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Incentive Compensation ManagementSales Compensation Management

Optimize talent management in sales through compensation

By August 8, 2017June 11th, 2024No Comments

A motivated sales force can be a powerful asset. In order to foster such a team, it is essential to pay attention to the details of a happy, focused and engaged sales team.

When salespeople feel they can reach unlimited personal growth through their performance, they are often more likely to have higher levels of engagement and subsequently outperform their industry counterparts who may not have compensation structures that help them reach their potential.

Through innovative sales performance management software, companies can design, plan, and track sales incentives. Automating sales commission processes with software enables companies to eliminate the burden of manual spreadsheets.

However, before enhancing sales teams through creative compensation strategies such as merit increases, commissions and team contests, companies must first identify qualified sales savvy candidates during the recruitment phase.

Here are a few key personality traits to keep in mind when looking for sales candidates:

Curiosity: Successful salespeople are always asking questions, whether to a client or to executives internally, curiosity demonstrates a thirst and hunger for knowledge. A Harvard Business Review study on business salespeople found that 82 percent of top sellers scored extremely high in categories measuring curiosity.

Confidence: According to the same study, less than 10 percent of respondents noted they felt high levels of discouragement, whereas 90 percent also said they feel low to infrequent moods of sadness when compared to their lesser-performing counterparts. This is what gives salespeople the competitive edge to trudge forward even if a deal isn’t sealed.

Creative: The reality of sales situations is that many times there are unique and individual challenges, so sales goals require innovation and creativity. The ability to think on one’s feet and craft a solution that clinches the deal while still meeting personal and company goals is the sign of top talent, according to Inc.

By ensuring salespeople boast this range of personality traits, compensation structures that are equally well-rounded will be easy to design. For example, organizing sales contests is a way for individuals to express autonomy while being motivated by monetary rewards as well as office recognition, an important aspect of employee engagement, according to Entrepreneur.

Any sales compensation structure can be easily tracked by both the company and the individual through incentive compensation management (ICM) software, leading to more transparency between the company and its salespeople when attempting to reach mutual goals.

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Ballast Point Ventures

Ballast Point Ventures is a later-stage venture capital fund established to provide expansion capital for rapidly growing, privately owned companies in diverse industries, with a particular emphasis on companies located in Florida, the Southeast, and Texas. The BPV partners have more than 70 years of combined experience investing in and building high-growth companies in a number of industries, including healthcare, business services, communications, technology, financial services, and consumer goods. BPV has $200 million under management and seeks to make equity investments ranging from $3 million to $10 million.

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