A Practical Approach to Sales Compensation takes readers through the evolution of academic research on sales compensation. By examining the relevance of existing research, it provides practical guidance on the design of an effective compensation system. Furthermore, the monograph discusses how recent technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) shape sales strategy transformation and, thus, sales compensation systems of the future. After an introduction, Section 2 illustrates a practical outline for designing a sales compensation system and the associated dilemma that organizations often face. Section 3 examines the theoretical foundations of effective sales compensation structures and their validity--in particular, application of the principal-agent theory, which derives optimal compensation systems under the presence of agents' moral hazard. Section 4 addresses recent developments in field research: randomized field experiments jointly conducted by academics and organizations as well as structural econometric methods using micro-level performance and compensation data. Section 5 illustrates how advances in technology affect organizations' sales strategies and, thus, the challenges and opportunities in utilizing compensation structure to motivate salespeople.

Written by the world's leading sales compensation experts, ZS Principals Chad Albrecht and Steve Marley, The Future of Sales Compensation explores and explains how best-in-class sales compensation programs might look in the future. The book includes forward-looking insights that will help managers think differently about how they design, implement, communicate, and support their sales comp plans.

Compensating the Sales Force is a uniquely jargon-free, how-to guide to all major sales compensation concepts and formulas. Using real-world examples, guru David J. Cichelli: Helps readers select the right compensation strategy for their firm Provides step-by-step guidance to implementing various approaches Simplifies the mathematical formulas that are a thorn in most manager's side

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. 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. 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 or demoralizing salespeople by having difficult goals 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. Filled 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.

Featuring insightful interviews with Fortune 1000 C-level executives and real lessons from the field, this essential book reveals the tough questions leaders should be asking about how sales incentives drive the business.

Now in its 8th edition! The 2022 Sales Compensation Almanac provides the latest trends, resources and insights into sales compensation solutions. Sales compensation is an important management tool, yet needs constant attention. Excellent designs one year may give way to necessary updates and revisions the following year. Sales compensation stakeholders, including executive management, sales leaders, finance and HR professionals, are often looking for specific resources, survey findings and publications to address sales compensation design and administration challenges. The Sales Compensation Almanac provides the latest research and resources in this space.Featured Sections: Sales Compensation Trends Survey, Sales Compensation Hot Topics Survey, Sales Compensation Multiyear Trends, Reference Guide to Sales Compensation Surveys, Sales Compensation Administration Vendors Guide, Sales Compensation Education Resources, Case Studies, Whitepapers, Articles Listing.

Master these top-performing sales skills to dominate the marketplace Critical Selling is a dynamic and powerful guide for transforming your sales approach and outperforming your competition. This book is based on Janek Performance Group's, an award winning sales performance company, most popular sales training program, Critical Selling®. Let authors Justin Zappulla and Nick Kane, Managing Partners at Janek, lead you through their flagship sales training methodology to provide you with the strategies, skills and best practices you need to accelerate the sales process and close more deals. From the initial contact to closing the deal, this book details the winning strategies and skills that have supercharged the sales force of program alumni like OptumHealth, Santander Bank, Daimler Trucks, California Casualty, and many more. Concrete, actionable steps show you how to plan a productive sales call, identify customer needs, differentiate yourself from the competition, and wrap up the sale. You'll also learn proven techniques for building rapport, overcoming objections, dealing with price pressures, and handling the million little things that can derail an otherwise positive sales interaction. Sales are the lifeblood of your company. Are they meeting your expectations? What if you could exceed projected sales figures and blow your competition out of the water? This book provides the research-based framework to ignite your sales team and excite your customer base, for sustainable success in today's market. Let Critical Selling® show you how to: Connect with customers on a deeper level to build trust Present a persuasive and value-based solution tailored to your customer’s needs Handle pricing pressure, doubt, and objections with confidence Utilize proven methodologies that help you close the sale Sales is about so much more than exchanging goods or services for cash. It's about relationships, it's about outperforming the competition, it's about demonstrating real value, and it's about understanding and solving people's problems. Critical Selling shows you how to bring it all together, using proven techniques based on real sales performance research.

Selected by HubSpot as one of the Top 20 Sales Books of All Time No matter how much repeat business you get from loyal customers, the lifeblood of your business is a constant flow of new accounts. Whether you're a sales rep, sales manager, or a professional services executive, if you are expected to bring in new business, you need a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals. New Sales. Simplified. is the answer. You'll learn how to: * Identify a strategic, finite, workable list of genuine prospects * Draft a compelling, customer-focused "sales story" * Perfect the proactive telephone call to get face-to-face with more prospects * Use email, voicemail, and social media to your advantage * Overcome-even prevent-every buyer's anti-salesperson reflex * Build rapport, because people buy from people they like and trust * Prepare for and structure a winning sales call * Stop presenting and start dialoguing with buyers * Make time in your calendar for business development activities * And much more Packed with examples and anecdotes, New Sales. Simplified. balances a blunt (and often funny) look at what most salespeople and executives do wrong with an easy-to-follow plan for ramping up new business starting today.

The company is under-performing, its share price is trailing, and the CEO gets...a multi-million-dollar raise. This story is familiar, for good reason: as this book clearly demonstrates, structural flaws in corporate governance have produced widespread distortions in executive pay. Pay without Performance presents a disconcerting portrait of managers' influence over their own pay--and of a governance system that must fundamentally change if firms are to be managed in the interest of shareholders. Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried demonstrate that corporate boards have persistently failed to negotiate at arm's length with the executives they are meant to oversee. They give a richly detailed account of how pay practices--from option plans to retirement benefits--have decoupled compensation from performance and have camouflaged both the amount and performance-insensitivity of pay. Executives' unwonted influence over their compensation has hurt shareholders by increasing pay levels and, even more importantly, by leading to practices that dilute and distort managers' incentives. This book identifies basic problems with our current reliance on boards as guardians of shareholder interests. And the solution, the authors argue, is not merely to make these boards more independent of executives as recent reforms attempt to do. Rather, boards should also be made more dependent on shareholders by eliminating the arrangements that entrench directors and insulate them from their shareholders. A powerful critique of executive compensation and corporate governance, Pay without Performance points the way to restoring corporate integrity and improving corporate performance.

The challenges facing today's sales executives and their organizations continue to grow, but so do the expectations that they will find ways to overcome them and drive consistent sales growth. There are no simple solutions to this situation, but in this thoroughly updated Second Edition of Sales Growth, experts from McKinsey & Company build on their practical blueprint for achieving this goal and explore what world-class sales executives are doing right now to find growth and capture it—as well as how they are creating the capabilities to keep growing in the future. Based on discussions with more than 200 of today's most successful global sales leaders from a wide array of organizations and industries, Sales Growth puts the experiences of these professionals in perspective and offers real-life examples of how they've overcome the challenges encountered in the quest for growth. The book, broken down into five overarching strategies for successful sales growth, shares valuable lessons on everything from how to beat the competition by looking forward, to turning deep insights into simple messages for the front line. Page by page, you'll learn how sales executives are digging deeper than ever to find untapped growth, maximizing emerging markets opportunities, and powering growth through digital sales. You'll also discover what it takes to find big growth in big data, develop the right "sales DNA" in your organization, and improve channel performance. Three new chapters look at why presales deserve more attention, how to get the most out of marketing, and how technology and outsourcing could entirely reshape the sales function. Twenty new standalone interviews have been added to those from the first edition, so there are now in-depth insights from sales leaders at Adidas, Alcoa, Allianz, American Express, BMW, Cargill, Caterpillar, Cisco, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Deutsche Bank, EMC, Essent, Google, Grainger, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intesa Sanpaolo, Itaú Unibanco, Lattice Engines, Mars, Merck, Nissan, P&G, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Salesforce, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Siemens, SWIFT, UPS, VimpelCom, Vodafone, and Würth. Their stories, as well as numerous case studies, touch on some of the most essential elements of sales, from adapting channels to meet changing customer needs to optimizing sales operations and technology, developing sales talent and capabilities, and effectively leading the way to sales growth. Engaging and informative, this timely book details proven approaches to tangible top-line growth and an improved bottom line. Created specifically for sales executives, it will put you in a better position to drive sales growth in today's competitive market.