5 Things That Make a Great Comp Plan

It’s the beginning of the year and companies are beginning to roll out new comp plans. For salespeople, especially ultra high performers, comp plans are one of the primary motivators for structuring out the year and harnessing focus.

We sat down with Brian Burns, host of The Brutal Truth About Sales & Selling, to discuss five things to consider when evaluating your comp plan:

1. STABILITY: It’s easy to get distracted if your comp plan is being tweaked and changed regularly. Comp plans should give people time to adapt and structure their goals for the year accordingly. If a sales exec knows what they have to deliver, they’ll be more motivated to meet their goals.
2. REAL QUOTA: Did somebody actually put thought into structuring the quota? Is the math easy to understand? If quota is over assigned, you need to ask why.
3. FORECAST: Makes sure that your forecast supports your comp plan. If the language used in the comp plan is different than that used in forecasting or qualifying, there’s a mismatch there. Can you put your comp plan into Excel and track your progress?
4. TEAM ACCELERATOR: Just a like a sports team, a sales team has different players that do different things and don’t get compensated equally. But when a sports team wins, everybody wins. That’s why comp plans that reward teams can incentivize the players to work together to hit targets and stick around longer.
5. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST FOR THE 5TH ELEMENT!

Listen to the entire podcast episode to get more insight into each key element, the things you, as a revenue executive, must be aware of to remain relevant and successful in the new sales landscape.

This post is based on a podcast discussion with Brian Burns, host of The Brutal Truth About Sales & Selling. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.

If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.