Sales Compensation Past, Present and Future Anyone who has “carried a bag” in a sales role over the past several decades will tell you that the world has changed. Selling in the past required an intimate knowledge of the company’s products and services and how to apply them, prospecting and closing skills, personal initiative and good verbal communications. In addition, to be successful, you needed to be able to get
Outsourcing Your Sales Compensation Part 2: Identifying the “Right” Partner to Implement an Outsourced Sales Compensation Program In part one of Outsourced Sales Compensation, we discussed the strategic nature of outsourcing the sales compensation program. The “right” sales compensation plan not only initiates and reinforces desired sales behaviour, but is integral in allowing the organization to reach or exceed annual sales goals. Further, when the sales organization maintains an inspirational
Creating the “Right” Environment In an effort to “align” salespeople to the goals and strategies of the company, many companies are developing sales compensation plans that are specific to the sales role and customer/territory situation that the individual is working in. This customized approach works particularly well within a framework that applies a common and consistent mix, target total compensation and measurement criteria relative to each role. In the framework
Strategic Initiatives are not for every organization or for every sales role. They work most effectively when used to ensure that not only do the sales get made, but also they are executed in a particular manner or focused on the appropriate customer. What are the pros for using Strategic Initiatives? Some of the positives for the use of Strategic Initiatives in a sales compensation plan are: Behavioral They support
Objectives-based or strategic performance measures in sales compensation attempt to balance the short-term delivery of financial results with longer-term sales growth and increased customer value. Strategic Initiatives (or M.B.O.’s as they were once known), if used properly, have both qualitative and quantitative expectations and outcomes. To determine whether they make sense for your sales organization requires an assessment of their rationale and the pros, cons and requirements necessary to implement
Outsourcing Your Sales Compensation Part 1: Outsourcing as a Cost Cutting Measure or Strategic Initiative? In recent years the practice of outsourcing administrative functions has become increasingly prevalent. In particular, transactional activities that do not add value to the core functions and critical competencies of the enterprise have been targeted for contracting out. Payroll, benefits administration, inventory management, freight and logistics are all tasks often done outside, rather than monopolizing the
The Sales Resource Group’s President, David Johnston, was published this week in Toronto-based HR publication, The HR Gazette. David Johnston’s latest article on sales compensation strategies is called Who Owns the Incentive Compensation Plan? and considers why so many incentive programs have failed to meet expectations, what are the root causes of lack of commitment and ownership by the executives, and how to create sales comp plans that will actually work. Here’s an
Sales Resource Group Founder David Johnston was recently the special guest on the popular SalesProChat podcast with host Bill Banham. Dave has a broad, international consulting background and offers experience, active participation and a Sales Resource Group approach to consulting with clients. David has over 25 years experience consulting for organizations in diverse fields, such as broadcast and print media, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, information technology, retail, manufacturing and financial services. The
In today’s competitive sales environment it is not sufficient to set a financial sales target and trust the salesperson to figure out how they are going to deliver it. Further, when this method is utilized across the sales force and all salespeople are left to deduce how to achieve their sales targets, they all interpret differently how to execute against the goals (most with honest intentions, but in the end,
