Vangelis Sakelliou

Designing a Sales Compensation Plan; How to create an effective incentives program for your sales force Vangelis Sakelliou

Sales compensation plans are at the heart of sales management. When designed well, an incentives scheme becomes a tool that can be used to manage, nurture, motivate, and guide a sales team. When the scheme works correctly, it helps the sales team to thrive. An effective plan has a dual role: To align the sales activity to the company's objectives and to motivate sales people to perform or even go beyond reaching their targets. Sales is built around objectives. Nothing is left to chance - there are always objectives and targets to be met. These targets give salespeople a clear path to follow. They ensure that each salesperson knows their objectives, and can form a strategy for success. The incentives scheme lets salespeople know what reward they can expect if they reach their targets. It's a motivator - that's its core function. A sales compensation program cannot be designed in a minute. It takes time, resources and skills to make it efficient. Sales management understands that the consequences of a scheme designed improperly are negative and may lead to unfortunate circumstances. This book is helping design teams and sales management to avoid making these mistakes and trying to help them design a system that is effective from the beginning. Many people overlook that the design process involves many different decisions, from considering the sales roles that shall be rewarded and the employees eligible to get incentives for their job and successes to the decision on the target cash compensation for a role, how much of it shall be in variable and how much in fixed salary. The process requires an examination on whether to use a commission or a bonus scheme and why. It also needs to determine what type of goals shall the scheme incentivise and what is the weight for each measure. The book also includes vital information on additional aspects of the program that some people forget to consider such as its administration, operation and communication to the sales force.