Every year is a new opportunity for businesses to create and pilot creative and interesting sales campaigns that help throttle them into today’s competitive market. This is great news for companies looking for ways to challenge and reward sales teams through the opportunity for more autonomy in the workplace, as well as bigger salaries.
According to a new Alexander Group “2014 Sales Compensation Trends Survey,” the rate of salesperson compensation has risen by to average of 5 percent in the past year. That’s 2 percentage points higher than what economists predicted for 2013, the survey found.
“Sale leaders, while exceeding their 2013 sales compensation budgets, are striving to keep pay increases in check with a planned 3 percent increase in sales compensation spending in 2013,” said David Cichelli, survey editor and senior vice president of the Alexander Group.
In 2014, sales departments can expect a median increase of 8 percent in revenue, a 3 percent boost to incentive compensation plans and a 3 percent increase to base salaries.
This means HR departments and payroll divisions should look to sales compensation management software solutions to ensure employee commissions and bonuses are accurately recorded. Companies that utilize bonus compensation software also cut back on time-consuming back-end processes, such as payroll and recordkeeping and helps to increase transparency between salespeople and their company – ensuring top talent is retained.
Furthermore, industry experts asked by HubSpot to describe changing sales trends forecasted that employers are increasingly looking for technical skills, such as online marketing, to reach wider audiences. To ensure sales departments are hitting key performance benchmarks and revenue milestones, it may be wise to offer financial incentives to employees willing to learn highly sought skills. This allows employees to make higher earnings while also providing the company an essential service with the most up-to-date skills.
