Compensating New Sales Roles: How to Design Rewards That Work in Today's Selling Environment

Summing Up

Companies need new sales roles when revenues are not growing rapidly enough, new products are not selling well enough, new customers are not being acquired fast enough, or all three. Many companies have been informally creating new sales roles as more and more employees interact with customers.

To understand the need for new sales roles, management must understand how a company moves through the four-phase growth cycle. Even those firms in the start-up and volume growth phases—times when revenues are growing, new products are selling, and new customers are being acquired—can profitably add new sales roles, both to prepare for the next phase and to use existing resources more effectively. Even when business is booming and healthy margins ...