SALES PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FOR THE SALES ORGANIZATION Overview
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and contract quickly with a business and receive transparency into
2009 witnessed a global economic downturn and as a result, the
contract status, product terms, transactions and payments.
spotlight was focused firmly on the financial and insurance market sectors. Increased public awareness raised many questions around the business practices and the effectiveness of regulations.
First, it reduces lost selling time. SPM ensures Agents can on-board
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Secondly, the SPM solution increases transparency of the business ultimately making doing business easier. This is an important point if we take into account an agent's commission payments on
Sales Performance Management is not only well equipped to
policies. The Agent needs to be assured that commission will be
address many of the issues the financial sector is facing, but it
paid accurately and on time and any
also demonstrates a solid track record of dramatically reducing
disputes can be resolved quickly. There is
operational costs; contributing substantial cost savings through
always a clear audit trail for this to
process efficiencies and adding revenue to the business bottom
happen.
line, all of which prove very compelling arguments for any organization today.
Overpayment Overpayment is a key issue for sales
Sales Performance Management
organizations with statistics after auditing
So how is Sales Performance Management or SPM as it is more
showing that there has been overpayment
commonly known, defined? SPM is less about technology and
of up to 33% of its Agency network.
more about processes and capabilities. It manages the entire
Analysts estimate 5-10% of lost sales
sales lifecycle from on-boarding and pay-for-performance to
opportunities are due to admin and
talent development while providing visibility into sales
optimization inefficiencies, this is no
operations and financial performance of the organization. SPM
surprise when commission is often still calculated in
manages dynamic, complex hierarchies of sales and channel
spreadsheets or bespoke systems. Spreadsheets are admin
partners, it encompasses compensation payment, compliance,
intensive therefore prone to error; payments are subject to
reporting and analytics, but in essence it aligns sales
delay and inaccurate payments occur regularly. This fosters a
performance with business objectives.
sales culture of distrust and doubt where shadow accounting or recalculating pay is rife, which in turn leads to lost sales time and
If the main challenges facing corporate sales in an enterprise are
distracts a sales force from its key goal of driving sales revenue and
examined, we can demonstrate how SPM directly addresses
aligning with company sales strategy. The SPM solution ensures
these issues.
independent Agents are paid accurately and on-time based on contracted performance, ensuring long-term loyalty.
On-Boarding It is essential for verifying and recruiting new Partners or Agents
By implementing an SPM solution overpayments are virtually eliminated;
to sell products. Callidus' experience validates that on-boarding
typical figures show a recovery of between 2-5% of the total commission
is fraught; primarily because it is steeped in manual paperwork.
spends. Sales commission is calculated in real-time and delivered to the
This naturally impacts on on-boarding or recruitment timescales,
sales individual in a continually updated statement which reduces the
with some organizations citing the process can take up to a few
need for shadow accounting.
months. The SPM system helps quickly and efficiently on-board new Agents, helping to grow capacity, while ensuring risk is
The visible audit trail also means any disputes are handled quickly and
managed with comprehensive workflow capabilities directly
efficiently. Pay-related queries drop substantially from taking over a day
bringing about the below benefits:
to action, to typically just one phone call to resolve.
26 LEADING THE IT INDUSTRY FORWARD