In the boss's view, there is certainly room for employee improvement. Of course, this requires some external forces to drive, such as assessment pressure, incentive measures, and so on. During the new product launch phase, to encourage employees to sell more new products, the simplest way is to offer higher commission bonuses for new products, such as one point for old products and two points for new ones. Logically, employees should be more interested in actively selling new products. But the actual effect is not that good; employees do not show much interest in new products, and those who used to sell old products still sell old products. Why is this the case? Don't employees want to earn more money? Although the boss will follow up, employees often reply with objective factors such as high product prices, low brand awareness, customers not wanting them, and poor market conditions. Are these reasons really what employees say? The real situation is often like this:

  1. When hearing that the new product has a higher commission, the employee's first reaction is often: This product must be hard to sell; if it were easy, the boss wouldn't be so foolish.
  2. They compare with other companies' commission rates for new products. Of course, the comparison will show some higher and some lower, but employees will definitely compare to the higher ones and think the commission for this new product is actually not high.
  3. Since the boss can offer such a high commission, it means the profit margin for this product is large, meaning the boss earns more. Some employees feel unbalanced, thinking the boss takes the lion's share and they only get a small fraction. They become unhappy and simply refuse to sell, so no one earns.
  4. How exactly to sell? This is a technical issue, including specific sales methods, sales scripts, sales strategies, potential problems, and how to face and solve them. These all require prior training and rehearsal. But some bosses only announce the reward standards without corresponding technical guidance, leading to employees losing confidence in selling new products due to lack of skills or being hit by customers.
  5. Has anyone actually received the bonus for this new product? How much did they get? Without a benchmark as proof, who knows whether the new product can be sold and how much the bonus will be.
  6. There may be grudges with the boss, and employees subjectively resist everything the boss promotes. It could be that the boss unintentionally offended employees before, or the boss has integrity issues. Employees don't trust the boss, or even resent him. In this case, how can employees have the heart to help the boss sell new products?
  7. The relationship between new and old products: In some salespeople's view, selling new products is troublesome and requires a lot of talking, while selling old products is easier. After all, grassroots salespeople prefer simplicity. Moreover, rather than spending energy on new products with uncertain results, it's better to sell more old products, as the final income won't be greatly affected.
  8. Perhaps the reason salespeople are not interested in the bonus for new products is that their personal income no longer comes from product sales but from other aspects, such as embezzling expenses, forging receipts, intercepting promotional resources, or even carrying their own goods. This is more dangerous. At this stage, the bonus given by the boss cannot arouse employees' interest. The author comes from a private business background, having managed a family-owned distribution company for many years, and has also served as a business manager and trainer in several manufacturing companies. His research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend setup, and the integration of retired military personnel into private enterprises. He has continuously broken down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and maintains collection of materials and updates of solutions. -END-