1.preface :Advice for small businesses on how to create the best compensation plan for your sales team, by determining sales goals, performance measures, payout formulas, and the sales cycle of your business.
One of the biggest management challenges for a growing business is compensating salespeople effectively. You know you need an incentive compensation plan that encourages your sales force to land new accounts and continue to upsell existing customers, but where do you begin figuring out the best way to compensate them? It often boils down to finding the right balance between base pay and commission. But other questions also may come in to play: Will a commissions-only model work for you? How do you set parameters for performance? How do you measure that performance?If these issues seem daunting at first, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Sales incentive programs can have an enormous impact on the bottom line and on future growth of the business. Executing a well-designed sales compensation plan can help companies create a sales culture of high performance where individual goals are aligned with those of the larger organization. Furthermore, building a reputation for recognizing and rewarding good performance accurately also helps companies attract and retain top sales talent. "It's probably one of the fundamental keys for success for a business, provided they have a sales force -- which would apply to vast majority of businesses," says Jim Stoeckmann, senior practice leader for sales compensation