Much has been written over decades on how to compensate sales people to achieve optimal results. The answers are all over the map. Daniel Pink’s best seller, Drive, advocated for intrinsic rewards not extrinsic, such as incentive pay. Those who like that idea jumped on his research and position. Trouble is, it is wrong in fact and by observation.
To be clear, it is wrong for most companies, except when it isn’t. Huh?
Most companies don’t have a lot of sales people. And, without question some good sales people are driven by extrinsic rewards (ie money) and some are more driven by intrinsic rewards (ie autonomy, purpose, etc.) If you create a reward system for your company that focuses on one or the other or some combination, you can likely attract enough good sales people for any approach. Ken Olsen, CEO of Digital Equipment, hated the idea of commission, and in an era when most of his competitors had highly commissioned sales people, he was successful without such a plan.
That being said, research also shows that Pink’s research was flawed when it comes to sales people. If one looks at the research cited in his book, it focused on short-term incentives, some as short as hours or minutes. Meta-analysis of well constructed research studies shows that longer term incentives (over 6 months) had a positive impact on sales people.
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So what are the keys to effective sales compensation? We believe there are two:
Bottom line, as I was told when we took Lamaze classes when my son was to be born: choose the approach you like and find the book that supports it.
Or follow our advice and align compensation to your strategy and keep it consistent.
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Very good insight – small businesses typically hire relatively few salespeople so whatever type of comp plan CEOs like/believe, will attract enough like-minded folks. Another topic CEOs frequently over-analyze. Good advice!!!