In our conversations with sales leaders, one of the frequent discussion points is around the design of incentive plans and specifically, on what KPIs to reward sales teams. Based on discussion with 100s of VPs of Sales from various industries, there is a singular message - Copying other companies incentive plans without context is a recipe for disaster.

Companies and especially sales leaders make a common mistake of copying other companies or their former organisations’ sales incentive plans, and with small changes, implement in their current role. But as a sales leader, do you answer these questions before designing sales incentive plans :

• What are the top priorities of my business in the current environment?
• For each of the above priorities, do I have a clear timeline driven goal and outcome?
• How can I translate these priorities into sales incentive plans?
• Do I have systems and processes to allow the sales team to track their earnings?
• How will I measure whether the sales incentive plan is on track to achieve the desired goals at the company level?
• Whether incentive plan is aligned to the company’s culture?

Once you answer the above questions, the sales incentive plans that you design will be in tandem with your business priorities. The outcome of the plan can be a single component incentive plan or an incentive plan with 10 different pieces. But it will be your company’s or your business's plan!