Should Salary be in a Sales Job Ad

I've read, written, and rewritten thousands of job ads in my career. When clients ask for feedback on an ad, the number one place where I get the most resistance from clients is when it comes to including the salary in the job ad.

Let me paraphrase recent conversations with clients:

Client: Should you include the salary in your sales recruitment ad?
Ev: YES!

Client: Then my competition will know what I'm paying.
Ev: Your competition already knows. Competitors know competitors and people talk. Salespeople talk to other salespeople in the industry. Previous job seekers have told other job seekers. There are websites that give salary ranges for industry and markets. If competitors really want to know what you are paying your salespeople they can find out pretty easy. I've even had a manager that had no problems telling customers and prospects how much I made!

Client: Should I lie about the salary and put a high number in the ad?
Ev: No! Don't lie. You don't have to put every little nuance of the compensation package like all the various bonuses, incentives, and contests you do, but you should give a realistic number that the salesperson can hit if they do the work.

Client: If I put the salary in the ad I'll attract just those candidates that are looking for the money.
Ev: Depends on what the rest of the ad says. If you are paying a base of $100,000 and don't explain anything else about the job except cliches, you will get people that apply just for the money. If you qualify what they have to do to get that $100,000 (call on presidents, travel 40% of time, etc.), then you will discourage people that don't have the skills from applying.

Client: I don't talk about money with others so I'm not going to put it in.
Ev: I understand that some people are not inclined to talk about money because of where and how they were raised, or it hasn't been relevant to their job. Salespeople HAVE to talk about money with clients and prospects all the time. If YOU can't talk to them about money, how can you ask your salespeople to talk to their clients about money?

Client: Good salespeople don't care about money so much as opportunity and the challenge of closing the business.
Ev: Partially true. Opportunity needs to be there. The opportunity has to be in the form of two main things:
1. opportunity to make a ton more money than current/previous job
2. opportunity to advance into a sales manager role, or different role in the company that the salesperson covets.
There are some people that thrive on the challenge of selling a particular product/service in a particular market/industry, however all salespeople face the "challenge" of closing business so that is not a unique selling point unless the product or service you provide is so unique that the challenge of closing the business is an experience of its own. Selling old Formula One cars might be a good example. http://www.f1-sales.com/stock.htm

Client: If my salary is lower than what people are expecting they won't apply.
Ev: Better they know ahead of time and don't apply than get through the system and waste your time to turn down your offer at the end of the process.

Client: What I can afford to pay a salesperson won't attract the top talent.
Ev: I love this question. Good salespeople exist at all skill and income levels. It is more important to get a salesperson with the right sales skills, desire to be in sales, and commitment to being the best in sales, than it is to get someone who has made six figures in the past. Find me a person with the right desire and commitment and I can teach them selling skills. If their head isn't on straight about sales as a career, it doesn't matter how old or experienced they are in sales and they won't listen to what I'm trying to teach them. They will ultimately fail. I'd rather have a sales team made up of people that previously made $30k-$50k, had hunting and closing skills that were rough around the edges, and with a desire and commitment to succeed rather than a bunch of slicksters that grew comfortable with their money and forgot how to dig for new business.

Client: Yeah that is nice. I still can't afford to pay top talent.
Ev: I wasn't finished with my diatribe yet...
Make the base the smaller part of the compensation plan. Offer a higher commission rate than your competitors. Usually a radio salesperson lasts between 2-3 years at a station. The radio station group I sold for years ago was notorious for retaining top talent for 8-10 years or more. Why? They had good management and paid commissions 1-5% higher than the competition. That was reflected in customer loyalty as they had the comfort of always dealing with the same salesperson who understood their business.

Client: I only want people that have made six figures in the past.
Ev: Why? Is it really necessary to sell your product in your market (sometimes it is!)? What is more important, how much money they made in the past or what their skills and mental make up is? Either way, see the above answer.

Client: How much of base should I offer?
Ev: Generally salespeople want to know that there is some sort of base to cover mortgage, childcare, and maybe one more concern. If those bases are covered it is less distracting and the good salesperson can be excited about the unlimited potential. It obviously has to make sense for your level of business income as well.

Client: What about the commission rate?
Ev: General guidelines here. Start by looking at the industry norm. If your business can warrant it, increase it by a couple of percentage points. More importantly, DON'T place a cap on commissions. As the salesperson sells more the company should make more. Sliding commission scales are a bit dumb too because the penalize the salesperson for bringing in bigger deals (companies or management can be concerned that salespeople are making "too much" money). I've seen salespeople bring in million dollar deals, only to split it up into two deals because the commission rate on $500K was greater (15%) than $1M (12%). The company was concerned that they would have to write a $150K check on the $1M deal and that was "too much" to pay one person. That is stupid and a disincentive. In the example above the salesperson still got their $150K commission.

To summarize my advice for what to put in an ad would be:
1. list realistic first year earnings
2. specify a base
3. is it a commission, or draw
4. what are bonus plans based on (margin of deal, volume of deals, etc.)
5. costs the salesperson has to cover
6. in the case of straight commission how many months salary should they have in reserve
7. average sales cycle
8. who are they calling on (position titles)
9. how much competition in market
10. other benefits besides the traditional (health, life, etc.) like car allowance, or sports tickets, restaurant trade, anything else the sales person can see as adding to their income or subtracting from their personal expenses

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"