Page 83 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

business? Absolutely not. As I mentioned, the sales compensation plan depends
highly on the type of business you're in, and the stage of business you're at. I
hope the foregoing history illustrates this point and provides real-world
examples of plans and their respective impact.

Criteria to Evaluate a New Commission Plan

Evaluate a sales compensation design through the lens of three factors: Simple.
Aligned. Immediate.

Let me elaborate.

Simple: Salespeople should not need a spreadsheet to calculate their plan. If
too many variables are included, salespeople may become confused about
which behaviors will drive the largest commission check. They might throw
the plan aside and just go sell the way they know best. The opportunity to
drive the desired behavior through the compensation plan is lost. Keep the
plan simple. It should be extraordinarily clear which outcomes you are
rewarding.

Aligned: Look ahead to the next year and ask yourself, “What is the most
important goal the company needs to achieve? Customer count?
Profitability? Customer success? Market share? New product distribution?
New market penetration?” Then ask yourself, “How can the sales
compensation plan be aligned with this goal?” Do not underestimate the
power of the compensation plan. You can tweak sales training, redesign
marketing materials, attend customer conferences—you name it. Regardless
of these efforts, if the majority of your company's revenue is generated from
a sales team, properly aligning the sales compensation plan will be the most
impactful tool in your company's tool chest.

Immediate: When salespeople succeed, they should see that success reflected
in their paycheck immediately. When they fail, they should feel the pain in
their paycheck immediately. Any delay between good (or bad) behavior and
the related financial outcome will decrease the impact of the plan.

“Evaluate a sales compensation design through the lens of three factors:
Simple. Aligned. Immediate.”