Matt Asay has a great post on the considerations he went through as vice-president of business development at Alfresco to develop the sales compensation plans. Getting this right is so so important. Sales people will exactly respond to the incentives in front of them. We all joke about "dogs on the hunt" metaphors, but really, good sales people are like idiot savants in good clothes — they have an uncanny ability with mathematics. (One look at you and they instantly know how much of next quarter's bonus you represent and will budget their time accordingly.)
No amount of threatening, cajoling, or shaming a salesperson will move them off their comp plan. And no good salesperson remains in an organization when they realize their comp plan is unattainable (whether because it's unrealistically set or the organizational support doesn't exist). As Matt observes about his comp plan: "it aligns interests between the salesperson and the customer." Exactly so.
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