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

Chapter 6. DESIGNING COMPENSATION PLANS FOR NEW SALES ROLES

An effective sales compensation plan requires the company to clearly define the roles and objectives of the jobs to be paid. This is especially important when the company may be paying employees differently in the future than it has in the past, based on the new sales roles that the business has created and implemented. Often, employees who are being paid on the basis of a new sales role have never received this form of compensation before; they have earned an hourly rate or straight salary.

Increasingly, sales shares its role with other functions outside of the sales department. A study conducted by Hewitt Associates LLC of 227 corporate sales forces found that about 46 percent of these ...