The right company to join is always a conundrum when it comes to choosing the next step in your sales career. When it comes to selling I.T., there’s no question that RIGHT NOW is the best time to be a skilled sales professional. Stop thinking about it. Just do it. If you are thinking about it, get in the game. You can do it. I did!

Where I live in British Columbia, Canada…there have been articles recently in many local publications that there’s something like a 9,000 Information Technology worker shortage.

Having said that, if you are a sales addict, as I’m I, you’d be crazy to sign up for anything less than a leveraged compensation plan.

What I mean by this is as follows: Let’s say that the company you join gives you a two million dollar quota (not uncommon in many tier one and tier two vendors). The sad thing about this kind of comp. plan is that you get the usual (and bloody boring) 1% on the first $500k and 2% the next $500k, etc., ad nauseam).

These compensation plans are for the “typical” organizations with established brand recognition where the sales force is predominantly taking orders. That is NOT SELLING!!!!!!!

Simply put, a leveraged compensation plan will provide you with a MUCH HIGHER COMMISSION RATE on anything that you sell…to the point where every deal you sell is WELL WORTH THE effort. I’m talking about 10% or better on deals. That’s where you want to be when you’re really good at selling software.

True selling…true prospecting is causing people who are NOT thinking about changing to begin thinking about changing…with your company’s solution(s).

Anyway, back to my original point. If you KNOW HOW TO SELL, you are in the very rare position of being able to command a compensation package that is highly leveraged.

In other words, it is a compensation package that exceeds the usual comp. details that I have laid out above and instead provides for much juicier pay rates/ commission rates on your new sales.

If you learn even some of the stuff that I talk about in New Economy Selling you should be able to command a significantly more leveraged (IE higher commissions) on the sales that you eventually DO make.

The reason for this is simple. In this new world of Web 2.0, it is no longer about the technology, because competitors are springing up all over the place, but rather, how well you are able to bring a prospective customer to vision with YOUR S O L U T I O N ! ! ! !

This is the key to deciding which company to join. If they don’t have a highly leveraged compensation plan, consider this a red flag and move on. Most of the big companies in Canada are still stuck in this archaic mind set.

I really believe when it comes to I.T. companies that “small is the new big”.

If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. I have worked with over 200 I.T. companies globally and been employed with many I.T. organizations in that last decade in sales, sales management, sales training, sales management coaching, executive direction, marketing and compensation plan development.