For the first time in five years, less than 50% of the companies that participated in WorldatWork’s 2010 Sales Compensation Programs and Practices Survey reported that they planned no change to their sales force compensation plan¹. As indicated in the table below, this is a marked departure from past practice.
We believe that this reversal in trend is largely due to the fact that many companies made mid-year changes to their 2009 plans and those plans were “rolled over” to 2010. While no data is available on plan change for 2011, our experience with a broad cross-section of companies suggests that this trend most likely continued.
With that perspective in mind, we believe it is wise to validate through sales force feedback that the current sales compensation plan is well understood and, therefore, supports the behavior and performance that management desired. The purpose of this Short is to describe two techniques for gaining timely feedback.
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION SESSION
We find that a facilitated focus group session is one of the most effective techniques to use to gather sales force feedback on a sales compensation plan (either “new” or “continued from prior year”). Here are two suggestions about how to implement an effective session:
- Format and ground rules. Setting the stage for a productive session is essential to gathering useful information. The facilitator’s role should be defined (e.g., guide the discussion; bring participants back on point, ensure that everyone participates). Participants should understand how/why they were selected for the focus group; and, encouraged to freely share their point of view even if it differs from what other have said.
- Discussion questions. Based on years of experiences with focus groups in many industries, we find that the following
¹ WorldatWork, “Sales Compensation Programs & Practices,” October, 2010, p. 8
topics/questions are effective in drawing out meaningful feedback from sales reps about the compensation plan:
SALES FORCE SURVEY
As an alternative or compliment to Focus Group sessions, we find that a web-based sales force survey provides useful information about sales reps’ attitudes about a new plan. The best time to conduct such a survey is after the first payout of the new plan. Our experience shows that the most useful questions to ask about the plan are as follows:
|
