Sales Compensation Design and Management
Insights
Blog
How to Financially Protect and Motivate Your Sales Team During a Pandemic
- During an economic disruption, B2B organizations must decide how to protect their sales reps’ income
- When executed properly, changes made to sales rep compensation signal business stability and commitment to the sales team
- Sales operations leaders must balance company risk with employee security to ensure an even and sensible approach
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Sales Success Is Not About Hitting Quota
- A quota is only valid if it is aligned to company and employee success
- Many companies think success equals growth but could be doing much better
- Inaccurate quotas degrade their value as a motivator for sales reps
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Five Common Pitfalls of Sales Compensation Design
- Multiple powerful stakeholders with differing points of view can complicate sales compensation planning
- Late starts in planning thrust sales leaders into rush mode, causing issues with planning
- Align on strategic interests to unify stakeholders and improve communications
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The Five Elements of a Successful Sales Incentive Trip Program
- The sales incentive trip is an important piece of the total sales compensation program
- When designed and deployed appropriately, incentive trips can drive additional performance
- Organizations should consider five critical elements when designing and managing a sales incentive trip
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Seven Sales Operations Trends for 2019
- SiriusDecisions has identified seven trends that should drive the priorities of sales operations leaders in 2019
- Artificial intelligence is increasing sales’ effectiveness and efficiency
- Sales and marketing are finally eliminating the artificial barriers between them
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It’s That Time of Year Again! Introducing the “SiriusDecisions’ Comprehensive Guide to Sales Compensation”
- Sales compensation programs start with a strong foundation of corporate goals and objectives, go-to-market architecture, a plan and guiding principles
- Ensure sales roles, pay components and total targeted compensation link back to the program’s foundation
- Use an annual or semi-annual health check to stay focused on the sales experience and the effectiveness of the program
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No Caps! Making Sales and Finance Happy With Compensation Authorizations
- Schedules of authorizations document the decisions required to administer sales compensation programs and delegate decisionmaking authority
- Having sales leaders self-govern certain compensation events (e.g. large payouts) and sales operations validate account crediting increases sales’ credibility with finance
- Including an approval step at very high achievement levels mitigates the need for compensation plan caps and permits sales reps to continue on the path to high earnings
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Sales Compensation: Should We Use Splits or Team Quotas?
- Use sales compensation splits when sellers’ individual contributions are identifiable and measurable
- Team quotas are appropriate when selling is a true team effort and sellers’ contributions are largely indistinguishable
- Let account coverage models and buyer purchasing behaviors dictate compensation policy
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Why Sales Compensation Management Systems Are Critical
- Sales compensation management technology (SCM) is a critical component for sales operations leaders and sales compensation managers
- SCM solutions make sales compensation plan design, creation, administration and assessment more efficient
- B2B organizations spend an average of 20 to 25 percent of their annual revenue on sales salaries and commissions
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What Sales Operations Needs to Know About ASC 606 (IFRS 15)
- FASB ASC 606 in the U.S. and IFRS 15 internationally are new accounting rules that primarily change the way companies account for SaaS-based revenue streams
- ASC 606 and IFRS 15 will not affect compensation plan design, but they will change the way that finance and accounting accrue commissions expenses
- Sales operations and other compensation plan designers should understand these basic accounting rule changes so they’ll understand the effect on commissions expenses
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The Sales Compensation Management SiriusView
- Sales compensation management solutions alleviate the burden of manually creating and administrating compensation plans
- Some solutions extend incentive compensation into a broader set of sales performance management capabilities
- Number and location of payees, number of plans and plan complexity (both current and projected) must factor into vendor selection
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Here’s Why You Should Never Cap a Sales Compensation Plan
- Never cap “at-risk” compensation plans
- Decelerators after certain attainment levels and fairly written windfall clauses are better ways to ensure compensation plan equity
- Performance recognition gaps result in talent flight