David Wudyka discusses incentives, contests and recognition in a BLR webinar entitled ‘Commission Pay Plans: How to Motivate Your Sales Staff in a Roller Coaster Economy’. He states that organizations can double down on incentives, contests and recognition programs as a method of revitalizing their Commission Pay Plans (CPP). Smart sales employers ramp up their sales contents, incentives, bonuses, and recognition efforts during tough economic times. In many cases, you won't incur significant incremental sales compensation expenses e.g., the bonuses or incentive payouts, until new sales dollars come in! Remember these tips:
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- Keep things super simple. These programs can eat up your management time if they're too complex
- The goal is incremental sales gains. Don't pay your sales reps twice for bringing in existing business
- Put a time limit on the program. Too many employers run ‘never ending’ sales contests and bonus offers that, again, end up rewarding sales reps for serving customers they should be working with anyway
David Wudyka, SPHR, MBA, BSIE, is the founder and managing principal of Westminster Associates (www.westminsterassociates.com), a Massachusetts-based human resource and compensation firm that specializes in pay, performance, and productivity issues. He brings more than 30 years of professional HR and compensation experience to the table for clients around the country.