Destination CRM
Pay Day
You track your sales team's numbers -- and so does each member of the team. Here's what you need to know about the business of sales compensation, and how you can make it work for all of you.
by Marshall Lager
Senior Editor Marshall Lager writes an informative article on sales compensation management (SCM) considered one of the "key elements of maintaining an effective and eager sales team". Lager summarizes the views of leading research and analyst firms, such as Aberdeen Group, Gartner, and Beagle Research Group on the business issues, best practices and future developments in sales compensation management. Recognizing that "incenting proper sales behavior is a critical factor for businesses", the author elaborates on the multiple benefits of SCM to internal and external sales personnel, to managers and executives in sales and finance, and even to non-sales staff.
While most companies still rely on Excel to manage sales compensation, Gartner expects that the SCM market is poised for considerable growth based on demonstrated value in operational efficiencies ("reduce errors by more than 90 percent, and reduce administrative and technology staffing requirements by more than 50 percent").
Lager includes a side-bar article by "insider" Bob Conlin, CMO at Centive, a provider of sales compensation and sales performance management solutions. Conlin discusses the recent surge in industry analyst reports on the topic of incentive compensation and the growing adoption of on-demand SCM solutions. These trends are illustrated in the case of Draeger Medical, one of the top three vendors worldwide in the business of acute-care products and solutions. "Draeger now uses Compel [Centive's flagship SCM solution], which was up and running in just 36 business days, to model sales compensation plans, forecast commission costs, and automate day-to-day plan management", says Conlin. The company has benefited from Compel's real-time performance visibility, reporting and analytics, support for financial compliance initiatives and its SAS 70 Type II compliant environment.
