ABOUT 12 years ago when I embarked on my marketing career with very few years of work experience I did not know that as a marketing professional I had the power to negotiate for my remuneration as well as working conditions.
In fact my first three jobs in sales representative and executive capacities were all exclusively commission based, the first company was a printing and advertising company which engaged me to be going out and bring in new business and customers.
If my memory serves me right, that company had placed me on 10 per cent commission on every new business either on the printing or advertising side.
The company provided nothing for me except for an identity card and a set of business cards, which I was to be giving to prospective customers every time I was in the field.
During that time I was being kept by an uncle in Lusaka’s Northmead area who happened to be an officer in the Zambia Airforce.
The company in question was situated in Woodlands area near State House.
You can imagine this is a distance of more than seven kilometres and I had to walk to the offices each day.
Funny enough on my first day of appointment, my manager then informed me that 08:30 hours was the official time to report for work.
Regardless of this, I was so determined to make an impression that within a week I was able to bring in two new clients for the printing business.
This determination was drawn from my realisation that in order for me to be able to earn a pay, I needed to work extra hard.
I also acknowledged the fact that I needed to acquire myself some experience in the job that I would use in future.
As a young man aged around 23 and 24 years old, I was not complaining of anything as I had no wife and children to worry about.
My second commission based sales job was at the nation’s biggest broadcaster where I was employed as a Sales Representative in the Commercial Department.
Even though the national broadcaster was only giving a 10 per cent commission that time, the top management had taken into account the many challenges that commission based sales people experience, namely transportation, office space and other motivating needs.
The organisation provided us with transport to and from work in form of a corporate bus which would pick up all employees from designated locations.
The organisation also ensured that, it secured us an office to enable us plan our work and even meet some of our clients.
Management also considered giving bonuses to deserving sales personnel during the certain periods and at the end of the year.
With these conditions in place, we were even more determined to earn our commissions to such an extent that we could even compete amongst ourselves.
I remember how some of my colleagues would boast of earning millions and making more money than the salaried workers, at the time.
This created a lot of animosity between the salaried workers and us such that they started instigating to management that some of the privileges, such as office space we enjoyed then be taken away from us as we were supposed to be in the field looking for new clients.
However, despite the money earned through commission, there was that feeling of insecurity, uncertainty, instability that came with this kind of job occupation.
For example there was a time that I wanted to borrow some money from my bank and the bank upon learning that I was not salaried refused to lend me the money.
There were also hard times in the business when some clients would halt their advertising expending especially during the end of the year and at the beginning of the year.
In such instances the commission based sales person would not even qualify for an advance in case of a serious hard ship.
Having given this account, it should now be clear that commission only based jobs can be difficult for those who aspire to get into such jobs.
What every employer should know is that commission only based jobs, are not meant for highly qualified and experienced marketers.
Commission only based jobs as someone puts it ‘are usually for the top salespeople, who’ve done their time in the trenches, and have learned and earned their way up the ladder. If you’re not used to sales or other forms of commission based work, the learning curve can be nothing less than brutal’.
This is what brings me to the remark that sales people are born.
The meaning being that you don’t need a Marketing diploma or a degree to make a good commission based sales person.
It is in fact exploitation and violation of a properly qualified marketing person to work on commission only basis.
In Marketing, commissions are normally considered to be incentives meant to encourage sales people to be more aggressive.
For comments write to dennis_sokondhlovu@yahoo.com