The Trouble with Quotas
You’ve developed your business plan for the new fiscal year and put the new sales compensation plan in place. You’re almost ready to go, except for one thing: setting quotas for the sales organization. Quotas are an often-overlooked critical link between the sales force and business objectives. As a result, over 30 percent of companies don’t have their sales quotas ready in the first month of their fiscal year, almost half end up adjusting quotas during the year, and many reps carry an unrealistic load. Why does this happen? 
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Is the Annual Sales Compensation Plan Passé?
A volatile economy makes the probability of achieving an annual business plan highly unpredictable and common business practices are called into question. The continued use of an annual sales compensation plan is no exception, and, thus, in many companies the plan designer is asked: Is the annual sales compensation plan passé?
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Reducing the Sense of Entitlement: Pay for Performance for 2010 and Beyond
Many companies that took drastic actions, like freezing pay, to deal with the economic slump, are now wondering when the good old days will return. The truth is that most organizations would be well served if the answer was "never."
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Selling More through Better Territory Management
Sales organizations are being asked to increase efficiency, which often means selling more with fewer resources. A carefully crafted territory management plan can help maximize performance.
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Sales Incentive Compensation Best Practices
Growth Solutions, LLC, an independent sales management consulting firm, has recently completed a benchmark survey on sales compensation practices. The benchmarking effort was focused around sales compensation administration within sales organizations of 20 – 500 payees and consisted of approximately 30 confidential, in-depth interviews with participating companies.
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Sales Best Practices Study
Take part in Miller Heiman’s 2010 Sales Best Practices Study now and be among the first to receive the Executive Summary in Q1 2010.  Everyone who completes the survey by Friday, October 16 will receive an early preview of some of the preliminary results of this year’s study.
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Properly Documenting a Sales Compensation Plan
Properly documenting a sales compensation plan establishes a helpful reference guide by clearly defining all of the plan’s provisions. Just as important, the plan document will serve to protect the interests of the company by providing clear guidance for any potential dispute that may arise regarding incentive plan administration.
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10 Simple Rules for Improving Your Sales Compensation Plan
To develop your sales compensation plan correctly, understand the core issues and look to a set of time-tested sales comp rules that will guide your way.
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Sales Incentive Plans: Creating a Timeline for Success
Revisiting your sales strategy and incentive plans regularly is imperative, and keeping a realistic timeline for redesign is key.
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Growth Strategies for Sales Leaders in Complex Sales Environments
Find out how top sales leaders meet the challenge of increasing sales with decreasing resources in Miller Heiman's 2009 Sales Best Practices study.
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Sales Success Depends on Compensation Process Automation
Companies that simplify their sales compensation processes-rather than their sales compensation plans-are outperforming their competition, according to Aberdeen Research.
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Change Management Challenges
Tips for Obtaining Buy-In to that New Sales Compensation Plan
Just because an annual sales compensation plan change is the norm doesn't mean that achieving a successful rollout and obtaining buy-in from the sales force should be taken for granted. J. Mark Davis of Valitus Group, Inc. presents five tips for facilitating a new plan rollout.
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Optimizing Your Sales Force During Economic Downturns
As the economy softens, many companies are proactively planning initiatives to fortify their competitive and financial positions. Scott Sands with Hewitt and Associates has found that leading organizations focus on the most critical talent segments. Here Mr. Sands suggests five strategies to adopt now to optimize sales force effectiveness when the economy recovers.
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Measuring Results: Key Performance Indicators Can Help Set Better Goals for Sales Reps
Sales managers often rush to judgment if sales reps aren't meeting their quotas, and automatically assume that they either don't have the skills or the understanding to perform. Kendra Lee, President of KLA Group, takes a look at how key performance indicators should be used to better assess performance.
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Compensation Innovations in an Economic Downturn
Employers considering how to position their business in the economic downturn should revisit what has and has not been effective in the past and consider that solutions that worked in the last economic recession may not fare as well in this unprecedented environment. More importantly, a rigorous and longer-term ROI-based approach to decision-making may reveal some unexpected alternatives.
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Territorial Instincts
The process of designing sales territories—an early and critical strategic step for any organization in reaching its sales goals—is most often a process without sufficient thought and without a solid grounding in data and analytics.

Engaging Employees Through Periods of Layoffs
Economic volatility is taking its toll on many organizations. Recent Watson Wyatt research shows that 39 percent of a sample of U.S. companies have already undertaken some employee layoffs; an additional 23 percent expect to do so during the next 12 months. While perhaps necessary from a business perspective, cutting the workforce reduces the total value of a firm's human capital.

Findings of the 2008/2009 Watson Wyatt WorkUSA survey suggest seven lessons for managing the human side of the restructuring process.
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What Are Some Best Practices for Compensating Sales-Related Positions
Donya Rose with The Cygnal Group tackles a question that challenges many companies. What are the best practices for compensating sales-related positions such as Account Managers, Business Development Managers, Technical Sales Support Specialists and Sales Engineers?
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Armchair Quarterbacking in Sales Organizations
The pursuit for growth in an uncertain economy has many sales leaders looking for a competitive edge. Michael T. Spellecy of Maritz discusses a method to help maximize sales performance which begins by validating the brand with customers and employees and concludes by examining several best practices for hiring, training, coaching and motivating sales people.
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Sales Plan Design for Solution Sales
How do you go about incentivizing solution sales? Donya Rose of The Cygnal Group looks at the hallmarks of the solution sale and lays out the characteristics of a typical sales plan design for this role.
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Growing Revenue in Uncertain Times
Sometimes it's hard to see competitive opportunities in the disappointing headlines. But past economic downturns have shown that firms can thrive and grow in a turbulent environment. Watson Wyatt shares some specific tactics that companies can focus on to gain short-term benefits in a down economy.
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Maritz on Driving Sales Force Effectiveness
Vendors and their customers have specific goals for their businesses as well as expectations for each other. Unfortunately, those don't always align. Michael T. Spellecy of Maritz shares insights and strategies designed to better integrate those goals and create lasting partnerships.
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What is the Right Commission Rate?
How do you know what the right commission rate is for your industry and area of the country? According to Donya Rose, Managing Principal with The Cygnal Group, the answer depends on the nature of the selling role, the level of maturity of the business and cost structure of the company.
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