Managers should be compensated, at least in part, for their performance – for the degree to which their decisions influence the company and contribute to its success. However, sales force managers have a wide range of duties; some sell, some don't; some own part of the business, while others are employees. Designing incentives that balance all these factors can be a challenge.
The following tips can help you design compensation packages that will motivate your sales force managers most effectively.
1. Base Salary
Start with a base salary that reflects the marketplace value of the manager's administrative duties. For example, if those duties are expected to take up to 60% of the manager's time, the base should be approximately 60% of what a full-time administrative manager in the open market would receive.
2. Overrides
Overrides can be calculated in many ways: on gross revenue, net operating income, earnings of the sales representatives, or profit before interest and taxes (EBIT).
Consider carefully which measure you use. When an override is calculated as a percent of gross revenue, the impact of poor sales is not felt as dramatically as it would be if the override were on net operating income.
Paying on the net operating income also encourages recruitment, and rewards the manager who devotes time to getting sales representatives to the breakeven point. It provides a disincentive to managers who readily give exceptions or cut deals to recruit new reps – the manager's own income is affected proportionally.
3. Task Completion Incentives
Many companies are instituting financial rewards for successfully recruiting new associates, offering training or coaching, or increasing the percentage of productive sales representatives.
Recruiting. If you pay a flat amount as a reward for recruiting, consider a sliding rate relative to the value of the new recruit. Make the payment in stages, as the associate makes sales, to help guard against a body shop operation. Even better, pay when the associate reaches breakeven, as this ensures that the bonus comes from profit built into the breakeven point.
Training. Offering an incentive for training or coaching helps ensure continuous improvements in production. Try paying a flat fee for the amount of time invested or giving a bonus based on the number of associates who complete training programs.
Productivity. Incorporating an incentive for increasing the number or percentage of active representatives encourages motivation of all reps, and helps prevent preferential treatment of high producers.
4. Bonuses
Offering rewards for reaching targeted production levels can be highly motivational. Bonuses might be given for reaching a certain level of revenue or profit each month, or for bringing down the company's expenses.
5. Profit Sharing
You may want to pay a top manager a set percentage of any profits retained by the company over a specified period of time. For this to work, your company should have well-controlled expenses and a generally stable economic situation. The manager should have access to all of the company's financial information, and feel that he or she has enough influence in the company's day-to-day operations to control the factors that affect profitability.
One risk is that relations between the manager and senior management may become strained if the top executives want to make investments that will grow the business at the expense of short-term profitability. For this reason, profit sharing is best used as a component of a compensation plan rather than as the whole means of compensation.
6. Offering a Choice
One of the most important factors in manager compensation is the competitive situation in the market. Where lots of good managers are available, companies do not have to pay as much. However, where talent is scarce, more aggressive plans are essential.
One innovative approach is to offer managers a choice of compensation plans. In the same way that you allow your sales associates to choose the plan that best motivates them, you can allow managers to choose the compensation structure that best meets their needs.
Whatever form of compensation you choose, it is important that managers clearly understand how the commission or bonus will be calculated, and feel that they have control over the factors that will affect those numbers. Without that understanding and that power, they won't be motivated effectively.
Compensation plans should not only be attractive to the manager, but should also be tailored to the needs of the company, providing incentive in those areas most needing improvement. When compensation is carefully thought out, managers can be motivated to lead the company in directions well above and beyond the daily operations of the business.