Sales reps are expected to help cover in the store with operations when short handed and make deliveries and pickups - both of which are requested often and extremely time consuming. I don’t mind doing this from time to time to contribute to the team, but having expected to do it the entire time we are short handed, the time spent compounds quickly. All the while we need to execute and work around these asks around our daily and weekly sales duties. This last year, sales reps were asked to demand more rate, which we exceeded and brought the company record profits. Awesome! What do we get in our September review? A new commission plan structure! Oh this will be good. Because we are so busy and the cost of trucking is so high, they raised the bar for sales reps’ commission rate achievement so they make less if they don’t ask for more rate a SECOND time! It feels like they needed to trim some fat and where better to do that than sales reps’ commissions. Who else in the company gets a pay cut for doing what they’re asked to do? Along with territory cuts and accounts being taken for strategic reps, these sort of plays make sales reps feel neither valued or safe in their roles.
