A comment made by Marco Madero of Aon Hewitt at a recent regional meeting of the Sales Management Association really piqued my interest when he referenced some survey data that indicated only 15% of companies actually track Compensation Cost of Sales (CCOS). My preliminary research seemed to back that statement up and I thought it would be a great time to take a closer this very powerful metric and discuss some of the nuances to using this as a means of identifying key trends within your sales organization.
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Topics:
Sales Comp Plan Fundamentals,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Human Resources
The process of setting sales quota is a mission critical element of many sales compensation processes, those involved put in a lot of work and are very happy when its complete. Sales Incentive plans are so dependent on accurate targets that the following data and Best Practices should provide great fodder for reflection and hopefully plant the seeds for some process improvement efforts within your own company. Setting accurate sales quota is a process which is commonly identified as a leading issue that most struggle to do well.
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Topics:
Sales Comp Plan Fundamentals,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Human Resources,
Sales Quota
The time it takes from the close of a performance period to the payment of sales commissions one of the biggest factors that influence the strategic impact of your investment in sales commissions. We recommend that business leaders think about sales commissions the way they would a capital investment. How much is being invested and what benefits are is the business realizing.
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Topics:
Sales Comp Plan Fundamentals,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CTO,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Sales Professional,
ROI
Sales Incentive Compensation plans (does not include pure commission plans) by definition require the business to specify to the sales professionals the time period over which performance will be measured. In general, longer sales cycles typically result in longer Performance Periods; shorter sales cycles typically drive shorter Performance Periods. We came across some interesting observations and key drivers of typical SaaS Sales Cycles from an industry discussion group that we thought were worthy of passing along, especially for those involved in the design and administration of SaaS Sales Compensation Plans.
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Topics:
SaaS Sales Compensation,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Human Resources
The following is a 'Readers Digest' summary of a 2012 survey conducted by World@Work & ZS Associates on Sales Practices within the High Technology Industry. In the survey, 17 US based high tech companies (Computer hardware, software, networking gear, etc) with over 59,531 sales reps broken out across the following roles were surveyed;
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Topics:
Channel Commissions,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CTO,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Human Resources,
Sales Professional
Sales Incentive plans (as opposed to a commission plan) reward sales reps for goal attainment. Should you base the goals and performance measures you want your reps to work towards on Revenue or Gross Margin. There is no correct answer to this question, but careful consideration of three best practices should lead you in the right direction.
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Topics:
Gross Margin,
EVP/Sales Leader,
CFO/Finance Leader,
Sales Compensation Professional,
CEO,
Human Resources,
Sales Professional
