Well-designed
incentives are critical to keeping salespeople motivated and on target. This is not news to sales territory management experts who are skilled at balancing
territories and encouraging high performance. But many managers rely solely on
money as incentives.
To
keep your sales team finely tuned, think of your incentive program as a
strategic tool that works more broadly as a system than a single motivator. Add
the following aspects to your sales compensation program to stimulate higher
performance and improved results across the company:
- Regular review of territories to improve balance and maximize potential
- Measure selling skills and correlate to revenue so you can track progressive improvement
- Recognize success in ways that the individual salesperson values
- Share metrics to encourage positive competition among team members and sustain motivation
- Offer development opportunities and ongoing sales coaching for continuous improvement
Bonuses are not the only rewards that work. Incentive compensation can come in many forms. Successful sales managers use a variety of approaches to keep their sales teams and territories firing on all cylinders.
