Sales Compensation Best Practices: Executive Analytics
Use Earnings and Performance Analytics to Actively Manage Your Team
Peter Drucker famously stated that "You can only manage what you can measure." For most sales managers, measuring subordinate performance at a granular level - by customer, territory or product, for example - is extremely difficult. Most sales managers are essentially managing by looking in the rear view mirror instead of using analytics to better predict future performance.
To be an effective sales manager, you need access to information to help you analyze trends, spot outliers and better forecast expectations. And, you need this access to be as close to real time as possible, while there is still time to make adjustments before the close of a period.
In Centive's Sales Compensation Best Practice series on sales analytics, you'll learn about the four key types of analysis you should be monitoring, at a minimum, to ensure you have your figure on the pulse of the sales organization, including:
- Forecast Analysis: Executives and managers should model various forecast assumptions then analyze the results to evaluate impacts to revenue and commission costs.
- Attainment Analysis: Monthly attainment analysis is required to ensure that attainment results meet expectations.
- Trend Analysis: Companies need to identify and capture data for those key measures that will be relevant over time.
- Top and Bottom Analysis: Analysis of top and bottom performance can uncover productive sales practices that can be replicated or a variety of issues that need to be addressed.
As the leading on-demand solution for sales performance and sales compensation management, Compel offers real-time performance visibility and graphical sales analytics. These tools are part of the core Compel solution - no additional modules are needed. Compel provides strategic value by enabling customers to run in-depth analysis, model and forecast sales incentive expense, optimize plan effectiveness, and drive sales performance and top-line revenue growth.
To learn more about sales analytics and Compel, follow the links below.
