The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans That Work [Hardcover]

Andris A. Zoltners Ph.D. (Author), Prabhakant Sinha Ph.D. (Author), Sally E. Lorimer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814473245 | ISBN-13: 978-0814473245 | Publication Date: August 7, 2006

"If you're like most sales leaders, your incentive program is a constant challenge, as you try to jumpstart sales, energize a geographically dispersed and autonomous workforce, and motivate salespeople to achieve ambitious revenue goals. And sometimes it seems like you just don't know what works; your products and markets are changing, the incentive program that was so successful last year no longer produces the desired results, or perhaps the generous incentive program you created has yielded a corps of highly paid salespeople who spend most of their time on existing clients and minimal time generating new business -- and threaten to walk away with your customer base if you scale back paychecks! Incentive programs are seductively powerful but complicated instruments. Without careful planning and implementation, they can be too stingy to motivate, too complex to understand, too quick to reward mediocre results, and too difficult to implement. But a well-designed and implemented incentive program is an essential tool for building a motivated, highly effective sales force that delivers the results you need. The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation is a practical, accessible, detailed roadmap to building a compensation system that gets it right by creating motivating incentives that produce positive outcomes. Packed with hundreds of real-life examples of what works and what doesn't, this important guide helps you: Understand the value of building an incentive plan that is aligned with your company's goals and culture. Avoid the common trap of overusing incentives to solve too many sales management problems. Measure the effectiveness of your current incentive program, employing easy-to-use tools and metrics for pinpointing its weak spots. Design a compensation plan that attracts and retains successful salespeople, including guidelines for determining the correct pay level, the best salary incentive mix, the proper performance measures, and the right performance payout relationship. Select an incentive compensation plan that works for your organization -- then test the plan before it is launched. Set territory-level goals that are fair and realistic, and avoid overpaying the sales force because goals are too easy, or demoralizing salespeople by having goals that are too difficult or not fairly assigned. Create and manage sales contests, SPIFFs (Special Performance Incentive for Field Force), and recognition programs that consistently deliver the intended results. Manage a successful transition to a new compensation plan and build efficient administration systems to support your plan. Every year, corporations spend $200 billion compensating their sales forces, with extremely mixed results. Make sure every dollar you spend is helping to achieve your goal of creating an empowered, effective sales force that drives your company's success. Packed with ready-to-use formulas and assessment tools and a wealth of insights from frontline sales managers and executives, The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation is your hands-on, easy-to-read playbook for crucially important decisions."

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[The authors] wrote a definitive book on this topic... I highly recommend it.”

-BusinessWeek Online

“Andris Zoltners, Parbhakant Sinha, and Sally Lorimer wrote a definitve book on this topic, The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans that Work (Amacom, 2006). It’s about 500 pages long and costs $65. That may sound expensive until you realize that’s the cost of about 30 minutes of consulting, and less than the price of one ‘please don’t leave us to work for our competitor’ lunch, I highly recommend it.”

--Michelle Nichols, BusinessWeek.com columnist

Review

"""Rich with real examples and analysis, this is the best book I have seen on sales force compensation.""

-- Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

“The 3-Cs framework in this excellent book takes a strategic approach to compensation that is practical and really motivates for the right results.” -- Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling

“This book does a wonderful job of highlighting how sales force incentives fit within the overall context of the sales effectiveness system.”

-- Jeff Foland, Vice President of Sales, United Airlines

“This brilliantly architected book is not just a ‘must read,’ it is a ‘must act upon’ if you want to improve your bottom line.”

-- Kash Rangan, Malcolm McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School

“The authors use examples of the real-world challenges of scores of companies to create a road map to effective sales force compensation.”

-- John T. Early, Vice President–Sales and Marketing, Harley-Davidson Financial Services Inc.

“Tapping into a wealth of academic and workplace experience, this guide answers all the compensation questions your organization is asking -- or should be asking.”

-- Mark A. Bate, President, MasterBrand Cabinets Inc./HomeCrest Cabinetry

“A comprehensive guide to effective compensation programs for all environments, whether the sales force is large or small or the products are complex or simple.”

-- Stephen Grimaldi, Vice President–Compensation & Benefits, GE Consumer Finance–Americas

""This book expertly balances qualitative and quantitative considerations for developing and implementing sales force incentive programs.""

-- Bill Kotcher, Market Manager, UGI/AmeriGas Propane

""This book provides clear instruction for the important problems of how to set goals, how to measure performance, and how to effectively manage change.""

-- Peggy Forssell, Director, Sales Operations, Summit, NJ"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (August 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814473245
• ISBN-13: 978-0814473245
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive guide to salesforce compensation, December 7, 2009

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans That Work (Hardcover)

Planning the ideal salesforce incentive compensation program is very challenging. Pay enough, and you'll energize your salespeople. Pay too much, and you'll throw money away while turning salespeople into loafers who can get by on fewer sales. Pay too little, and you'll push your best salespeople out the door. But how much is enough, too much or too little? How do you figure out the best mix of salary, commissions and bonuses to pay your salespeople? This comprehensive compensation guide is a good place to start answering these questions. Written by sales and marketing experts Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha and Sally E. Lorimer, this is your essential map for developing and implementing the ideal compensation incentive plan for your salespeople. getAbstract recommends it to sales managers who want to do a better job of meeting their personnel needs and, therefore, their sales targets. (Read this before you negotiate compensation with anyone else.)

5.0 out of 5 stars The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation, August 2, 2008

By 

Joe T. Trueblood (McKinney, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans That Work (Hardcover)

An extremely good book for understanding the specifics of different approaches to sales compensation along with appropriate rationales.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 20, 2007

By 

T. Prosser - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans That Work (Hardcover)

THis book is thorough and has all the tools and distinctions you need to design a great compensation plan for sales people. It totally changed how I see the situation and how to manage it. Pay is only a small part.