Sales Compensation Plan Development

 
 
Sales Compensation Plan Design
 

Clear Designs Get Clear Results

Our core service offering involves assessing, developing, testing and communicating sales compensation plans (commissions, goal-based bonuses, etc.).  Approximately 80% of our projects fall into this category.

Typically these plans are paid frequently (monthly or quarterly payment periods are common) and based primarily on individual performance on specific, measurable objectives that have direct impact on the company's top line revenue.  Often, but not always, these plans involve some kind of commission mechanic (paying the employee a percentage of the revenue or gross margin they have generated).

The common roles listed on this page are found in nearly every industry and Prosperio has worked with major companies on their sales compensation plans in over 50 different industries.  We have particular expertise in transportation & logistics, distribution (including food & beverage), manufacturing (including food ingredients), software and SaaS, banking and insurance, be sure to look at those sections of our website if your company is one of those areas.

Our work in this area follows a tried and true process

  1. First, we assess your current state to understand what is working or not-working about your current plans.

  2. Next, we help with role definition (hunter, farmer, key account manager, inside sales, etc.) and make sure your sales force role definition and deployment approach makes sense BEFORE we consider changes to your sales compensation plans.

  3. Then we work with your leadership in a collaborative fashion to develop the new plans.

  4. Afterwards, we test them extensively using your historical data for incumbent and aggregate cost modeling.

  5. Finally (and unlike most large firms), we support you through the communication of the plans to your sales force, and in most cases for a full-year after the new plan is implemented to make sure things go as planned.

Common Roles for Sales Plan Design Include

Outside Sales
Inside Sales
Customer Service Rep
Key Account Manager
National Account Manager
Strategic Account Manager
Global Account Manager
Account Executive
Account Rep
Account Manager
Sales Executive
Sales Rep
Sales Manager
Customer Sales Rep
Customer Account Manager
Call Center Rep
And many others….

Common Project Types

Express Project

When your needs span several roles but you have only a few people and will not have much of an issue with change management, our Express Project is for you. We’ll spend time with you and your senior leaders getting to understand your business and working with you to develop your plans as quickly as possible. We’ve successfully executed a number of engagements for small to medium-sized organizations (5 to 20 people) just like yours.

An Express Incentive Project includes:
• Strategy and structure review/refinement
Compensation plan design for up to 5 roles (salary bands and incentives)
• Market benchmarking of pay levels for the 5 roles
• Plan documentation
• Pro-forma economic modeling (minimal historical testing)
• Roll-out training
• Development of simple Excel calculator
• 3 months of post-project support
• Turnaround is approximately 4-6 weeks

1P1P Project: One PERSON, one PLAN

A 1P1P Project is great for start-ups and small companies, and those with an immediate need for a compensation plan for one person in one role. The 1P1P Project is a virtually delivered program that’s a fast, affordable alternative to big software firm fees.

The 1P1P Project includes:
• All plan design details
• Basic market pricing
• Economic testing
• Incentive plan documentation
• Outlining of goals and expectations
• Review of business goals and impact of this role on those goals
• Role clarification
Development of simple Excel calculator
• 3 months of post-project support
• Turnaround is approximately 2-3 weeks

Full Service Sales Compensation Project

When you need more in-depth assistance in clarifying business objectives, streamlining your organization structure, improving accountabilities and role definition, and are developing incentive plans for several interconnected roles for a large staff, we recommend a Full Service Sales Compensation Project. This solution features several virtual meetings with our developers and your design team, and is often selected by medium-sized to larger companies, or small companies undergoing significant transition.

Full Service Sales Compensation Project includes:
• Business goal clarification
• Compensation plan design for all roles in scope (salary bands and incentives)
• Development of career levels for highly populated roles
• Employee change management
• Extensive pro-forma and historical economic modeling
• Goal-setting guidance
• Market benchmarking of pay levels for all roles in scope
• Detailed and more automated Excel calculator for use by your staff for doing plan calculations
• Roll-out support and training
• Organization redesign and role change/definition
• 12 months post-project support
• Turnaround time is at least 90 days, but may take longer depending on size of organization and magnitude of change