Sales Compensation Practitioners Identify Top 3 Priorities in New Survey

MINNEAPOLIS, June 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey has identified simplifying operations, improving design processes and enhancing performance reporting as top priorities for companies such as Ameriprise, Brocade, Pitney Bowes and Sprint.

"Processing sales compensation can be a major challenge for companies that have thousands of sales reps, multiple distribution channels, and high transaction volumes," says Mark Coleman, Managing Partner with Compensation Analytics.

As the field sales organization grows, so does the complexity in the sales back office. Requests in this area are usually both important and urgent, making it difficult to put in place solid long-term solutions. The result - aging ad hoc solutions fail as more is demanded from them. Overwhelmingly, survey respondents said that simplifying operations was a top priority. Specifically, companies want to review outdated policies, clarify process ownership, and redesign processes end-to-end to work better with technology.

Respondents provided mixed feedback on improving compensation design processes. While 84% were satisfied with their current process, almost 70% of respondents also identified improving design processes as a top priority. While they liked the simplicity and flexibility of current processes, many were looking to model live performance data, look across all channels and be able to easily identify the impact of changes on certain groups of reps.

Over 70% of survey respondents indicated that performance reporting was a top priority. Specific needs included sales performance trending, the ability for management to drill down from a region to an individual representative, and "what-if" analysis. Reporting capabilities are critical in driving desired behaviors with the sales force and to ensure that the millions invested on sales commissions are spent as wisely as possible. Companies identified resource constraints and outdated tools as their biggest challenges.

For a copy of the full report, visit http://www.compensationanalytics.com/spmsurvey.html

About Compensation Analytics, LLC

Compensation Analytics is a boutique consultancy that specializes in solving sales compensation processing problems for companies with large sales forces. For more information, visit http://www.compensationanalytics.com

Contact:

Ruthanne Reddy
Telephone: (952) 583-5647
Fax: (952) 314-8120
Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Compensation Analytics, LLC