By: Matt Tyre, Director, Client Services

In the mind of great sales people you may think that compensation is the primary driver in attracting, motivating and retaining their talent. I was in discussions with a Sales Executive recently and we were talking about what would attract a sales person at the senior management level to make a move from their current position. To be honest, I was not shocked to hear that monetary compensation was not their only motivator. Looking at a balanced total reward mix (compensation, benefits, recognition, work life balance, and career development opportunities) was more important to experienced sales people. Younger, less experienced sales people will typically look at money as the main attraction. Senior sales people seem to be more selective on what will attract them to make a move or stay with their current organization.

Here are some key motivators that came up in my conversation:

1. Work flexibility - working from home and flex hours
2. Less travel
3. Reduced distance from home to the office
4. Other monetary benefits - stock options, deferred profit sharing programs
5. Desire to have a leadership role
6. Willing to take slightly less in monetary compensation if some of the above concessions can be made.

You can see that work life and career-advancement opportunities seem to play a prevalent role in the discussions, more so than money. Sure, if you're offered an obscene amount of money most sales people will strongly consider the option, however it just goes to show that money doesn't by happiness and that to get great sales people to work for your company you must look at the total reward mix to attract them.

If you are in a senior management role, what would motivate you to make a move?

We posted a blog recently trying to justify the role of each department in the sales compensation design and communication process. We received several observations and mixed opinions; now we would like to hear from YOU! Who do you think owns the sales compensation responsibilities?

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By: Matt Tyre, Director, Client Services

Every year Sales and HR organizations invest time to develop incentive programs for their sales people with positive intentions. Here are three situations that can arise and result in negative impacts on the program.

1. Rolling out compensation plans late
2. Communicating plans poorly
3. Complicated or incorrect plan design

Rolling out plans late in the year
What are the most common reason that plans are rolled-out late? Well, as sales compensation administrators might tell you, it is often the decision making process that stagnates the green light for plan approval. The approval process in some organizations has to go through multiple departments and levels of management, which slows down the communication of the plan to the sales force. Issues could also stem from target setting, to the lack of urgency. Some sales organizations don't connect the level of importance of the sales compensation program as the direct link to supporting the sales strategies. The impacts of a plan being rolled out one-month late, for example, is that your sales people lacked reinforcing direction for one-twelfth of the year that should drive the behaviors the company is expecting. One-month's lack of focus equals trickle effect number one.

Poor communication is common
The communication of a plan is as important and the design itself. It needs to be clear, understood and positively reinforced so the impacts produce the desired results. Consider this, for example, a new plan is rolled out and the sales people have not bought into the plan. It is beginning to create negative behavior within the organization. This behaviour runs juxtaposed to the original intent of the incentive program and creates an inefficient working environment. It is hard to measure the impacts of a mass exodus of sales people and customers hearing negative condemnation of the company. However, such could be the result of trickle effect number two.

Complicated or incorrect design leads to a myriad of issues.
Finally, a simple plan that can be understood easily by a sales person will deliver desired results. A complicated plan that confuses a sales person will create no behavioral change and in turn is a waste of resources - both time and financial - to the organization. If you want your sales people to focus on sales of widgets, pay them for widgets sales. If they can impact margin, incent them to focus on margin. Metrics that are key foci for sales management, that you want to have your sales people focus on, must be within their ability to impact. For example, many organization want to focus on margin, but if the sales person in unable to impact the result, it shouldn't be in their plan. Build plans that are within the sales persons' control, where they have the ability to influence the results and recognize a reward. Poor results stem from a lack of focus, and lack of focus stems from complicated incentive plans. This illustrates trickle effect number three.

The trickle effect theory outlines that each time a negative-reinforcing element in your sales incentive compensation plan occurs, it happens at a a cost to the business. The goal is to avoid these mistakes to ensure an effective incentive program and achieve desired results. When incentive compensation is managed effectively and is supporting the strategies of the company, positive results ensue.

Tomorrow's blog: Incentive sales compensation, burden or blessing?

By: David Johnston, President, Sales Resource Group Inc.

May 29th, 2009 marked the 20^th anniversary of my entrepreneurial leap into my own business. There have certainly been ups and downs caused by economic factors, some questionable decisions and the need to meet the financial obligations that come with running a company. When I sat and reflected on the past two decades of work, there were several things that I realized about both myself and the experiences that I have had. These are:

The principle of enjoying what you do is paramount to performance and perseverance. I truly love what I do! It challenges me. It provides me with rewards and recognition that make me feel good about the work and the results that I achieve. Money and prestige while nice are secondary to looking forward to what you do each day.

Working with people that you enjoy and have a bond with is essential. I work with people who are intelligent, committed, loyal and trustworthy. It does not get much better than that. We care about each other, look out for each other and while sometimes we fight about issues, there is no question that we have each other's back... especially in times of need. This applies to clients as well. The personal and deep relationships that we have with our clients makes each day something to look forward to. When their issues are tough and require collaborative effort, we both rise to the occasion.

The need for an active, inquisitive mind and a strong work ethic differentiates those that think about what needs to get done and those that get things done! Experience and information (formatted... not data) are now the tools that enable people to solve problems quicker. It is much harder now though to sort through the plethora of information that is passed to us in "real-time, on-demand" to make immediate decisions. Long hours and perseverance are a requirement now for success.

While I am sure that I won't be sticking around for another 20 year anniversary, I do look forward to the next several years as we endevour to be a resource to clients who need help with their sales compensation.