in this column. Please use the Subject: Stephen Says for all emails. Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters located in New York. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenviscusi; Like Stephen on Facebook and follow him on LinkedIn.
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