As the world comes to a new dawning age of post Covid-19 Pandemic awareness, many sales organizations may be reviewing and revisiting their incentive compensation plans. In truth, while we say how ‘flexible’ our plans are, we discover in a time like this just how complicated it is to adjust those plans at a moment’s notice.
While sales personnel have some of the most flexible work environments, this new work-from-home and social distancing environment has in many ways restricted their abilities to reach clients and close the deal. If a company does not have a readily available ability for electronic signatures, then they may have to fall back on the old-fashioned hardcopy mail or courier methods to obtain original signatures. How do these companies maintain top sales people if, when the world rights itself in the new normal, those people have lost confidence in their companies’ ability to support them?
Does your organization have the ability to quickly adjust to a crisis such as this, or are your compensation plans too complicated to allow for such necessary adjustments to maintain sales personnel confidence and morale? Is your compensation system so cumbersome that you lose the edge?
Compensation plans can be simple or they can be as complex as rocket science. Most companies may find themselves looking to simplify their plans and their systems around the sales process. Additionally, they will find themselves looking for guidance in 1) defining the process to simplify the plans, 2) building systems for the management of those plans, and 3) establishing the process by which they can quickly flip the switch to counter the negative effects of a future pandemic or similar disruptive event.
This introspection should prompt sales organizations to ask themselves…
How do we simplify our current incentive compensation plan? Let us help you look at what all is involved with your current plan structure, and how to incentivize your sales personal when there are decreased sales but you need them to stay focused on building that pipeline and the return to active sales.
Is our system flexible enough to manage a quick change or adjustment to the economic and political environment? We can look at your system and determine the time it takes to implement a change and if that timing is due to plan structure or just the overall environment constraints – resources, type of system, support.
How do you plan for the unknown future? We can help you define plans for future down times that could occur so that you can keep your sales personnel and how you would pay them with reduced production but reward them for continuing to stay focused on building that pipeline and courting your target audience.
Sales organizations keep a company viable, and the revenue lost due to quarantine and social distancing orders affects the company’s bottom line and ability to retain top sales personnel. If you have questions regarding how to prepare your company’s compensation plans and systems for the future, then let’s talk about it.
The Blue Horizons Group leadership team is comprised of industry veterans, each with 15 or more years of experience in incentive compensation management across various platforms. We are here to help you build technology solutions to best fit your business goals and needs and to deliver sustainable solutions that will provide value for your sales organization for years to come. Contact us to find out how your organization can leverage the 70 years of collective expertise offered by Blue Horizons Group.