Reference no: EM133212771

Professional Selling Assignment 

Background:

Your Selling Career at S-B&D Continues to progress.  As a successful initial role as an Inside Sales representative and your more recent role as Territory manager where you acquitted yourself extremely well and delivered beyond expectation. This has led to your current promotion as Regional Sales manager - Power Tools and member of the compensation committee.

In this new role beyond leading a team of Territory Managers [TM's] you have been assigned the task of studying and bring forward and negotiating a recommendation to the SLT [Senior Leadership Team], The NAR Executive committee and an external consultant {TCG- Toronto Consulting Group] on a new sales compensation structure.

Simply put S-B&D is experiences high levels of staff turnover (leaving the company or going to different departments) plus the lack of performance [over-achieving quota] by the best Sales Representatives.

The SLT has high hopes for this committee and the recommendations, this is high profile and can only help your career, if done well. The Challenge from the SLT @ S-BD is: Study, bring Forward and Negotiate (as part of the Sales team) the following deliverables:
Your Assignment:  [Outline a Sales compensation Plan, reduce turnover, increase efficiency]

Major Question:

1. Outline the elements of the sales compensation plan (by role / level) including:

Level 1: Inside Sales (IS)[4]

Level 2: Territory Managers (TM's) [10]

Level 3: Regional Sales Managers RSM's [3]; National Account Managers

NAM's [4]

NOTE: Numbers in brackets above [4] - are number of salespeople in each role

NOTE 2 : Total Compensation assumptions include:

     Level 1= $50,000                (OTE) * On Target Earnings

     Level 2 = $100,000             (OTE)

     Level 3 = $150,000             (OTE)

NOTE3: This will be specific to the Power Tools division of S-BD

NOTE 4: Directors/ VP/ CRO's will be excluded for this phase of the project but could be part of a follow up committee.

Assignment Questions:

• Q1. Create the required compensation plan recommendation When considering the compensation plan include in your thinking:
  1. Core Elements could include: [base pay, commissions, bonuses,]
  2. Non-Core Elements could include: [Choice of plans; Incentive pay horizon]
  3. How much should be Fixed earning Versus incentive pay (for each level). This should be based on the amount of influence each role has on outcomes.
  4. Outline (a,b,c above) By role & Layers
  5. If Using commissions in the sales compensation plan- Identify if [Absolute, relative, straight-line, gross margin] and why you selected the one you did.
  6. Draft a budget based on the title, number of peoples at each level and split out by Fixed, Variable and total expense based on Sales plan/quota (ie. OTE at 100% of plan)
• What would happen to the budget if the company exceed plan by 20% [in total dollars/ in % of Sales]

2. What would happen to the budget if the company shortfell plan by 20% [ In total dollars/ in % of Sales]

NOTE: For Budget Calculations, assume that on target sales plan is $100,000,000.

Q2. Outline what potential challenges sales compensation plans must avoid and describe how your plan will ensure these challenges are avoided.

Note: Consider: complexity of the sales compensation plan; capping sales compensation, less motivated employees and motivating higher performance plus any other challenges you can offer.

Q3. Since Sales Staff Turnover has been raised as a key concern, outline what plan elements you would include to ensure better staff retention.

NOTE:  Include in your thinking: Hiring/ onboarding (discuss with candidates what to look for/ industry choices and career paths; Long -term job outlooks; types of compensation and personality fit)

Also Consider: Salesperson motivation, training and performance management elements to better ensure the sales team stays engaged.

Q4. Exiting Sales personal have identified Time management and their ability to actually spend time with clients as a key barrier to successfully achieving goals.

As Part of this proposal outline what time management "Tools & techiques" you would incorporate to (a) better allow the sales team to achieve goals and  (b) reduce stress and frustration.

Note: Consider tools and techniques including but not limited to: Working from a list/prioritizing activities/Pomodoro Techniques/automating administrative tasks/ creating templates (emails, etc); minimizing distractions, and multitasking challenges. Also consider if you should add support staff, how and when company meetings and deliverables like forecasting should happen.