Friday is movie day here at NetCommissions - Check out this must see video on the psychology of behavior & reinforcement. What do some of these insights mean for Sales Compensation ?

Interestingly, my take away from the video is that the two paradigms presented at the beginiing are more complimentary than one might think at first blush.

Many of the Sales Methodologies & Best Practices that are being embraced by Best-in-Class sales organizations emphasize process standardization and the use of data driven, fact based decision making tools as a critical element of successful sales execution (read: Profitable Revenue Growth). While these are certainly not meant to stymie creative thinking, they do tend to exert a force that would suggest a significant 'mechanical' element to the management of Sales Performance and thus, I would not expect the role for sales incentives, commissions, etc. to disappear any time soon.

Perhaps the 'best-of-the-best' are those organizations that are able to strike a good balance between the two, logical & creative, elements of our brain. The best sales professionals I've had the pleasure of working with all had tremendous skills related to autonomy, mastery & purpose, they also seemed to like getting paid for their contributions as well.  

 What do you think?

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