Creating a sales plan should involve just the right number of people. No more, no less. Executives must support incentive compensation across your entire org.
Having too many people means too many agendas. If too few people are involved, you won’t have enough information to pull your plans together.
It’s tightrope walk, really. Leadership buy-in is essential. The stakes are high.
Below is a list of who to include on your design team. When all these people are in the room, you’ll create sales plans that win.
Head of Sales
Your head of sales is the person best connected to both company goals and staff capabilities. He or she will keep other executives’ expectations reasonable, while pushing for aggressive results. Here’s what sales compensation done right means to sales leaders.
Head of Marketing
Sales and marketing should work hand in hand. Your head of marketing can share information on upcoming product releases or announcements that may affect the flow of sales.
Operations Executive
Sales compensation plans often affect processes, so make sure you get operations in the room. They can tell you what processes would need to change to accommodate what you want to do. For instance, they’ll be able to say, “If we compensate on X incentive, we’ll need to change our data flow in Y way.”
Compensation Analysts
Having a compensation analyst on your design team can help you understand how new incentive compensation rules will affect payouts. Are the rules reasonable given the current compensation structure and capabilities?
Other Team Members
Add a sales team representative to “gut check” whether the sales performance plan is realistic. They’ll help you make sure you structure your incentive plans to accommodate the role your salespeople play in the sales cycle. Compensate the selling style that works best with your clients. You’ll motivate your way to better performance.
It can also be valuable to invite a third party to the team meeting, such as a sales compensation consultant. Their unbiased opinion can help settle debates and neutralize office politics. A consultant can bring industry knowledge to the table, and may have suggestions you won’t have thought of.
Pulling the Plan Together
Sales compensation done right means different things for different people, from individual reps to C-Level execs. But with the right number and balance of team members, you’re more likely to have success with your sales plan in a difficult market. Collaborating with the right brainpower can help you create a sales plan that just about everyone can agree on.
