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An increasing number of forward-thinking companies are tapping into a resource which is proven not only to increase employee performance and drive sales; it also influences sales behaviours and motivates talent. This in turn results in gaining competitive advantage and increasing market share. What’s more, it also offers a rapid return on investment (ROI).
Leading edge companies will align the incentive schemes corporate, customer management and sales objectives in order to steer sales behaviour in the right direction. The key is how effectively the incentive scheme is communicated and understood by salespeople and how performance is reported against each scheme. Inappropriately targeted incentives; late or inaccurate payments; unexplained adjustments and unreliable reports breeds distrust and creates a sense of disillusionment within sales teams.
Analysts Gartner predict the need for ICM in the IFA market, ‘Providers should evaluate their commission management systems’ ability to support their complex and diverse commission requirements. Agent performance, loyalty and motivation are tied directly to their ability to earn and be accurately paid commissions. Today, packaged ICM system applications provide an alternative to improve commission management and ensure the accurate payments of commissions.
Today’s organisations are looking for applications which offer greater scalability and functionality that can be deployed quickly and economically to ensure rapid ROI and maximum benefit. Until recently it has been a common perception that enterprise vendors, as a result of their resources and marketing reach, must surely offer solutions that reflect this demand. In reality, ‘Best of Breed’ companies are, by their very nature, specialists in their arena; but their focus gives the advantage of being flexible enough to react to market changes quickly and provide highly scalable ‘expert’ solutions.
Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) is the process of creating and deploying performance reward schemes for staff in return for achieving company targets. Companies committed to an effective growth strategy will look to differentiate by implementing imaginative and flexible incentive schemes that motivate and tie performance to company profit objectives.
The economic climate is signalling growth, making Customer Relationship Management (CRM) more important than ever. The focus according to Gartner is moving as 80 per cent of the world’s top CEO’s declare current objectives are shifting from cost cutting to growth. Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) is able to play a vital role in encouraging growth.
Companies committed to an effective growth strategy will look to differentiate by implementing imaginative and flexible incentive schemes that motivate and tie performance to company profit objectives. Any organisation still using homegrown spreadsheet-based systems should think seriously about change if they are to stay ahead of the competition. ICM software should be seen as a vital support mechanism, introducing control, accuracy and end-to-end visibility of employee performance and compensation cost.
Incentive Compensation plans represent one of the most powerful tools management can use to direct sales productivity and keep the workforce aligned with company goals. This growing focus on employee relationship management and the breadth of incentive being offered places Sales, HR and Finance executives under pressure to take a more scientific approach to incentive management.
The ability to predict the impact of compensation cost on the bottom line prior to implementation plus the need to track performance month-on-month has become a business imperative. The trouble is, most companies are still largely reliant on manually intensive procedures supported by spreadsheets or homegrown database solutions. Whilst such systems will ultimately produce the right results, they lack the scalability and essential flexibility required to handle sophisticated plans.