How strategic is your sales comp management system?

Most companies today take a very tactical approach to managing sales compensation due to their reliance on spreadsheet-based compensation systems. These systems have a limited capacity to monitor plan effectiveness and adjust compensation plans as needed to control costs or to keep their sales teams aligned with company goals. Limited by spreadsheet-based systems, companies operate at a distinct disadvantage to those organizations that leverage automated sales compensation management systems strategically to drive sales performance.

To measure the level of strategic incentive management in your organization, simply check all statements that are true:

• We model various compensation plan scenarios and analyze projected revenues and costs associated with each model.
• We only deploy plans that fit within revenue and cost-of-sales parameters.
  
• We communicate plan details to align our sales representatives with corporate sales goals.
  
• We monitor and measure plan effectiveness on an ongoing basis.
  
• We integrate sales compensation with our CRM/SFA system to link pipeline activity to commission earnings.
  
• We provide sales representatives with up-to-date visibility into actual and potential commission earnings to keep them focused and motivated.
  
• We provide real-time performance data for sales managers and executives to enable them to measure and coach their sales teams.
• We adjust plan components as needed to ensure achievement of quota and revenue targets.

Results: if you checked 6 or more boxes, you manage sales incentive programs strategically, with exceptional savvy and efficiency. However, if you are like the other 80% of small and mid-size companies, you have probably checked fewer than 5 boxes. In that case, we invite you to learn more about strategic sales compensation and explore what impact on revenue and cost that would have in your organization.

You can start by taking a look at Compel^TM from Centive, a pioneer in the field of strategic on-demand sales compensation management. To learn more, register for the upcoming webinar on strategic incentive management, or take a product tour of Compel.