IT Sales Salaries: Balancing the Compensation Mix

If you’re thinking about employing a sales person for your IT business, you might be wondering how their salary should relate to your IT sales strategies. It is vital for your business that the sales person’s salary/incentive ratio is right. Otherwise, you'll end up with the wrong sales tactics being used with your prospects. IT sales salaries seriously affect the behaviors of your sales force.

Base Salary vs. Commission with IT Sales Salaries

If you’re going to provide consulting services where you ultimately become a virtual CIO for companies that you service, then you’ll need to balance the compensation mix for your new salesperson carefully.

For instance, you might think that you're better off employing someone with a low base salary, but with high incentives to attain short-term sales goals. What this does in practice is attracts an aggressive salesperson who thinks that you want them to obtain sales by whatever means possible.

Finding the Right Balance for Long-Term Goals

This isn’t the type of sales mentality that you need for your type of business. Therefore, that type of salesperson is likely to do more harm than good to your business.

You want a salesperson who is experienced both in sales and technology, plus has the skills to help you grow your business and develop your customer base. This means paying a good base salary for that person to feel that this is their role. You’ll want their base salary to make up around 60% of the total package that you’re offering.

A good incentive level with IT sales salaries is generally somewhere between 20%-40%. I would set it right in the middle of that range, so that enough of the money on the table is “at risk,” dependent on targets being met. This will motivate your new hire to do a good job, but is a high enough level of remuneration to make that person feel comfortable that you have confidence in their being able to do the job and achieve their reward.

Do you find balancing the compensation mix tricky when trying to determine IT sales salaries? Share your experiences with us in the Comments section.

And to follow-through on the tips introduced in this short article, be sure to download your free copy of the special report on 7 IT Sales Secrets for Attracting High-Lifetime-Value Clients.

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