The article from MDM below is a nice summary of how improvements in technology over the past 10 years can improve and inform sales performance. Several points in the article sounded very familiar to us at Profit2:
- Today’s business analytics can slice and dice nearly every conceivable combination of customer and product.
- Not every sale and not every customer is profitable.
- Management-directed compensation structure aligns sales pay with company objectives.
While the article focuses on sales compensation, we find margin optimization a similar exercise:
- Today’s pricing systems should evaluate each product/customer combination to identify safe opportunities for margin increases. If it doesn’t, it’s likely that you’re leaving money on the table and you have unprofitable customers, even though you’re making sales.
Hey CFO, There’s Still Something Wrong with Sales Incentives
With the technology that distributors have at their disposal today, data is no longer a reason to shy away from maximizing the ROI on selling expense.
By: Mike Emerson
Going through the company archives recently, I stumbled upon an article written several years ago by my colleague Mike Marks. The article was titled, “Hey CFO, What is Wrong with Sales Incentives?” I had long forgotten it existed. What struck me in rereading this article was that many of the issues it addressed are still relevant nearly ten years later. Read Full Article
[/titled_box]Profit2’s approach is unique in that we work with your numbers AND with your sales people. We won’t tell you how to run your incentive plans: We work with your people to ensure that everyone is getting the most out of it.
