Incentive compensation plans are designed to promote hard work, high sales and quality customer service. When a company is performing well and star employees are emerging, why would a VP of sales think twice about the increased level of hard work a sales team is putting in? Unfortunately, too much hard work can result in employee burnout. With responsible sales performance management and the right incentive plan, however, an executive can keep staff happy and maintain high sales. Keep reading to see how to monitor a sales team and stop burnout before it happens: Track performance One of the key steps to sales management is to track employee performance on a regular basis. Incentive compensation software is a great tool managers can use to monitor data on a daily basis – they can simply log onto the software and have immediate access to hard data on an entire staff. A manager can see just how well their new incentive compensation management plan is working, and see as sales numbers increase across days, weeks and months. When monitoring these numbers, it’s important to keep an eye out for sales spikes. While high numbers are a sign of success, it’s important to balance out competitions with employee ability. If an executive sees that numbers are climbing but morale is falling, it may be time to take a break from fast-paced competitions and space out incentive plans more evenly. Get creative with rewards A workforce is almost guaranteed to be motivated by financial incentives, but there are many other ways to reward high performers that will help prevent burn out. A company can put on a sales competition, and instead of offering a bonus as a reward, can instead offer a day off of work. A VP of sales can also offer gift cards or tickets to a popular event – these rewards will keep employees motivated, but the reward will be a time reserved for time away from work, which will help employees unwind and appreciate life outside of the office.
