Compensation Force

Using Long-Term Incentives to Retain Top Sales Performers

As the economy turns, attention is shifting - more seriously now - to employee retention.  This is particularly true for top sales people, a group that is in demand through good times and bad but who may be particularly vulnerable to poaching in the coming months.

Knowing this, retention tips for top sales people increasing feature the suggestion to add a longer term element to their compensation package.  A few recent examples are worth sharing here:

A recent Alert on sales force retention "Are Your Sales Stars Ready to Bolt?" by Buck Consultants advocates using stock to recognize and retain star sales performers.

...if you’re in a position to use stock to reward performance, you should consider making restricted stock grants with continued employment vesting requirements to top performers. These grants will further distinguish your stars from other sales reps and will also efficiently raise the individual’s cost of voluntarily going elsewhere.

In their April Short "How to Use Compensation to Retain Top Sales Talent", Colletti-Fiss recommend adding a longer term cash element to boost retention.

Another way to make it obvious to top performing sales reps that staying with the company is financially worthwhile is to reward consistent long term performance. Three or five year long term incentive plans that provide the opportunity to earn a significant amount of incentive pay for compounded performance can be a powerful retention device. It is not unusual for top performing sales reps to earn an additional 25% to 50% of their three (or five) year incentive earnings at the end of the plan period for consistent performance achievement.

Have you considered adding a longer-term component to your sales compensation program ... or do you have one in place already?  Would love to hear about your thoughts and experience!

Sales & Collaboration... or Wherefore, Whyfore Team-Based Sales Incentives

Is there a place for team-based incentives in your sales compensation plan? 

Some pointers and thoughts on the question in my post today at the Compensation Cafe.

Check it out!

Social Entrepreneurship & Navigating Nonprofit Sales Incentives

The age of social entrepreneurship, where the lines between traditional business and charitable ventures start to blur, has brought some interesting challenges to compensation design.  One particular challenge is that of appropriately rewarding the growing crop of sales roles in these organizations.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I have the priviledge of working with a number of nonprofit organizations who are working hard to become more creative, more entrepreneurial and more self-sustaining.  Attracting, retaining and rewarding sales and business development talent is a key piece of this new paradigm - but charitable businesses face some unique obstacles and considerations in designing effective and appropriate sales incentives.

I invite you to click over to my post at the Compensation Cafe today, where I explore this topic, offer some ideas and turn to my readers for reaction and discussion.

Thanks!

The State of the Sales Comp Plan Review

How often do companies revise their sales compensation plans, and why? Did the recession make 2009 an unprecedented year in the volume of sales compensation revisions?

These and other questions are answered in new sales compensation research released earlier this month by WorldatWork.  The research reflects the responses of 977 WorldatWork members on behalf of their employers.

Notable findings of the research include the following.

A majority of organizations report revising their sales compensation plans on an annual basis in recent years.  The annual sales compensation review does not appear to be solely a 2008/2009 phenomenon; in fact, it is a pattern that dates back at least to 2005, as the table below shows (note that the research was apparently not conducted in 2007):

(In fact, there is a noticeable decrease in proportion of revisions over the four study years - a finding that the research authors and advisors see as a result of significant changes being made in response to strategy shifts occurring during the upturn in the middle of the decade.)

Improving alignment between sales incentive pay and business strategy is - far and above the most cited reason for sales compensation plan revision, particularly in the past two years.

 

The reasons tied for #3 above were the biggest gainers from the 2008 to the 2009 research results, jumping up 13% and 10% respectively, demonstrating that tough economic times have led companies to heighten the emphasis placed on sales profitability and winning new business.

All in all, very interesting research. 

 

 

Sales Compensation Forecast: Optimism Tempered with a Sharp Focus on Performance

Better times ahead, sales-wise?  A newly released Watson Wyatt survey on sales force compensation and management suggests cautious optimism for the 2010 sales outlook, but also reveals plans for a sharpened focus on performance and productivity in the coming year.

From the Watson Wyatt survey results:

Cautious optimism is in play...

A large majority (83 percent) of respondents expect at least modest growth in fiscal 2010.

More than half (51 percent) expect to increase next year’s fiscal goals/quotas.

... But 2010 is looking to bring a sharp emphasis on improving sales performance ...

Six in 10 companies list sales force productivity/efficiency as the most significant human capital issue currently facing their sales forces.

Other main concerns cited include sales force quota/goal setting (48 percent), coaching/development (40 percent), training (39 percent), and morale and motivation (35 percent).

While responding companies are confident in the current alignment between sales performance and sales compensation ...

79 percent report their top performers earn the highest levels of sales compensation, indicating a strong link between pay and performance.

... Many are planning changes to sales compensation plans in the coming year ...

Companies expect to change performance measures (60 percent), performance measurement weightings (50 percent) and incentive formulas/mechanics (49 percent) in the next fiscal year.

All signs pointing to an interesting year ahead for sales compensation!

Sales Commission Calculation - Just the Basics, Ma'am

Like many of you, my fourth quarter included a lot of sales compensation design, review and revision.  Given the business environment and the forecasting difficulties that many organizations are facing, some are still working - even now - to get sales incentive plans nailed down in final form.  With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to dedicate a post to the basics of sales commission calculation.

No, don't run away yet - I promise you it is clear, straightforward and relatively painless.

At its heart, sales commission calculation rests on a simple formula:

(Target Incentive Amount/Target Volume) x 100 = Commission Rate

Target incentive amount represents the amount of incentive (commission) that the sales person should receive if they achieve target sales volume.  Target sales volume (which may also be expressed as a quota) is the sales production goal for the sales person, in revenue dollars, gross margin dollars, units sold - whatever metric is determined to best fit the sales job's focus and responsibilities. (Note that I am leaving the design questions aside here - although they are clearly critical - in order to focus solely on commission calculation.)

Let's say that a particular sales job has a target incentive amount of $40,000 and a target volume of $2,000,000.  In other words, we have set a target or quota of $2,000,000 for the position, and we intend to pay $40,000 in commissions if the sales person achieves that target.  The commission rate necessary to accomplish our objectives is calculated by applying our simple formula, as illustrated below.

($40,000/$2,000,000) x 100 = 2% Commission Rate

That's it.  What you have in this 2% is a classic flat commission rate, which pays out at the same rate for every sale. On its own, a solid approach for many sales jobs.  There are also multi-stepped commission rates, progressive or accelerated rates in order to provide greater upside for outstanding performance, regressive or decelerated rates in order to "tamp down" earnings beyond a certain point (typically an alternative to any kind of "cap") - even "matrixed" commission rates as a way of addressing competing sales objectives.  The list is probably endless.

But I thought this basic formula might be a good place to begin, and to help my HR colleagues start gaining a solid footing in the sales incentive arena.  Happy calculating all!

Image: Creative Commons Photo "Studying till the Sun Goes Down" by Jekert Gwapo

It's That "Tweaking the Sales Compensation Plan" Time of Year!

There's a lot of sales compensation plan activity in my world this time of year - whether it be finalizing a new plan design for a client or helping them identify and make adjustments to the existing plan.  And this year, our economic crisis has driven a heightened sense of urgency into this already challenging annual exersize.

"Tweaking" any compensation plan is inherent with dangers, and this is particularly true for sales compensation plan.  Here to help, Jerry Colletti and Mary Fiss of Colletti-Fiss LLC, in the newest edition of their sales compensation "short", point out five common design flaws that too often occur as a result of tweaking sales compensation formulas and provide us with suggestions on how to avoid each one.

Potential Flaw #1 – Incentive rates based on "optics"

"Optics" refers to adopting the practices of competitors or other internal divisions because it looks good, for example, adopting a 10% commission rate because that's what others do. One potential problem this approach causes is commission costs that are too high or not aligned with the desired target total cash compensation. It's best to avoid this practice. The way to do so is to: 1) set an incentive comp target by job; and, 2) link rates to the incentive comp for performance in the job and business plan – particularly if it's a commission rate.

Potential Flaw #2 – Too many payout "modifiers".

This practice is rooted in the belief that "...if you don't pay them, they won't do it..." The consequence, of course, is too many measures or modifiers on measures in the plan. This flaw can be avoided by limiting the number of measures to three including modifiers. Also, other performance management tools – merit pay, performance appraisal, contests, and recognition, wisely used, can serve as more effective alternatives.

Potential Flaw #3 – Performance range "too-high; too low".

When the performance range is set too high – meaning the range from threshold to excellence -- too few sales people gain entry into the plan; and, even fewer benefit from the over- achievement (OA) or leverage opportunity. A performance range that is set too low means just the opposite, that is, too many sales people not only gain entry into plan payout but also those who do exceed quota benefit from over- achievement pay without true overachievement performance. To avoid either case, the best approach to take is to complete thorough historic performance and cost modeling exercises to validate the right performance range anchors (threshold; excellence) associated with plan cost.

Potential Flaw #4 – Rate change(s) disconnected from where selling makes a difference.

This flaw is often the result of management's desire to use multiple points of acceleration in the incentive payout line. Of course, those points of acceleration result in incrementally higher incentive costs; thus, it is critical to confirm that accelerated rates are a factor in moving sales performance to the next level. One way to address this design challenge is to: a) identify the highest performing sales people; b) identify the point of sales performance between (a) and the next highest performers (i.e., cluster) and, finally, (c) "test" or model the cost consequence of putting an acceleration point in between.

Potential Flaw #5 – Misuse of advance design techniques.

This flaw is the result of using formula design techniques – linkages, matrices, multipliers – that may be either inappropriate or unneeded relative to the desired selling behavior and performance. Too often we see formula designs used – complex ones in particular – that do not solve the sales performance problem. The most common is to use multipliers or accelerated rates to mask overly aggressive sales quotas. Because complex formulas often add to sales force confusion about incentive pay, it is wise to first validate that a performance problem is solvable through the comp plan irrespective of formula type.

Behind Many Poor Sales Compensation Plans Lurks Poor Job Design

Dig beneath a sales incentive plan that is too complicated and - as often as not - you'll discover a sales job with way too many angles and focal points.

Sales jobs that require constant shifting from prospecting to account management to order administration/tracking to installation/set-up and then back to prospecting may not be the best use of your available sales talent.  Particularly if you've staffed the jobs with hunters.  And, for a profession where variable pay can be a significant piece of the overall compensation package, jobs like this can present real challenges for sales incentive design.

I realize that, particularly in smaller businesses, people have to wear more than one hat.  But even in these circumstances, a thoughtful approach to sales job design can make a real difference in motivation and productivity.

Sales jobs, and sales incentive plans, are most effective when their focus is as clear and singular as possible.

Image: Creative Commons Photo "How Far?" by Alisdair McDiarmid

Your "No-Ob" Chance to Check Out Sales Performance Management Tools

Are you involved with designing, managing and/or administering your company's sales compensation program?  Wouldn't it be great to have a complimentary, anonymous, no-obligation opportunity to check out some of the different sales incentive software solutions out on the market?

OpenSymmetry, a consulting firm focused on sales performance management and business intelligence, is presenting their First Annual Anonymous Vendor Demo Series, an free opportunity to preview some of the leading solutions offered in the market - and even interact with the vendors - in an anonymous setting. If you are interested in finding new ways to improve the way you manage your sales compensation program or about to start a formal vendor selection… this series is a great chance to do just that!

Here are the details:

Webinar Demo Events will take place at 8AM PST on the dates indicated below. Each webinar demo event will last approximately 60 minutes with Live Q&A allotted at the end of the event.

Participating software companies include: Callidus Software, Merced Systems, nGenera, Varicent, Versata, Xactly, and ZS Associates.

Webinar Schedule:

• October 16th, Varicent
• October 20th, Merced Systems
• October 23rd, ZS Associates
• October 27th, Xactly October 30th, Versata
• November 3rd, nGenera
• November 6th, Callidus Software

Register here for any and all of the series webinars.  I am signed up for several, and I urge any of you with responsibilities in this area to do the same!

Wanted: HR Seat at the Sales Compensation Table

The table, the table, the table.  You can't turn sideways these days in the HR blogosphere without bumping into a post, an article (or a carnival!) that discusses HR's eternal quest for a seat at the table!  The mythical table referenced in all the angst is, we presume, the one at the top of the corporate house, where leaders fearlessly plan and plot business direction and strategy.

But HR is often missing from another table.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of teeth gnashing and hand wringing over this one, but in my line of vision, it is a problem.  The table I'm referring to is the sales compensation design table.  There has been a historical tendency, not in all but in many organizations, to exclude HR from sales compensation design.  I suspect that some of the reasons for this are as varied as the organizations in which it happens, but there is one reason that I see popping up repeatedly, and that is an unwillingness to develop the necessary business and sales acumen.  In short, they don't think we "get" sales, and often we agree with them.

Designing effective sales compensation plans is an intricate and technically challenging effort, to be sure.  It is not necessary that HR professionals become sales compensation design experts to participate successfully in the effort.  It is necessary, however, that the HR professionals develop an understanding of not only how the organization creates and delivers value to its customers, but also the competitive landscape, the company's particular competitive strengths and weaknesses, its specific sales strategy and objectives, and the role that different sales jobs play in executing that strategy and those objectives.

Too many of my HR - and even compensation - colleagues shy away from the whole sales compensation process.  It's easy to rationalize doing this; it is a challenging area and - let's face it - in many organizations the sales management group doesn't necessarily want HR deeply involved to begin with. 

Why bother?

Here's why.  Sales compensation plans - in my opinion - usually suffer for lack of an HR perspective in their design and communication.  Like any incentive plan, and maybe even more-so than any other, these compensation programs tend to be most successful when their design reflects a variety of disciplines and perspectives - and the HR point of view is an invaluable part of that mix.

So here it is: A call out to my HR colleagues to press for a seat at the sales compensation table, and to do the necessary preparation and information-gathering to ensure that you are positioned to bring value to the discussion and decision making. Corner a sales manager and ask a ton of questions.  Find a sales buddy and learn to love their shadow for a day.

Can we make this happen?  Will we?

Image: Michael Connors