{"id":123,"date":"2011-06-30T09:20:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T16:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/?p=123"},"modified":"2020-01-15T15:47:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T23:47:04","slug":"software-sales-compensation-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/archives\/123","title":{"rendered":"Software Sales Compensation Design"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-305 alignleft\" title=\"Money\" src=\"http:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Money.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"253\" \/>At least once every year we all need to create\/review our incentive compensation strategy. I<span style=\"color: #000000;\">t&#8217;s all too easy to assume last year&#8217;s plan will work again in the coming year and, even if it did work, there is evidence\u00a0that some change\u00a0to the plan is a good thing because it keeps the sales team engaged and focused. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I use\u00a0this simple outline to guide the discussion of s<span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">oftware sales compensation design<\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0 It&#8217;s a little like bottoms-up budgeting; it&#8217;s more work on the front end but you will reap the benefit of an aligned plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Engage a cross functional team to define the GTM strategy <\/span>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Market research &#8211; Marketing<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Customer research\u00a0-Sales Management<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Optimal growth rate &#8211; Finance<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Capitalization required to grow &#8211; Finance<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Consider your execution options (i.e. coverage model) <\/span>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Scope of the opportunity<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nature of the target transaction<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Type of territory coverage<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Channel partner utilization and\/or conflict<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Develop an effective sales model differentiating selling\/support role based on the skill sets required and d<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ifferentiating license\/services based on product integration and focus<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Inventory staff\u00a0readiness\u00a0based on\u00a0skill set and location<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Propose a hiring plan based on gap analysis<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Overlay compensation plan components most likely to drive respective behaviors<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Validate the model\u00a0to adjust projections and strategy <\/span>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Growth Rate<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Market Penetration<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Staff Retention<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Staff Training<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Product Line Adoption by Market<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Recalibrate Expectations<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Develop and publish <strong>meaningful<\/strong> and <strong>actionable<\/strong> metrics<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Depending on the size of your organization this process can take 3 to 7 months so calendar it now!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What&#8217;s your outline or project plan look like?\u00a0 Who are the key decision makers and contributors to your sales\u00a0compensation plan?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Cheers!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bob Bacon<\/span><br \/>\n<!-- \/\/ < ![CDATA[ geovisit(); \/\/ --><!--&lt;img src=&quot;http:\/\/visit.webhosting.yahoo.com\/visit.gif?time&quot;&lt;br \/&gt; alt=&quot;setstats&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot;\/&gt;--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least once every year we all need to create\/review our incentive compensation strategy. It&#8217;s all too easy to assume last year&#8217;s plan will work again in the coming year and, even if it did work, there is evidence\u00a0that some &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/archives\/123\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[26,36,11,88,13,27,28,22,29,39,21,37,35,89,12],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales_compensation","category-sales_ops","tag-bob-bacon","tag-commission-components","tag-commissions","tag-icm","tag-incentive-comp","tag-plan-components","tag-plan-elements","tag-sales-commissions","tag-sales-compensation","tag-sales-incentives","tag-sales-management","tag-sales-operations","tag-sales-ops","tag-spm","tag-variable-comp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1244,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/1244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbacon.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}