We did it again! NSCA just released another industry first: our Sales Compensation White Paper.
This valuable document is the culmination of three years spent compiling, evaluating, and comparing various sales compensation plans from some of the most financially successful NSCA members (all Business & Leadership Conference attendees).
The sales compensation plans of 27 systems integrators (26 in the United States and one in Canada) are analyzed here, with detailed insight into how profitable companies reward their sales professionals.
Can we finally answer the question: Does the right compensation plan offer a direct connection to company profit?
The white paper analyzes:
- Traditional sales compensation plans
- Managed services sales compensation plans
- Hybrid approaches (using traditional compensation plans for direct project sales teams and separate plans for aftermarket sales teams)
- Incentives for employees who deliver projects on time and on budget
- Factors just as important to profit as compensation plans
The systems integrators featured in the new Sales Compensation White Paper have revenues of between $5 million and $55 million. Each company had pre-tax net earnings of greater than 5% from 2012 to 2015. Their business locations were in cities with populations ranging from 250,000 to 5 million.
In this white paper, we also uncovered that complex sales compensation plans require better, more expensive software and payroll management systems, and take additional time to administer; however, they allow for more tailoring to incentivize salespeople and are driven toward common company goals. Simple compensation plans are easier to administer, but often incentivize just the salespeople.
The Sales Compensation White Paper was made possible through the support of the 2016 Business & Leadership Conference sponsors. For more information, or to download the full report, visit www.nsca.org/research or call 800.446.6722.