Although titles can range widely - national accounts, strategic accounts, global accounts, key accounts - many organizations designate a sales role specifically for handling the sales and account management of their most critical customers. And because of the important nature of the customer relationships assigned to these employees, effectively rewarding and retaining them becomes a top priority.
Colletti & Fiss published a recent short about rewarding and retaining strategic account sellers, drawing from the results of their recent Report on SAM (Strategic Account Manager) Compensation Practices. And while I discourage over-reliance on benchmarking in sales compensation design, I found their profile of a typical annual compensation plan for these important sales roles to be interesting and worth highlighting here.
As discussed in an earlier post here, evidence suggests that organizations are increasingly looking at the addition of a long-term element to sales compensation plans. Given the role that key account sellers play in managing the most critical customer accounts, retention takes on particular importance for these employees. With this in mind, the Colletti & Fiss short also goes on to discuss long-term incentives for the strategic account role, providing helpful design tips and advice - click through to read in full.
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