ABC’s goal is certainly ambitious. Other contractors that have tried to get their salespeople to generate their own leads have met mostly with inaction, no matter how generous the incentive. Windowizards offers 25% of the profit from any job salespeople bring in themselves, “but that doesn’t add up to much [business],” says VP and sales manager Jay Felkoff. The same holds true at St. Clair Corp., despite the fact that the company pays its sellers 5% to 10% of sales from self-generated leads, says sales manager Joe Valenti.
That doesn’t mean contractors have stopped trying to motivate their salespeople in this direction. Budget Exteriors, in Minnesota, recently started a program that pays its salespeople half again the commissions, up to $500, on all closings that derive from add-ons, referrals, or canvassing, says sales manager Jeff Beck.
Invincible Associates in Florida offers its sellers a $100 bonus for each self-generated lead, which Jason Avery, director of sales and marketing, notes is really a $150 bonus because the seller doesn’t have to pay the $50 lead fee to the company’s telemarketer.
To counter the “do-not-call” restrictions that limit the effectiveness of conventional telemarketing, Gilkey Window Co. in Cincinnati recently hired a consultant to devise a program to reward self-generated leads. “Right now, we’re just paying a kicker of 1% to 2%,” says VP of sales Kevin Hillebrand. His company is looking at a bolder scheme that would reward salespeople when their own leads translate into 20% of their sales.
Wayne Winn, who owns Hometown Restyling in Hiawatha, Iowa, says incentives may be pointless for veteran salespeople who simply balk when asked to find new customers. “You can’t get old dogs to do new things; they’ll just bark.” Besides, Winn adds, chasing down new leads isn’t what his salespeople excel at. “I’d rather have them in the customer’s house, pitching jobs.”