What is a Long-Term Incentive Plan?

Businesses need incentives to attract and retain talent. A paycheck is one obvious type of incentive, but at the end of the day, any workplace can provide a paycheck. The real challenge for business owners is finding incentives that offer real value outside of simply allowing an employee to earn money for hours put in.

For many business owners, the solution to this problem is found by providing commission-based incentives. These are payments made for achieving certain items like closed deals. A commission-based strategy is often used as part of an overall long-term incentive plan, and it adds value because it pays extra for achieving goals rather than just clocking in for the day. In a nutshell, it incentivizes employees to work harder to receive bigger rewards.

Designing Commission Plans for Sales Development Representatives

One issue that you may face as a business owner is how to develop commission plans for different roles in your company. Specifically, the delineation must be made between sales representatives and account executives who close deals and sales development representatives (SDR) who qualify leads.

While creating a commission plan for account executives and traditional sales representatives is fairly straightforward, designing a good SDR commission plan is a bit more complicated. Because SDRs are typically tasked with finding and qualifying leads as opposed to finalizing deals, should they receive an equal split of a sales commission? Should their commission be separate entirely? Should they receive a lower commission compared to the closer? All of these questions and more need to be asked when designing a good SDR commission plan.

Every Business is Different

There’s really no right or wrong answer to the questions posed above as every business is different. In the end, your goal needs to be focused on incentivizing the achievement of goals based on role and capacity. How you lay out your long-term incentives using commission payments is up to you, but you want each employee to have a reason to work harder based on the reward that is available.

Read a similar article about commission management here at this page.

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How Artificial Intelligence is Impacting the Sales World

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics in business these days. What was once something that was only discussed in science fiction novels and computer science labs is now vaunted in the consumer sector? Everything from self-driving vehicle technologies to Big Data involves the use of artificial intelligence, and it seems like the sky's the limit.

When it comes to the sales industry, artificial intelligence is also having a huge impact. Artificial intelligence for sales utilizes prescriptive and predictive data analysis to anticipate changing trends that results in the potential for more leads and more opportunities. Additionally, artificial intelligence for sales can look back at past campaigns to analyze performance faster and with greater efficiency.

Taking the Guesswork Out of Pricing

Even seasoned sales veterans still face challenges when it comes to pricing. Every situation is unique, and closing the deal may require a lot of thought put into pricing to get things done. Using artificial intelligence, sales professionals can rely on a detailed analysis completed by an algorithm to take much of the guesswork and time out of the process while still preparing a great deal.

Setting Goals Becomes More Efficient

Speaking of guesswork, there’s plenty of guesswork that goes into sales forecasting. While experienced sales professionals often have an easier time predicting trends, there are still a lot of variables involved in the forecasting process that can hinder success.

Using artificial intelligence, forecasting can become easier since this technology can quickly analyze past performance, factor in current conditions and predict with great accuracy where things are likely to end up. Using this knowledge, sales professionals can craft strategies for both short- and long-term success.

Revealing New Opportunities for Upselling

Upselling is a fantastic way to add value to a sale and increase profits, but targeting opportunities for upselling can be complex. Through the use of artificial intelligence, sales professionals have the ability to be presented with a range of upsell opportunities by allowing this technology to analyze connections between a lead prospect and the current deal being offered.

Read a similar article about supporting your remote sales team here at this page.