National Commission System
Motivating Sales Professionals to Maximize Performance
Overview
Competition for new customers in the communications industry is intense. Efforts to grow and retain customers are essential. Through a comprehensive solution that aligned compensation programs with corporate goals, this communications provider had the tools it needed to motivate sales professionals to retain an additional 70,000 customers year-over-year.
Client Challenge
Faced with a flat customer base and increasing competition from new players, this communications provider needed to retain more existing customers to meet its business goals. Management had an overall game plan but lacked the systems and tools needed to execute that plan.
The business turned to RevGen Partners to assist them with:
- Aligning compensation plans with corporate strategy and goals
- Providing timely visibility into performance and commissions of the sales team
- Motivating and enabling agents to retain customers
Approach
We worked with the client to understand the current challenges and the vision for the future. Our experienced consultants took an agile approach to developing the application to ensure the business objectives were met in an iterative and collaborative manner.
Throughout the development process, the team worked closely with the business and technology organizations to accommodate unique situations for each division while supporting a national retention commission plan for the company. A single framework was implemented that allowed customizations and a phased rollout by region.
RevGen provided extensive data analysis and assisted the client in enhancing their existing commission plan. Analysis and modifications ensured the realization of the business strategy and fiscal responsibility while also encouraging desirable sales behaviors.
Solution
The solution was multi-disciplinary including analytics, data management, and technical application development. Change enablement and process optimization were also part of the solution to ensure adoption and alignment.
Key components of the commission solution include the following:
- Commission Calculation Engine: A database engine was developed to enable a single commission plan framework to be deployed across all divisions.
- Configurable Platform: The technical platform allows for adjustable parameters including performance levels, payouts, and multipliers while also enforcing corporate guidelines.
- Goal-Setting Tool: The tool provides visual displays of what-if scenario analysis, leveraging historical data for managers and supervisors to set realistic goals.
- Actionable Reporting: Timely individual and team performance reporting for supervisors and managers to assist in coaching agents toward goal achievement.
- Maximizer Tool: Agents are able to model compensation drivers to see how they can maximize their commission payouts.
Results
We delivered a robust commission solution that has been adopted across all divisions and centers of excellence reaching five thousand retention agents, as well as their supervisors and managers.
Through visibility and key insights into performance, the system enabled agents to maximize their commissions by meeting or exceeding goals set in accordance with organizational and channel objectives.
Motivated agents improved customer satisfaction and retention rates that, in turn, generated an increase in annualized revenue of $28.1 million.
