Cut Holiday Advertising, Pay Salespeople More

Two years ago, we abandoned our direct-mail campaign for the holiday season. I reallocated that budget to employee spiffs in addition to regular commission.

I'd done some basic analyzing and realized this simple concept: If I spent the same amount on employee spiffs and customer rebates that I would have spent on an expensive direct mail campaign, the cost would be directly attached to sales with no risky, expensive advertising costs. And if the spiff plan didn't work, there would be no cost to me.

We began experimenting with this strategy two years ago. It turned out to be a tremendous success.

​I happily spent way more on spiffs than I'd originally intended. Of course, that meant my sales were way higher than expected, too. It was very motivating for employees—a real home run for everybody.