Author: Lizzy Wolff
It makes sense that when people feel motivated to work, they're likely to give better performances. Generating superior acceptance of these programs remains the only problem that many organizations face, as simply implementing a sales compensation plan isn't enough to make people feel interested in pursuing the rewards their leadership offers.
This is a major factor in holding back sales teams from meeting their highest potential marks. As Enterprise Irregulars wrote, businesses can't just dangle the carrot and hope that personnel feel like biting. There has to be a reason to strive for a reward and ownership of good deeds when desired goals are achieved. That means a good sales incentive compensation plan should look for ways to personally and publicly honor the efforts of its best representatives.
Promoting positive performance
Especially with big data weighing on corporate operations, it's much easier for businesses to correlate performances with potential rewards. Enterprise Irregulars stated that it's wise to use these assets to generate ongoing cycles of working toward benefits, thereby showing other employees the path that they too can follow to earn the accolades and awards of their peers.
This isn't a new approach, but it does come with modern upgrades for employers that make these programs much easier to handle. Instead of having to chart everyone's daily activities, new sales compensation programs can ensure that all the proper metrics are gathered and compared so that these systems can generate reward notifications on their own. Management is then able to review these progress reports and issue prizes where applicable, as well as gain insight about which employees are failing to meet the mark.
Gaming the system
What's important for making this process work is a well-charted, clarified program that shows how people can navigate their job performances in order to earn rewards. When personnel know exactly how to get what they want and the path seems easy enough, they're more likely to respond positively to these operational ideas.
This is the momentum that's leading some modern businesses to success with their own sales incentive compensation plans. The Washington Post reported that a previously floundering newspaper, The Daily Caller, was able to turn around its marketing and operations with incentive compensation. Now the company offers a mix of traditional salary and incentives, thereby helping to enhance the overall performance of the business. In these instances, offering rewards employees want means avoiding potential loyalty and retention issues that might otherwise harm engagement.