Future Tech Changes Rules Of Sales Rep Compensation Game

There is no more powerful weapon in winning business than a sales rep that is willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy a client.

Those kind of sales reps build long-term relationships that transcend business boundaries with the potential to swing millions of dollars in business when they make a job change. And, of course, they are more often than not paid handsomely for their ability to deliver on those relationships.

It is that high-regard for relationship-oriented, sales reps that has made Future Tech Enterprise a perennial VAR 500 national power that has experienced an astronomical 2,100 percent compound sales growth rate over the last seven years.

But that fast growth isn't enough for Future Tech founder and CEO Bob Venero, who has come up with a unique creative sales rep compensation plan to drive the next wave of Future Tech's growth.

At the heart of the plan is a move to recruit the best and brightest sales reps from competitors across the country and hire them as independent sales agents with a promise to more than double what has traditionally been a 15-25 percent gross profit sales commission to as much as 60 percent of gross profit.

The independent sales agent status is aimed at attracting those superstar sales reps that bring millions of dollars in business with them when they move to a new company.

The creative sales rep compensation plan represents a no-holds barred offensive by the Holbrook, N. Y. solution provider superpower to grow its market share by leaps and bounds.

Venero's ambitious aim is to recruit as many as 36 sales reps in the top markets from competitors over the next year. If successful, the high-stakes gambit could in relatively short order bring tens of millions of dollars in new business to Future Tech.

Venero, a former Everything Channel VAR Business VAR of the Year award winner for Business Ingenuity, calls the new compensation plan a "critical game changer" for his company, which has hosted both HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd, Dell founder Chairman and CEO Michael Dell and political luminaries such as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The independent agent model being pioneered by Venero has the potential to reshape the intensely competitive IT sales landscape by effectively treating sales reps as business owners and rewarding them for the deep and long-lasting business relationships they have cultivated over the years.

"It's about the relationship and people getting what they deserve for bringing those relationships to us," says Venero. "There is no cap to what sales reps can make with this model. What I am doing is giving these sales reps the financial benefits of running their own business without all the overhead and the headaches of receivables and payables."

The creative compensation plan isn't the first time that Venero has broken the mold to go after new business. In the midst of the Far East outsourcing phenomenon, Future Tech started InSource America to provide a U.S. outsourcing group that provides a better value.

The Future Tech plan comes with many solution provider sales reps finding that their current employers are having a hard time financing deals.

"What we are seeing is a lot of our VAR competitors are not able to support their customers from a financing perspective because they can't float the paper (bank financing),' said Venero.

That's a problem that FutureTech has not faced because of its $500 million plus credit facility. Besides FutureTech's financial strength, sales reps that have signed on with the company are finding more solutions muscle to draw on to satisfy clients from help desk/call center to IT staffing to building unique custom, modula,r secure data centers.

Venero, for his part, says sales reps coming on board with Future Tech are finding more tools they can use to help their customers be successful. He says sales reps that were merely focused on a single product or solution set are finding a wealth of new sales opportunities. He compares Future Tech to the SnapOn Tool Truck that rolls up with thousands of tools for a mechanic to choose from to get the job done. "Now you can handle any job," he says of the reps that are coming on board.

NEXT: A Sales Rep Sounds Off On The Future Tech Model

One sales rep that recently made the move to Future Tech says he has seen his earnings increase by about 40 percent as a result of the new compensation model, combined with the bigger and better IT portfolio that Future Tech brings to the table.

The rep says simply that he would not have made the move to Future Tech without its superior solutions muscle. "I wouldn't have made the move if not for that," he says. "Equal is not better. I am giving my customers better products and service than before."

That better service and the Future Tech credo to do whatever it takes under any circumstances is what keeps IT executives coming back to Future Tech even when they switch jobs.

Marc Hamer, vice president of Information Technology North America for Thermo Fisher Scientific, a $10 billion sciences giant with 30,000 employees, says he has worked with Future Tech for 12 years at three different multibillion dollar companies. He calls Future Tech simply the best company he has ever worked with among hundreds and hundreds of vendors and suppliers over the years. "There is no question about that," he says confidently. "I feel comfortable with everything and anything I do with Future Tech. Working with Future Tech is like having an additional organization working for you rather than just supporting you. They are not just taking orders. They are proactive like a high-quality employee."

Hamer says the Future Tech sales reps that service his account have "can-do attitude" of Future Tech CEO Venero. "You can train people all you want," he said. "I know Bob is not going to hire people that don't have that 'can do' attitude. When you pick up the phone you know there is going to be a dial-tone. When you engage with Future Tech you know the job is going to get done."

That's just what FutureTech did when Hamer was working at Northrup Grumman Information Technology and was grappling with Hurricane fallout in the form of severe flooding at a Florida information technology facility. Future Tech sprung into action on a Friday and had the business up and running for Monday morning, said Hamer.

If that is not enough, Hamer says many IT companies look for higher fees citing "not in statement of work" and "service level agreement" clauses when problems arise or disaster strikes. Not Future Tech. "I've never had Future Tech say that to me in 12 years," said Hamer. "They are very unique in that they do whatever it takes to get the job done. There are not many vendors and suppliers that say they are going to do something and then do exactly that or in most cases surpass it. That is Future Tech."

Hamer says he views business relationships like the one he has cultivated with Future Tech and Venero as key to his success. "It's all about the people that work for me and the people I deal with on a day-to-day basis whether it is internal employees or external suppliers," he said. "A lot of companies only focus on that when things are not going well."

Venero is convinced that the sales reps he brings on board with the new creative compensation plan will have that same appreciation that he has for business relationships and reward them for those relationships.

"There are so many companies with convoluted comp plans that don't really allow for individual sales rep growth," says Venero. "Our comp plan is based on taking away all the constraints of a typical company structure that holds people back. Our philosophy is a company is only as good as the people that make up that company."