Sales Compensation Plan Variation in Europe
A Northwestern University study of sales force compensation in five European countries reveals that optimal pay levels and pay structures vary in response to two conflicting pressures: the need to reward better performers with higher pay, and the need to manage the impact of local taxes on the pay differential between high and low performers. For multinational employers with sales forces that span the globe, striking the right balance is even more complex.
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Sales Territory Planning Practices in Germany
An examination of current territory planning practices in Germany shows that companies are missing sales opportunities due to too infrequent reviews and updating of territory structures.
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Sales Compensation in the Lumber/Building Materials Sector
With the residential housing market essentially undergoing a “reset,” lumber/building material (LBM) dealers are re-examining everything about how they do business. A recent survey on sales compensation in the sector provides national and regional benchmarks for comparing sales force pay/benefits packages.
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Fees-plus-Incentives Comp Plans Popular Among Ad Agencies
According to an Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey, the use of traditional commissions has steeply dropped, replaced by fee and sales commissions.
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Building a New Sales Compensation Competency
Christy Roberts now leads the sales compensation program at high tech firm AMD and Mike Meisenheimer of Sales Comp Insights gets her thoughts on what it takes to build out a successful sales comp competency.
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Investing in Reporting/Analysis—The Ultimate Link to Sales Success
Sales operations executive Marci Reynolds asks: If you were building a brand new sales operations team, where would you invest first or the most? What would be most important?
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Recognition and Rewards: The Zappos Way
After delving into the employee engagement initiatives at star online retailer Zappos, the bottom line for incentive design consultant Paul Herbert is this: A strong culture, recognized regularly, decreases the need for specific performance-based incentives.
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Sales People ARE Different, But Not Every Sales Problem is a Sales Incentive Problem
Compensation consultant Ann Bares asks: While there is movement toward a broader and more encompassing definition of employee rewards underway, it doesn't appear that the concept has gained much traction in the sales compensation arena. Should it?
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