Resources

Sales organizations’ largest single expense (by far) is salesperson compensation. For other firm functions, payroll expense is predictable (if not boring), and not often considered in a strategic context. Sales compensation plans, on the other hand, are rarely the same from firm to firm. They change frequently with management priorities,...Read more

Virtually all organizations see significant changes in the markets and buyers they serve. These changes were increasing in both magnitude and speed before the pandemic, and its impact compounded the disruption already experienced by many. In response, firms are apt to change strategy, value positioning, product offerings, or go-to-market approaches...Read more

This research gathers feedback from current clients of incentive compensation management (ICM) systems and sales performance management (SPM) systems. The survey identifies key issues related to these solutions’ offerings, capabilities, and effectiveness, based on feedback from practitioner users of these systems. We’ve made this research “evergreen,” and expect to issue...Read more

When management assigns salespeople to specific opportunities, accounts, segments, or geographies, they make resource allocation decisions that influence overall sales organization capacity, workload, and productivity. Over time, many small decisions can have outsized impacts. That's why the most effective sales organizations regularly review these resource allocation decisions to ensure they...Read more

Recent Sales Management Association research shows many firms with sales performance management (SPM) platforms derive value only from a portion of their SPM application's overall capabilities. These often underutilized capabilities extend SPM's business impact beyond the core function of administering incentive compensation programs. For many firms, these underutilized SPM functions...Read more

Most sales leaders consider coaching salespeople important however, few organizations do it consistently. But Why? Too often, sales forces haven't committed to elevating coaching as a management priority. The sales organizations most successful in creating a coaching culture within their companies often have more effective coaching. This is because they...Read more

COVID-19 forced an abrupt shift to virtual selling. As the pandemic recedes (however unevenly), management might look forward to putting aside many virtual tools. But this would be a mistake for most organizations. In fact, it’s much more likely that virtual communication will become a permanent capability for the sales...Read more

Business leaders rely on sales forecasting to gauge organizational health and to guide strategy. But most sales organizations find forecasting extremely challenging, and as a result struggle with forecasts that are rarely accurate. This skews resource investments in hiring and budgeting and prevents management from anticipating important demand trends. In...Read more