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Incentive Compensation Services

Plan Design Workshop

Our plan design workshop is an interactive offering that involves key people in the process of designing your incentive plan. These people include those who are in the sales management, sales operations, finance, and HR departments, as well as those responsible for signing off on and owning the final plan designs.

In this sales comp plan design workshop, we facilitate discussions around your business objectives, market trends, and sales strategies. The workshop is a well-organized brief but intense design project following a highly structured plan. The agenda includes:

The agenda includes:

01.
Begin the  plan design workshop by introducing all participants and establishing the objectives for the session.
02.
Conduct a comprehensive review of fundamental concepts, terminology, and best practices related to incentive compensation to ensure everyone is on the same page.
03.
Collaborate to establish the essential elements of the company's incentive compensation philosophy, prioritize objectives, and determine which areas to focus on for the new plan, such as incentivizing new revenue, emphasizing profitable growth, and promoting integrated solutions.
04.
Clarify the different sales roles and how they relate to each other. These roles may include hunters versus farmers, those who focus on transactions versus those who provide consultations, those responsible for managing accounts, those responsible for managing products, and those responsible for specific steps within the sales process.
05.
Establish the median total target cash compensation for each role.
06.
Decide on the appropriate mix of salary and incentives for each role.
07.
To align performance measures with business objectives and roles, we brainstorm a list of potential metrics. These may include volume measures like sales, revenue, or units sold, strategic/quality measures such as new product sales, discounts, or new customer revenue; and non-financial measures like a share of wallet, channel development, or marketing initiatives.
08.
Determine suitable incentive options for each performance metric, such as quota-bonus, step bonus, commission, bounty, modifier, etc.
09.
Choose a set of performance metrics for each position and decide the level at which they will be assessed (individual or team).
10.
Assign appropriate weights to each metric.
11.
Add necessary detail to each performance measure, such as the timing of sales credit, exclusions, and data sources.
12.
We establish preliminary plan parameters for each measure based on sales history and forecasts, target incentives, headcount, and performance measure weights.
13.
Evaluate the current Terms & Conditions and determine if any modifications are required.
14.
Take a step back and review the draft plan designs to ensure the group has a comprehensive and consistent understanding of the decisions made.
15.
Document open issues and agree on steps to resolve them. This will include calculating the aggregate cost of the new plan under different scenarios as well as the impact of the new plan on selected individuals. It may also include confirming that the plan can be implemented objectively (i.e., without self-reported data) and efficiently.
16.
Schedule a time and date to go over the cost analysis and come to a resolution on any unresolved matters.
17.
Develop a plan for implementation and communication, assigning responsibility and timeframes for each step.

While covering all the topics in a single day may seem overwhelming, much of it may have already been decided or doesn't require revisiting. However, it is essential to be determined to make quick decisions with minimal discussion during a sales comp plan design workshop to ensure success.