Getting Beyond Pay in Managing
“The Deal” with Your Sales Force
Compensation and Business Review
By: Timothy W. Weiler and Christopher
Tuffli
ABC’s Vulnerability
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In the middle of post-merger sales force
integration
A few key products were approaching patient
expiration
Launching new drugs
Competition for good sales reps was
depleting
Turnover for experienced sales reps was
increasing
Total Rewards Package
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Four major elements of the package:
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Pay
Benefits
Learning and Development
Work Environment
Preparing Packages
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Research shows that it is better to prepare all of the
benefits in a rewards package together rather then
one piece at a time.
Total rewards encompass every single investment
that an organization makes in its people, including
salary, bonus, pension, 401(k) plans, medical
benefits, disability, and training. More intangible
elements, such as high-profile work assignments,
developmental opportunities, flexible work
schedules and the chance to be a part of a
pioneering team, cannot be overlooked.
Importance of Benefits
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Benefits need to be competitive and attractive, and
in line with an individual's sense of his or her
"worth," based on skills, education and experience
They also need to be designed as a whole, not
separately. Separately, the programs tend to be
disconnected from one another and from the
broader business strategy. They could undercut one
another and even hamper, rather than support, a
rep's ability to meet his or her goals.
Fixing the Problem
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Working in teams, ABC managers and sales
people identified gaps between perception
and reality, and between the present state
and where the business wanted to be in the
future.
Company Recommendations
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The team made the following recommendations in this
quadrant:
* Close the gap between the manager's view of
significant career advancement opportunities and the
sales force's view that such opportunities were limited.
Modify and communicate the career paths in the new
merged sales organization, including defining the entry
points for representatives interested in pursuing new
roles and developing a fast track for high performers.
* Tie developmental programs to specific career steps.
* Clarify and communicate promotion criteria.
Pay Recommendations
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Research revealed that pay levels were competitive with the
market. Simply raising pay would have skipped over two
critical issues-the changing sales roles and poor morale-which
could be precursors to even greater turnover rates.
For the pay quadrant, the team recommended (and
implemented) the following:
 *Vary the pay mix to reflect differences in selling roles and
career level.
 * Migrate outliers to market competitive base salaries.
Preserve the higher-than-market upside opportunity in the
incentive plan.
 * Create long-term incentive mechanisms (stock options) to
become competitive with the market. Link option grants to
an individual's performance versus goal.
Benefit Recommendations
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At ABC, benefits turned out to be of little concern to
reps. To correct this, the team recommended and
implemented the following changes:
* Tying perks to consistent individual performance
against objectives
* Adopting a life cycle benefit program to better fit
the unique sales force needs
* Adopting a flexible benefits program to allow sales
employees to "spend" their allotted benefit dollars
according to their specific needs.
Environment Recommendations
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At ABC, the foremost work environment issue was the lack of
communication, particularly regarding performance, pay plans
and benefits. ABC was also challenged by the rep perception
that the force's role within the overall organization had been
degraded as a result of the merger.
The team made the following recommendations with regard to
work environment:
* Establish a communications department dedicated to the sales
force.
* Develop a detailed communication plan for the upcoming
changes.
* Broaden the use of recognition and reward processes.
* Create better sales support processes and systems to
maximize sales time and to preserve the rep!s treasured
autonomy.
Results
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The team built more visibly defined and better
communicated career paths with clear
opportunities to earn additional pay, stock
options and perks.
The company now has a more measureable
way to not only pay their employees, but also
give them more benefits.